Zeda Fran Rosenberg is an American microbiologist and epidemiologist, active in HIV biology and prevention. She is the chief executive officer of the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM). [1] IPM was founded by Rosenberg in 2002 and is a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing microbicides and other innovative HIV prevention products and making them available for women in developing countries. [2]
Rosenberg received her undergraduate degree (BA) in biology and mathematics from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and both her master's degree (SM) in epidemiology and her doctoral degree (ScD) in microbiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.[ citation needed ]
Rosenberg is a champion for developing new HIV prevention products, women's empowerment and protecting women's health. [3] Her opinions and commentary have been featured in a variety of international media, including New York Times, [4] The Globe and Mail (Canada), [5] The Daily Nation (Kenya), [6] Nature News [7] and the South African Medical Journal. [8] She has authored many scientific articles and has been a featured speaker at multiple high-level conferences and events, including the IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, [9] the International AIDS Conference, Women Deliver, [10] and the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.
From 1999 to 2002, Rosenberg was the scientific director for the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) at Family Health International (FHI). In that role, she managed scientific and operational coordination of international clinical trials in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, sexual transmission and transmission of HIV through intravenous drug use.[ citation needed ]
From 1987 to 1999, Rosenberg worked in several capacities at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). She was senior scientist in the Division of AIDS from 1995 to 1999. In that capacity, she directed HIV prevention clinical trials, providing leadership, planning, implementation, administration and evaluation of a global program of extramural research on the prevention of HIV transmission in adult populations.[ citation needed ]
Rosenberg was the assistant to the director and then assistant director for prevention research at NIAID from 1987 to 1995. In this position, she was responsible for all scientific research areas related to AIDS, functioning as a liaison and facilitating scientific exchange between intramural research laboratories and the office of the director. She also coordinated the NIAID Tuberculosis (TB) Research effort, representing NIH on the Public Health Service Task Force to Combat Multi-Drug Resistant TB and co-chairing the TB Research Subcommittee. In addition, she was responsible for coordinating other Institute disease-prevention activities, including in the areas of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.[ citation needed ]
Rosenberg provides vision, leadership and direction to IPM, which has become a leading product development partnership in the HIV prevention field. Under Dr. Rosenberg's leadership, IPM has entered into six non-exclusive, royalty-free licenses with five major pharmaceutical companies — Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Merck & Co., Pfizer and Tibotec Pharmaceuticals (division of Johnson & Johnson) — to develop, manufacture and distribute eight antiretroviral (ARV) products as microbicides in developing countries. [11]
In 2011, IPM will initiate a Phase III clinical program to evaluate the dapivirine vaginal ring, an antiretroviral-based product that could potentially provide women with HIV protection for a month or longer. [12] The program will involve up to 6,000 women in many communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where the HIV/AIDS epidemic has hit hardest. [13]
The Duesberg hypothesis is the claim that AIDS is not caused by HIV, but, instead, that AIDS is caused by noninfectious factors such as recreational and pharmaceutical drug use and that HIV is merely a harmless passenger virus. The hypothesis was popularized by University of California, Berkeley professor Peter Duesberg, from whom the hypothesis gets its name. The scientific consensus is that the Duesberg hypothesis is incorrect and that HIV is the cause of AIDS. The most prominent supporters of the hypothesis are Duesberg himself, biochemist and vitamin proponent David Rasnick and journalist Celia Farber. The scientific community generally contends that Duesberg's arguments in favor of the hypothesis are the result of cherry-picking predominantly outdated scientific data and selectively ignoring evidence that demonstrates HIV's role in causing AIDS.
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of Lentivirus that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive. Without treatment, average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype.
A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. After invading a host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome, the reverse of the usual pattern, thus retro (backwards). The new DNA is then incorporated into the host cell genome by an integrase enzyme, at which point the retroviral DNA is referred to as a provirus. The host cell then treats the viral DNA as part of its own genome, transcribing and translating the viral genes along with the cell's own genes, producing the proteins required to assemble new copies of the virus. Many retroviruses cause serious diseases in humans, other mammals, and birds.
The spread of HIV/AIDS has affected millions of people worldwide; AIDS is considered a pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in 2016 there were 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, with 1.8 million new HIV infections per year and 1 million deaths due to AIDS. Misconceptions about HIV and AIDS arise from several different sources, from simple ignorance and misunderstandings about scientific knowledge regarding HIV infections and the cause of AIDS to misinformation propagated by individuals and groups with ideological stances that deny a causative relationship between HIV infection and the development of AIDS. Below is a list and explanations of some common misconceptions and their rebuttals.
Microbicides for sexually transmitted diseases are pharmacologic agents and chemical substances that are capable of killing or destroying certain microorganisms that commonly cause human infection.
Gammaretrovirus is a genus in the Retroviridae family. Example species are the murine leukemia virus and the feline leukemia virus. They cause various sarcomas, leukemias and immune deficiencies in mammals, reptiles and birds.
Virus latency is the ability of a pathogenic virus to lie dormant within a cell, denoted as the lysogenic part of the viral life cycle. A latent viral infection is a type of persistent viral infection which is distinguished from a chronic viral infection. Latency is the phase in certain viruses' life cycles in which, after initial infection, proliferation of virus particles ceases. However, the viral genome is not eradicated. The virus can reactivate and begin producing large amounts of viral progeny without the host becoming reinfected by new outside virus, and stays within the host indefinitely.
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual may not notice any symptoms, or may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. Typically, this is followed by a prolonged incubation period with no symptoms. If the infection progresses, it interferes more with the immune system, increasing the risk of developing common infections such as tuberculosis, as well as other opportunistic infections, and tumors which are rare in people who have normal immune function. These late symptoms of infection are referred to as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This stage is often also associated with unintended weight loss.
The International Partnership for Microbicides or IPM is a non-profit product development partnership (PDP) founded by Dr. Zeda Rosenberg in 2002 to prevent HIV transmission by accelerating the development and availability of a safe and effective microbicide for use by women in developing countries.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral sex. STIs often do not initially cause symptoms, which results in a risk of passing the infection on to others. Symptoms and signs of STIs may include vaginal discharge, penile discharge, ulcers on or around the genitals, and pelvic pain. Some STIs can cause infertility.
CAPRISA 004 is the name of a clinical trial conducted by CAPRISA. This particular study was the first to show that a topical gel could reduce a person's risk of contracting HIV. The gel used in the study contained a microbicide.
CONRAD is a non-profit organization scientific research organization that works to improve the reproductive health of women, especially in developing countries. CONRAD was established in 1986 under a cooperative agreement between Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) and the United States Agency for International Development(USAID). CONRAD’s products are developed primarily for women in low-resource settings, in that they are designed to be safe, affordable and user-friendly. CONRAD is led by Scientific and Executive Director Gustavo Doncel, M.D., Ph.D. Primary funding for CONRAD comes from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with additional funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
A rectal microbicide is a microbicide for rectal use. Most commonly such a product would be a topical gel inserted into the anus so that it make act as protection against the contract of a sexually transmitted infection during anal sex.
Since reports of emergence and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has frequently been linked to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) by epidemiologists and medical professionals. It was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. The first official report on the virus was published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 5, 1981 and detailed the cases of five young gay men who were hospitalized with serious infections. A month later, The New York Times reported that 41 homosexuals had been diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, and eight had died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made.
William A. Haseltine is an American scientist, businessman, author, and philanthropist. He is known for his groundbreaking work on HIV/AIDS and the human genome.
HIV/AIDS research includes all medical research that attempts to prevent, treat, or cure HIV/AIDS, as well as fundamental research about the nature of HIV as an infectious agent and AIDS as the disease caused by HIV.
Dapivirine is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor developed at Janssen Therapeutics. The International Partnership for Microbicides has held exclusive worldwide rights to dapivirine since 2014, building upon a 2004 royalty-free license to develop dapivirine-based microbicides for women in resource-poor countries.
Bette Korber is an American computational biologist focusing on the molecular biology and population genetics of the HIV virus that causes infection and eventually AIDS. She has contributed heavily to efforts to obtain an effective HIV vaccine. She created a database at Los Alamos National Laboratory that has enabled her to design novel mosaic HIV vaccines, one of which is currently in human testing in Africa. The database contains thousands of HIV genome sequences and related data.
Gibbon-ape leukemia virus (GaLV) is an oncogenic, type C retrovirus that has been isolated from primate neoplasms, including the white-handed gibbon and woolly monkey. The virus was identified as the etiological agent of hematopoietic neoplasms, leukemias, and immune deficiencies within gibbons in 1971, during the epidemic of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Epidemiological research into the origins of GaLV has developed two hypotheses for the virus' emergence. These include cross-species transmission of the retrovirus present within a species of East Asian rodent or bat, and the inoculation or blood transfusion of a MbRV-related virus into captured gibbons populations housed at medical research institutions. The virus was subsequently identified in captive gibbon populations in Thailand, the US and Bermuda.
Dapivirine (DPV) Ring is an antiretroviral vaginal ring pioneered by the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) pending for regulatory review. It is designed as a long-acting form of HIV prevention for at-risk women, particularly in developing nations such as sub-Saharan Africa. IPM has rights to both the medication and the medical device. A total of four rings with different drug diffusion systems and polymer composition have been developed by IPM. The latest design, Ring-004, is a silicone polymer matrix-type system capable of delivering DPV intravaginally in a sustained manner.
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