A team lead by Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, assistant professor of biological and mechanical engineering at MIT has discovered a method to use gold particles and infrared to release multiple drugs in a systematic and controlled manner.

This is of particular importance when treating diseases like cancer and AIDS which require multi drug and coordinated dosage cocktails.

The new technique takes advantage of the fact that when gold nano particles are exposed to infrared light, they melt and release drug payloads attached to their surfaces.

Nanoparticles of different shapes respond to different infrared wavelengths, so “just by controlling the infrared wavelength, we can choose the release time” for each drug, said Andy Wijaya, graduate student in chemical engineering and lead author of the paper.

More information from MIT is available here with an interesting diagram here.

South Africa has the dubious privilege of being the worlds most populous nation per capita to be infected with the HIV virus. For years the Mbeki regime decided to go against leading researchers and continuously questioned the connection between the HIV virus and it’s natural vulgar and deadly path to AIDS. They shunned anti retro viral (ARV) programs and rather advocated healthy diet as a remedy. There was recently a change with Mbeki leaving and his successor appointing a new Health Minister Barbara Hogan who fortunately has taken a different position and has started talking about taking a much more proactive stand against the disease.

All the major pharmaceutical companies have corporations in South Africa, the major charities, including Gates and Clinton are supplying funding and support to turn around the years of aids denialism in the country and get infected patients on to ARV’s.

Just in case you need more convincing the life expectancy is down to about 48 and this is what the CIA Factbook says about the population:

48,782,756
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2008 est.)

So what’s the point you may ask. Well today one of the largest provincial authorities (government funded) in the country announced that they we not taking on an new ARV treatment patients because they had run out of money – no they haven’t.

So when bureaucrat Elke de Witt says:

“Stocks must run out if you do not have money to replenish them.”

it is really time for Minister Hogan to get on a plane and take action to stop the carnage.

Money is available – They still don’t take the disease seriously.

Red ribbons on Olympic Stadium to inspire the response to AIDS in China and beyond

Chinese AIDS authorities, with the support of UNAIDS, today unveiled three giant red ribbons on the iconic National Stadium – colloquially known as ‘the Bird’s Nest’ – to mark World AIDS Day. The display illustrates China’s commitment to the AIDS response and in particular, to the fight against stigma and discrimination

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Despite National Guidelines, Private Insurers, Emergency Rooms, Federal & State Agencies Largely Fail to Conduct Routine HIV Tests, Increasing HIV Risk

National Summit to Gauge Advances and Barriers to Routine HIV Testing and Prevention

Nearly 60,000 Americans were infected with HIV last year, and some 250,000 people nationwide are unaware of their infection. While initial successes show the potentially powerful impact of routine testing, two years after the US government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s recommendation of routine HIV testing for Americans aged 13 to 64, major barriers stand in the way of making HIV testing the nationwide norm. [Read more →]