The New York Times - USA (2020-12-01)

THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2020 N B7

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TODAY

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Color bands indicate water temperature.

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6 0s

White 58/31 Cloudy, a shower or two Green 58/30 A passing shower or two Adirondacks 49/25 Spotty showers Berkshires 54/30 Mainly cloudy, a shower Catskills 43/26 A shower Poconos 43/28 A shower or two, cooler Southwest Pa. 33/25 Colder with snow

West Virginia 30/20 Snow at times

Blue Ridge 35/22 Snow at times

Today’s forecast

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LLLL

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Pierrerrrr

Bismasmarcksmar Fargo

Minnneapolisnen St. PaulS

Chicago

Milwaukekekeee

Indianapolisa

Detroit

ClevelandPittsburgh

WashingtonWasashiasasshis

PhiladelphiaPhi

New YorkN

Ricchmondchmc NorfolkNNN RaRaleighRagh Charlototteot

CColumbC bia Atlanta

JacksonvilleJ

OrlandoOOrO Tampaa

Miami NassauNNa

Birmrminghamrmmmm

MobileMo NewNew Orleans

Jackson

Batonon Rougen

Little Rock MemphisMeMe

Nashville

Louisvsvillesv

Charlestoetonto

Casper Sioux Fallsou lsls Cheyenneeyennyenn

DDenverD Coloradoo SpringsSpringsSprings

Winnipegegegegegg

Regina

Billingslingsings

Helena

BoiseBBee

SpokaneSpSp

Vanncouvern

Seatttlet

Reno

SaSan Francncisconcco

Fresno

Los Angelesg

SSan DiegoD

Honolulu sssssHilo

FFairbanks

AnAnchoAnchorageAnchogee Juneauau

Phoenienixnix

Tuccsoncs

Las VegasVegVeg

Saltt Laket CCityC

Albuquerqueerquerque

Santa Fe

LLubbockL

El Paso Ft. Worth Dallasa

Oklahoma City

San Antonio Hououston

Corpus ChristiC Monterrey

Eugennenne

Portlanand

Albanyyy Buffalo HartfordHaraa

ToToronto

OttawaOttaMonaantreanala

QQuebQebecebc

BBurlingtorrlingrlinlngtonnngtogton ManchesterMaMMM

BostonBBBs

PortlandPorPP

HalifaxH

Des Mss MoinesMo Omaha

Topeka

Wichita

Kansas City St. Louis

Springfielde

In Southern California,
there will be increasing
Santa Ana winds across
much of the mountains
north of Santa Barbara
down through the
mountains east of San
Diego Tuesday through
Thursday. Dry vegetation,
low humidity and strong
winds will produce
conditions conducive for
wildfire formation and/or
wildfire spread.

Highlight: Increasing Santa Ana Winds Tuesday

HIGH FIRE RISK

WIND DIRECTION

San Diego

Los Angeles San Bernardino

Santa Barbara

Metropolitan Almanac

In Central Park, for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday.

Reservoir levels (New York City water supply) Yesterday ............... 72% Est. normal ............. 81%

Temperature

20°

30°

40°

50°

60°

Record high 70° (1991)

high 49°

Normal

low 37°

Normal

(1875)

low 5°

Record

50° 5 a.m.

4 p.m.

62°

SUN. YESTERDAY

4 p.m.

12 a.m.

6 a.m.

12 p.m.

4 p.m.

Avg. daily departure Avg. daily departure from normal from normal this month...................... +5.2° this year......................... +2.4°

Precipitation (in inches) Yesterday ............... 0.90 Record .................... 1.11

Snow......................... 0.0 Since Oct. 1 .............. 0.0 For the last 30 days Actual ..................... 3.91 Normal .................... 4.02 For the last 365 days Actual ................... 47.18 Normal .................. 49.92 LAST 30 DAYS Air pressure High ........... 30.08 1 a.m. Low ............ 29.44 4 p.m.

Humidity High ........... 96% 11 a.m. Low .............. 37% 1 a.m.

Heating Degree Days An index of fuel consumption that tracks how far the day's mean temperature fell below 65 Ye sterday..................................................................... 9 So far this month...................................................... 362 So far this season (since July 1) .............................. 618 Normal to date for the season ................................. 829

Trends Temperature Precipitation Average Average Below Above Below Above Last 10 days 30 days 90 days 365 days Chart shows how recent temperature and precipitation trends compare with those of the last 30 years.

HL

TODAY’S HIGHS

FRONTS PRESSURE

COLD HIGH LOW MOSTLY SHOWERST-STORMS RAIN FLURRIES SNOW ICE CLOUDY

WARM STATIONARY COMPLEX COLD PRECIPITATION

<0 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100+

Weather patterns shown as expected at noon today, Eastern time.

Cities
High/low temperatures for the 16 hours ended at 4
p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches)
for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday.
Expected conditions for today and tomorrow.

C ........................ Clouds
F ............................. Fog
H .......................... Haze
I............................... Ice
PC ............. Partly cloudy
R ........................... Rain
Sh ................... Showers

S .............................Sun Sn ....................... Snow SS .......... Snow showers T ............ Thunderstorms Tr ......................... Trace W ........................ Windy

............... Not available
Recreational Forecast

Sun, Moon and Planets

We a t h e r R e p o r t Meteorology by AccuWeather

Sun

Jupiter

Saturn

Moon

Mars

Venus

National Forecast

Boating

Last Quarter New First Quarter Full

Dec. 7 Dec. 14 Dec. 21 Dec. 29

Mountain and Ocean Temperatures

11:17 a.m. 10:29 p.m.

RISE 7:01 a.m. SET 4:29 p.m. NEXT R 7:02 a.m. R 10:20 a.m. S 7:50 p.m. R 10:27 a.m. S 8:01 p.m.

S 8:08 a.m. R 5:29 p.m. S 9:05 a.m. S 2:44 a.m. R 1:51 p.m. R 4:41 a.m. S 3:08 p.m.

United States Yesterday Today Tomorrow

N.Y.C. region Yesterday Today Tomorrow
56/ 38 W 44/ 38 PC
Bridgeport 58/ 43 0.71 55/ 35 PC 45/ 36 PC
Caldwell 62/ 37 1.40 52/ 33 Sh 45/ 31 PC
Danbury 59/ 35 0.98 52/ 30 C 43/ 29 PC
Islip 61/ 41 0.88 54/ 33 PC 45/ 33 C
Newark 62/ 43 1.58 52/ 35 W 46/ 34 PC
Trenton 63/ 40 1.51 49/ 33 PC 45/ 31 PC
White Plains 59/ 38 1.19 51/ 33 C 44/ 33 PC

Albany 53/ 51 0.66 52/ 30 C 40/ 32 C
Albuquerque 47/ 26 0 50/ 25 W 43/ 23 PC
Anchorage 28/ 25 0.00 35/ 32 Sn 36/ 23 Sn
Atlanta 48/ 28 0.10 45/ 28 S 53/ 30 S
Atlantic City 67/ 50 2.37 53/ 39 W 49/ 35 PC
Austin 57/ 24 0 62/ 44 S 64/ 37 PC
Baltimore 68/ 44 1.72 48/ 34 W 49/ 32 S
Baton Rouge 52/ 27 0 57/ 34 S 63/ 52 PC
Birmingham 44/ 25 0.22 48/ 27 S 54/ 35 S
Boise 41/ 24 0 40/ 22 S 38/ 19 S
Boston 57/ 56 0.38 60/ 39 C 46/ 36 PC
Buffalo 45/ 36 0.65 35/ 33 Sn 39/ 33 SS
Burlington 50/ 48 0.19 59/ 36 Sh 40/ 32 Sn
Casper 47/ 25 0 33/ 14 Sn 26/ 8 Sn
Charlotte 64/ 34 0.54 46/ 26 PC 52/ 26 S
Chattanooga 45/ 28 0.41 44/ 22 PC 51/ 28 S
Chicago 35/ 25 0.01 38/ 26 S 44/ 26 S
Cincinnati 37/ 28 0.72 36/ 24 SS 43/ 27 PC
Cleveland 42/ 32 0.95 30/ 30 Sn 39/ 25 PC
Colorado Springs 55/ 31 0 42/ 18 SS 31/ 15 PC
Columbus 39/ 29 1.43 34/ 24 SS 37/ 21 S
Concord, N.H. 53/ 51 0.58 58/ 32 C 43/ 29 Sh
Dallas-Ft. Worth 52/ 31 0 61/ 44 S 54/ 33 R
Denver 52/ 29 0 39/ 19 PC 30/ 14 PC
Des Moines 37/ 17 0 43/ 20 S 42/ 22 PC
Detroit 36/ 27 0.20 35/ 28 Sn 42/ 26 PC
El Paso 55/ 30 0 61/ 32 S 55/ 30 S
Fargo 35/ 21 0 37/ 23 PC 31/ 21 PC
Hartford 59/ 53 1.11 56/ 33 C 45/ 31 PC
Honolulu 84/ 67 0 85/ 70 S 85/ 71 PC
Houston 55/ 30 0 63/ 53 S 64/ 43 R
Indianapolis 37/ 25 0.48 36/ 22 SS 43/ 25 S
Jackson 45/ 25 0 56/ 29 S 59/ 44 S
Jacksonville 69/ 35 0.26 53/ 29 S 57/ 35 S
Kansas City 44/ 22 0 49/ 27 S 43/ 29 C
Key West 77/ 66 0 69/ 61 PC 75/ 70 PC
Las Vegas 62/ 42 0 63/ 40 S 59/ 39 S
Lexington 35/ 26 0.68 35/ 22 SS 43/ 26 S

Little Rock 45/ 24 0 55/ 31 S 51/ 35 PC Los Angeles 76/ 49 0 76/ 50 S 75/ 49 S Louisville 41/ 28 0.62 40/ 26 SS 48/ 32 S Memphis 38/ 26 0.05 50/ 32 S 53/ 40 PC Miami 82/ 59 0 67/ 51 PC 73/ 65 S Milwaukee 36/ 27 0.02 40/ 28 PC 45/ 27 S Mpls.-St. Paul 32/ 17 0 38/ 20 S 37/ 24 PC Nashville 39/ 26 0.48 45/ 26 PC 52/ 34 S New Orleans 54/ 37 0 56/ 42 S 66/ 58 S Norfolk 74/ 44 0.72 53/ 35 PC 50/ 35 S Oklahoma City 50/ 29 0 57/ 32 S 42/ 28 R Omaha 42/ 20 0 46/ 23 S 41/ 23 PC Orlando 73/ 43 0.06 56/ 37 S 63/ 49 PC Philadelphia 66/ 48 1.26 49/ 36 W 46/ 33 PC Phoenix 73/ 45 0 71/ 45 S 69/ 45 S Pittsburgh 45/ 30 0.40 33/ 27 Sn 36/ 23 PC Portland, Me. 50/ 49 0.45 55/ 36 C 43/ 32 PC Portland, Ore. 51/ 36 0.35 48/ 39 S 48/ 33 S Providence 61/ 55 0.85 59/ 37 C 46/ 33 PC Raleigh 70/ 37 0.67 47/ 28 PC 51/ 28 S Reno 57/ 27 0 49/ 23 S 48/ 24 S Richmond 71/ 38 0.78 49/ 31 PC 50/ 27 S Rochester 46/ 40 0.85 39/ 33 C 38/ 32 SS Sacramento 63/ 36 0 62/ 34 S 63/ 35 S Salt Lake City 48/ 30 0 41/ 23 PC 39/ 21 S San Antonio 57/ 30 0 61/ 44 S 65/ 39 PC San Diego 74/ 49 0 73/ 50 S 73/ 52 S San Francisco 59/ 44 0 61/ 44 S 61/ 45 PC San Jose 62/ 40 0 64/ 40 S 65/ 40 S San Juan 82/ 74 0 85/ 72 S 84/ 74 PC Seattle 50/ 36 0.43 46/ 36 S 50/ 34 S Sioux Falls 40/ 21 0 43/ 24 PC 37/ 23 S Spokane 39/ 25 0.04 35/ 23 PC 36/ 22 S St. Louis 39/ 22 0.04 45/ 24 S 49/ 32 PC St. Thomas 84/ 75 0 84/ 75 PC 84/ 76 PC Syracuse 49/ 43 0.88 47/ 34 C 39/ 33 SS Tampa 72/ 49 0.29 60/ 39 S 64/ 51 PC Toledo 37/ 30 0.29 37/ 30 Sn 43/ 24 S Tucson 69/ 38 0 70/ 39 S 69/ 36 S Tulsa 50/ 30 0 58/ 35 S 45/ 31 R Virginia Beach 77/ 44 0.69 54/ 33 PC 52/ 35 S Washington 68/ 43 1.55 48/ 35 C 48/ 32 S Wichita 49/ 24 0 52/ 30 S 41/ 28 R Wilmington, Del. 67/ 44 1.44 48/ 34 PC 46/ 30 PC Africa Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Asia/Pacific Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Algiers 71/ 46 0 67/ 50 PC 62/ 45 Sh Cairo 73/ 55 0 72/ 55 PC 71/ 57 PC Cape Town 73/ 59 0 68/ 58 C 74/ 57 W Dakar 82/ 74 0 84/ 75 PC 84/ 73 PC Johannesburg 76/ 56 0.27 77/ 55 PC 79/ 53 T Nairobi 79/ 59 0 79/ 60 PC 77/ 60 C Tunis 69/ 55 0 69/ 51 S 68/ 52 C

Baghdad 68/ 47 0 67/ 51 PC 65/ 50 PC Bangkok 88/ 76 0 88/ 75 PC 88/ 75 C Beijing 40/ 19 0 39/ 23 PC 38/ 17 PC Damascus 63/ 41 0 61/ 44 PC 60/ 46 PC Hong Kong 72/ 57 0 75/ 63 PC 75/ 60 S Jakarta 88/ 73 0.24 90/ 77 T 92/ 77 T Jerusalem 61/ 45 0 59/ 43 S 57/ 42 S Karachi 88/ 54 0 87/ 58 PC 86/ 58 PC Manila 90/ 73 0.19 86/ 75 C 85/ 76 Sh Mumbai 93/ 75 0 94/ 78 PC 92/ 76 PC

South America Yesterday Today Tomorrow

North America Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Europe Yesterday Today Tomorrow

New Delhi 78/ 50 0 81/ 53 PC 82/ 53 PC Riyadh 66/ 60 0 68/ 60 R 72/ 62 PC Seoul 39/ 21 0 42/ 29 PC 43/ 27 PC Shanghai 55/ 45 0 56/ 48 PC 56/ 45 PC Singapore 86/ 78 0.07 87/ 78 T 87/ 78 T Sydney 74/ 63 0 93/ 78 S 79/ 62 PC Taipei City 70/ 63 0.15 72/ 64 R 71/ 62 Sh Tehran 54/ 42 0 53/ 39 PC 54/ 40 C Tokyo 57/ 46 0 58/ 47 PC 51/ 49 R

Amsterdam 47/ 29 0.46 49/ 40 Sh 44/ 40 PC Athens 66/ 55 0.27 57/ 48 Sh 59/ 48 PC Berlin 37/ 30 0 38/ 27 C 35/ 25 S Brussels 44/ 26 0.08 48/ 37 Sh 43/ 38 PC Budapest 37/ 26 0 35/ 21 PC 34/ 27 PC Copenhagen 40/ 32 0.04 42/ 38 Sh 41/ 35 PC Dublin 51/ 44 0.48 48/ 43 PC 46/ 36 PC Edinburgh 52/ 38 0 43/ 41 PC 46/ 35 PC Frankfurt 36/ 23 0.06 38/ 34 Sn 38/ 33 PC Geneva 39/ 30 0 40/ 31 R 39/ 29 PC Helsinki 34/ 29 0.28 39/ 32 R 38/ 28 PC Istanbul 57/ 46 0 48/ 42 R 51/ 45 C Kiev 34/ 21 0 31/ 29 C 30/ 29 Sn Lisbon 63/ 51 0.02 64/ 48 C 61/ 45 PC London 49/ 39 0.05 45/ 35 PC 45/ 37 PC Madrid 58/ 36 0 58/ 38 PC 51/ 27 PC Moscow 36/ 33 0.32 32/ 19 Sn 26/ 19 C Nice 57/ 48 0 55/ 44 PC 54/ 41 R Oslo 34/ 27 0.10 34/ 24 S 33/ 30 Sn Paris 42/ 28 0.09 48/ 41 PC 46/ 40 PC Prague 36/ 28 0 33/ 23 SS 30/ 24 PC Rome 61/ 43 0 59/ 51 PC 56/ 44 R St. Petersburg 36/ 26 0.08 32/ 29 C 32/ 22 Sn Stockholm 33/ 27 0.12 35/ 25 Sh 34/ 33 PC Vienna 39/ 30 0 34/ 26 PC 32/ 28 PC Warsaw 37/ 28 Tr 34/ 23 S 31/ 26 S

Acapulco 88/ 74 0 87/ 74 PC 87/ 73 PC Bermuda 72/ 66 0.01 73/ 68 PC 74/ 65 Sh Edmonton 36/ 21 0 26/ 15 S 33/ 21 S Guadalajara 82/ 47 0 79/ 44 PC 78/ 44 S Havana 82/ 63 0 74/ 63 PC 77/ 65 S Kingston 86/ 73 0 87/ 75 PC 87/ 76 PC Martinique 87/ 76 0.05 85/ 73 PC 85/ 74 PC Mexico City 68/ 51 0 72/ 46 PC 72/ 47 PC Monterrey 57/ 45 0 65/ 38 S 73/ 38 S Montreal 42/ 33 0.31 53/ 34 Sh 41/ 28 Sn Nassau 82/ 72 0 75/ 67 Sh 76/ 69 PC Panama City 86/ 75 0.29 82/ 75 T 81/ 75 R Quebec City 40/ 32 0 55/ 35 R 41/ 29 PC Santo Domingo 87/ 66 0 85/ 70 PC 85/ 70 S Toronto 42/ 37 1.05 34/ 32 Sn 38/ 31 S Vancouver 48/ 44 0.41 45/ 33 PC 43/ 35 PC Winnipeg 28/ 9 0 32/ 21 S 30/ 17 C

Buenos Aires 70/ 57 0 77/ 69 S 81/ 67 PC Caracas 88/ 74 0.31 88/ 74 T 87/ 73 T Lima 70/ 65 0 74/ 65 PC 74/ 66 PC Quito 67/ 52 0.07 65/ 52 R 67/ 53 Sh Recife 84/ 78 0 85/ 78 PC 85/ 78 PC Rio de Janeiro 88/ 73 0 83/ 75 T 83/ 75 T Santiago 88/ 54 0 85/ 51 PC 87/ 54 S

From Montauk Point to Sandy Hook, N.J., out to 20 nautical miles, including Long Island Sound and New York Harbor. Small craft advisory warranted. Wind southwest at 15-25 knots. Waves will be 2-3 feet on New York Harbor, 2-4 feet on Long Island Sound and 7-10 feet on the ocean. Visibility reduced in scattered showers.

Atlantic City .................... 7:39 a.m. .............. 8:05 p.m. Barnegat Inlet ................. 7:50 a.m. .............. 8:22 p.m. The Battery ..................... 8:18 a.m. .............. 8:58 p.m. Beach Haven .................. 9:13 a.m. .............. 9:47 p.m. Bridgeport .................... 11:31 a.m. ......................... --- City Island ..................... 11:15 a.m. ............ 11:56 p.m. Fire Island Lt. .................. 8:41 a.m. .............. 9:15 p.m. Montauk Point ................ 9:18 a.m. .............. 9:51 p.m. Northport ..................... 11:34 a.m. ......................... --- Port Washington ........... 11:22 a.m. ............ 11:55 p.m. Sandy Hook .................... 7:55 a.m. .............. 8:29 p.m. Shinnecock Inlet ............. 7:48 a.m. .............. 8:13 p.m. Stamford ...................... 11:30 a.m. ......................... --- Tarrytown ..................... 10:07 a.m. ............ 10:47 p.m. Willets Point .................. 11:14 a.m. ............ 11:59 p.m.

High Tides

New York City 62/ 50 0.90

Metropolitan Forecast

TODAY ........................Turning cooler, windy High 56. Gusty wind will be ushering in colder air, causing temperatures to fall several degrees. There will be showers in a few spots with a variably cloudy sky.

TONIGHT .....................Partly cloudy, colder Low 38. The air will continue to get colder with temperatures dropping to season- able levels. Under a partly cloudy sky, expect a largely rain-free night with a brisk wind.

TOMORROW ..............Chilly, some sunshine High 44. A wind will continue to in bring chilly air, keeping temperatures several degrees below average. The weather will remain dry with a mix of sunshine and some clouds.

THURSDAY ..............................Mostly sunny High pressure passing close by will result in a more tranquil day with lighter breezes. There will be a good deal of sunshine.

FRIDAY SATURDAY .....................Chance of showers Friday will be variably cloudy with a slight chance for showers. High 50. It will be mostly cloudy on Saturday, and there may be some rain. High 49.

As a major storm pushes north into eastern Canada, heavy rain will taper to showers in much of the Northeast. Cold air will be slow to reach coastal areas of the Northeast but will continue to blast across the Southern states, where the first freeze of the season began. On the storm’s colder side, heavy lake- effect snow will fall on portions of eastern Ohio and the western parts of Pennsylva- nia and New York state. Up to a couple of feet of snow may fall on top of the snow that fell during the main part of the storm into last night. Much of the rest of the nation will be dry, except for snow that will propagate across the Rockies and move into parts of the High Plains of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas tonight.

Rain showers will persist over portions of Maine and New England, but the showers will be mixing with, and eventually chang- ing to, snow in the Adirondacks and Cats- kills. Several inches of snow will accumu- late in the Laurel Mountains and across the mountains of West Virginia through- out tonight and into tomorrow.

SCIENCE

The first infant formulation of
dolutegravir, an important first-
line H.I.V. medication, will be
available soon under an agree-
ment between several pharma-
ceutical companies and global
health initiatives.
The new formulation will be
strawberry flavored and come in a
tablet that dissolves in water or
juice so babies can swallow it.
In another announcement also
linked to World AIDS Day, which
occurs every Dec. 1, the Interna-
tional Partnership for Microbi-
cides, which seeks to protect
women from H.I.V. infection, said
that, after many years of research,
the World Health Organization
had approved the dapivirine ring,
a vaginal insert that has proved
effective in women who use it con-
sistently.
Each year, about 160,000 chil-
dren are newly infected with
H.I.V., according to the W.H.O.
Most are in Africa and infected at
birth or through breastfeeding
when their mothers do not realize
that they themselves are infected.
About 60 percent of new H.I.V.
infections in Africa each year oc-
cur among women, according to

the W.H.O. Without testing and treatment, half of those babies will die by age 2, and 80 percent will not reach their fifth birthday. About 80,000 toddlers and young children die each year of AIDS-related ill- nesses. Children are hard to treat because many H.I.V. medicines taste bitter, come in pills that infants cannot swallow or are alcohol- based syrups that need refrigeration. “This is truly an advance,” said Dr. Elaine J. Abrams, chief of pedi- atrics for ICAP, the global health outreach arm of Columbia Univer- sity’s Mailman School of Public Health and leader of a W.H.O. treatment guidelines panel. “The products currently available for pediatric treatment are less than optimal. There have been a few new formulations, but they haven’t been as successful as antici- pated.” Jessica Burry, a pharmacist with the Doctors Without Borders access campaign, called it “great news that we finally have dolutegravir for children.” Both experts noted that the new form could not be used until a

child is one month old, so a syrup that can be given to newborns is still needed. Last year, strawberry-flavored “sprinkles” that contained four older H.I.V. drugs, and that could be shaken over cereal or mixed into milk, were introduced for about $365 a year. The new form of dolutegravir will cost only about $36 a year. It will be made by Macleods

Pharmaceuticals, an Indian company, and Mylan, another generic manufacturer that is now part of a new company called Viatris. ViiV Healthcare, a partnership created in 2009 by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline to develop and market H.I.V. drugs, patented dolutegravir (which it sells as Tivicay) in the United States in

It patented the dissolving
pediatric form in June; it is work-
ing on a syrup for newborns.
The multicompany deal was
brokered by the Clinton Health
Access Initiative and Unitaid, a
Geneva-based global health
agency that oversees a “medi-
cines patent pool” through which
Western pharmaceutical compa-
nies license patents on their new
drugs to generic manufacturers
eager to serve the large but low-
profit markets in poor countries.
The Food and Drug Administra-
tion sped up approval of the pedi-
atric form of dolutegravir so it
could be purchased by the Presi-
dent’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief, the program begun by the
George W. Bush administration to
fight AIDS in poor countries.
Doctors treating children in Af-
rica are excited about having a us-

able form of the drug, Dr. Abrams said, because it belongs to a new class of antiretrovirals called inte- grase inhibitors that work well in adults but have been unavailable to children. Having a drug from a new class is important, because the rise of resistance to one drug from any class — such as fusion inhibitors or reverse transcriptase inhibitors — often creates cross-resistance to all similar drugs. The ring approved by the W.H.O. is made of flexible silicone and slowly releases tiny amounts of dapivirine, an antiretroviral drug, for about a month. The drug is meant to prevent the virus from infecting vaginal tissue. The International Partnership for Microbicides, which an- nounced the W.H.O. approval, has sought approval for the ring in the hope that it will be useful in Africa, where most transmission is through heterosexual sex. It does not need refrigeration, and a woman can use it without her partner knowing about it. In some couples, experts said, when a woman uses an H.I.V.-prevention device or pill, her partner may accuse her of having H.I.V. or

of assuming that he does, which may infuriate him. Parents who discover their teenage daughters are using one may also be an- gered. In 2016, two major studies of the dapivirine ring found that it was only about 30 percent effective at preventing infection, and follow- up studies found it reduced infection risk by only about 35 percent over all. It failed to do better not because the device didn’t work but because women, especially younger women, did not or could not use it consistently. In one study, women over age 25 who used it consistently gained better than 60 percent protection. Finding prevention methods that women can use discreetly has been a major obstacle to beating AIDS in Africa. Tests of pills and vaginal microbicides have failed because women could not use them consistently enough to protect themselves. The partnership is working on rings that last three months and others that prevent both H.I.V. and pregnancy. Long-lasting injections and im- plants, like those that prevent pregnancy, are also being tested.

H.I.V. Medication Ready for Babies, and W.H.O. Clears a New Protection

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

The H.I.V. drug dolutegravir will soon come in a strawberry-flavored dissolvable tablet for babies.

BAZ RATNER/REUTERS

The New York Times - USA (2020-12-01)

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