HIV/AIDS News and Research

RSS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

NIH scientists discuss expanded HIV testing and new prevention tools

In the 30 years since the first reported cases of a mysterious illness now known as AIDS, researchers have made extraordinary advances in understanding, treating and preventing the disease.

1 Jun 2011

At the 30 year mark, AIDS epidemic still poses challenges

Thirty years after America started battling HIV/AIDS, deaths linked to the virus have plummeted. New HIV cases are down by three-quarters. Life expectancy has more than tripled. Many HIV-positive people lead active lives, often on a single pill a day. But there's a darker side: More than 1.2 million Americans still are living with HIV/AIDS, and 40,000 new infections and 16,000 deaths are expected this year.

1 Jun 2011

POWER study examines impact of HIV infection on Ontario women

Despite significant clinical advances in HIV care, an estimated 25 per cent of new HIV infections in Ontario from 2006 to 2008 were among women, according to a health study by researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and St. Michael's Hospital.

1 Jun 2011

Emory University launches AIDSVu interactive online map for public

On Wednesday, June 1, the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University will launch AIDSVu, an interactive online map that, 30 years into the epidemic, provides for the most detailed publicly available view of the impact of HIV across the United States by state and county.

1 Jun 2011

State roundup: Texas budget cuts; Florida's 'F' in kids' teeth; new insurance programs for Conn., Maine

Texas lawmakers adopted a state budget Saturday night ... Facing a massive revenue shortfall, lawmakers crafted the $172 billion budget by making cuts and using deferrals rather than raising taxes or dipping into the $10 billion reserve fund.

1 Jun 2011

Chronic fatigue syndrome and mouse virus – no association

An earlier study published in 2009 had claimed that a mouse virus was the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. New evidence suggests that this assumption is wrong. According to latest evidence the earlier study findings were likely based on contaminated lab samples, US researchers said Tuesday.

1 Jun 2011

AIDS epidemic turns 30

It is 30 years since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. It was fatal then but has now become a treatable, if still incurable, chronic illness. AIDS therapy now has tools that prolong the lives of people infected with the virus and prevent others from acquiring it. They range from antiretroviral therapy (ART), to circumcision and campaigns to reduce promiscuity. On the horizon are gels and pills that protect against infection during intercourse. Even the outlook for an AIDS vaccine is no longer as bleak as it used to be.

31 May 2011

Scientists develop carbohydrate-based vaccine against C. difficile infection

There is now a promising vaccine candidate for combating the pathogen which causes one of the most common and dangerous hospital infections. An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam has developed a vaccine based on a carbohydrate against the Clostridium difficile bacterium, which is known to cause serious gastrointestinal diseases mainly in hospitals.

31 May 2011

Some Veterans' health jeopardized due to poor infection control

Herman Williams came home safely after fighting in the jungles of Vietnam as a Marine. He was shocked to learn four decades later that his military service had again placed him in jeopardy — this time, because he got a tooth pulled. Williams is among 13,000 U.S. veterans who have been warned in the last two years that their blood should be tested for potentially fatal infections after possible exposures by improper hygiene practices at five VA hospitals in Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee.

31 May 2011

U.N., U.S. re-evaluate HIV/AIDS treatment targets

Ahead of the U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS, scheduled for June 8-10 in New York, "public-health leaders face a paradox: New evidence suggests the epidemic can finally be controlled, but that would demand increased spending at a time of severe global budget restraints," the Wall Street Journal reports.

27 May 2011

Current efforts not enough to halt HIV/AIDS in Philippines, UNAIDS country coordinator says

"The Philippines has not been making progress in meeting its sixth Millennium Development Goal, which is halting and reversing the spread of ... HIV/AIDS..., according to the country coordinator of the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)," the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports.

27 May 2011

Recent releases in Global Health

As the G8 summit began in Deauville, France, on Thursday, David Olson, the council's director of policy communications, wrote on the Global Health Council's "Blog 4 Global Health" that "global health is nowhere visible on the agenda," which "is in striking contrast to the final communique of the G8 Muskoka, which devoted a significant amount of space to health" (5/26).

27 May 2011

Kenya considers how PEPFAR technical guidance on MSM squares with laws against homosexuality

PEPFAR's recent release of its "Technical Guidance on Combination HIV Prevention" (.pdf) for men who have sex with men (MSM) "could force countries like Kenya who are strongly opposed to men having sex with men to backtrack," Nairobi Star/allAfrica.com reports. Because homosexual acts are illegal in some countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, "there are no policies or services targeting HIV interventions towards them," according to the publication.

27 May 2011

Nature special issue focuses on vaccines

The May 26 issue of Nature explores vaccines, which the journal says "are responsible for some of the world's greatest public health triumphs." Though new vaccines for deadly diseases have been developed in the past 10 years, and more are in development, "funding is tight, and unfounded doubts about the safety of vaccines persist." The issue features stories on polio, measles, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as issues surrounding vaccine rejection and hysteria about risk.

27 May 2011

Mylan plans to change name of Matrix Laboratories

Mylan Inc. today announced that it plans to rebrand its Hyderabad, India-based subsidiary Matrix Laboratories Limited as Mylan.

27 May 2011

Los Angeles Times reports on case of Libyan children infected with HIV

The Los Angeles Times examines the case of more than 400 Libyan youth who were infected with HIV in a Benghazi hospital between 1997 and 1998, some say deliberately.

27 May 2011

Two national campaigns aim to reduce spread of HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases

Greater Than AIDS and GYT: Get Yourself Tested, two leading national campaigns committed to reducing the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, are teaming up for a second year to encourage Americans to get tested and know their status.

27 May 2011

Vatican newspaper article addresses condom use among married couples

Three days before the start of a Vatican conference focusing on "the centrality of care" in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, the Vatican's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, on Tuesday printed a piece by Spanish theologian Juan Jose Perez-Soba arguing that married couples with one HIV-positive partner "should abstain from sex, because intercourse performed with a condom is, 'from the moral point of view, not a fully conjugal act,'" RNS/Beliefnet News reports.

26 May 2011

Low vitamin D could account for link between obesity and cancer, heart disease, diabetes

Overweight or obese women with less-than-optimal levels of vitamin D who lose more than 15 percent of their body weight experience significant increases in circulating levels of this fat-soluble nutrient, according to a new study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

26 May 2011

Recent advances in vaccine development for malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS

Collectively, malaria, TB & HIV/AIDS cause more than five million deaths per year - nearly the entire population of the state of Washington - and represent one of the world's major public health challenges as we move into the second decade of the 21st century.

26 May 2011