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

Earlier ART initiation should be highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care

Earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy should be the highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care. This finding, from a paper published in this week's PLoS Medicine, should help resource-limited nations to phase in the implementation of the new 2010 WHO recommendations for HIV treatment. "Immediate scale-up of the entire WHO guideline package may be prohibitively expensive in some settings," said lead author Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.

22 Dec 2010

The Citizen examines potential impact of EU-India free trade agreement on HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries

The Citizen examines the potential impact a free-trade agreement between the EU and India currently under negotiation could have on patients living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

22 Dec 2010

Daily Report Global Health Conversations: The QDDR and global health

After the State Department released recommendations for how to improve its own effectiveness and that of USAID in last week's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), the Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report's Jaclyn Schiff spoke with Jennifer Kates, vice president and director of Global Health Policy & HIV at the Kaiser Family Foundation, about the QDDR in relation to U.S. global health efforts.

22 Dec 2010

AIDS patients with serum biomarkers are predisposed to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome

A study in this week's PLoS Medicine suggests that AIDS patients with cryptococcal meningitis who start HIV therapy are predisposed to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome - an exaggerated inflammatory immune response that kills up to one-third of affected people - if they have biomarkers in their blood showing evidence of a damaged immune system that is not capable of clearing the fungal infection.

22 Dec 2010

AIDS Healthcare Foundation sues AIDS drug maker for overcharging

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a press teleconference on Wednesday, December 22nd at 9:30 AM Pacific/12:30 PM Eastern to announce that it has filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson’s Tibotec Therapeutics for overcharging AHF for AIDS drugs purchased under the 340B program.

21 Dec 2010

Expansion of HIV screening worthwhile

According to researchers, screening for the AIDS virus to include every American at least once and the highest-risk people once a year could prevent more than 80,000 infections over the next 20 years. The team from Yale University in Connecticut and Stanford University in California reported that if treatment for infected people were integrated into such a program, it would prevent an estimated 212,000 new infections.

21 Dec 2010

Country must make wise choices in preventing infections, says study on future of AIDS in Cambodia

Despite Cambodia's remarkable history in driving down HIV infections, a report released today on the future of AIDS in the country argues that future success is not guaranteed and the government needs to focus increasingly on wise prevention tactics and assume more of the financing of its AIDS program.

21 Dec 2010

Researchers develop new malaria vaccine strategy based on ingestion of genetically modified starch

Researchers from two laboratories in northern France have successfully vaccinated and protected mice by feeding them starch derived from green algae and genetically modified to carry vaccine proteins.

21 Dec 2010

Hutchinson Center's tips for weight loss in the new year

Losing weight is at the top of many a New Year's resolution list. In addition to maintaining a healthy diet and getting enough exercise, what else can one do to make sure those good intentions have a lasting impact throughout the year?

21 Dec 2010

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oncolys complete license agreement for festinavir

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Oncolys BioPharma Inc., a privately held biotechnology company based in Japan, announced today that the companies have signed a definitive agreement under which Bristol-Myers Squibb will acquire exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture, develop and commercialize festinavir, a once-a-day, orally available nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) in Phase II development for HIV.

20 Dec 2010

AHF calls on Sen. Nelson to address Florida's AIDS drug crisis

On Monday, December 20 at 6:00 PM, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a town hall and public forum at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center calling on U.S. Senator Bill Nelson to immediately address Florida's AIDS drug crisis which has left nearly 2,400 patients without access to lifesaving AIDS medications. Town hall attendees will include AIDS advocates, patients, healthcare professionals, community leaders and concerned citizens.

20 Dec 2010

Sanofi-aventis, Oxford University to conduct multi-phase oncology research in India

Sanofi-aventis US and Oxford University have entered into an agreement to conduct multi-phase oncology clinical and epidemiological research with INDOX, India's leading academic oncology network.

20 Dec 2010

Medical breakthrough: Scientists grow functioning human intestinal tissue from stem cells

Emerging Healthcare Solutions was encouraged by the latest breakthrough in stem cell research this week when scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center announced that they've grown functioning human intestinal tissue from stem cells for the first time.

20 Dec 2010

Possible stem cell cure for AIDS

An explosion of stem cell breakthroughs, including a possible cure for AIDS, is reshaping the possibilities for curing deadly and debilitating diseases around the globe, says Emerging Healthcare Solutions President and CEO Cindy Morrissey.

17 Dec 2010

Elsevier Foundation's new library grants focus on telemedicine, HIV/AIDS videos and Egyptian cancer database

The Elsevier Foundation has announced the 2010 recipients of grants under its Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries program, committing over $300,000 to support the work of libraries in developing countries. The 2010 grant recipients were selected from 260 proposals worldwide for their innovation and potential for impact in the developing world. The Innovative Libraries program supports capacity-building projects in the science, technology and medicine library training, education, infrastructure, digitization and the preservation of information.

17 Dec 2010

Prions responsible for BSE can survive in new host environment

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shown that prions, bits of infectious protein that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease," have the ability to adapt to survive in a new host environment.

17 Dec 2010

Global Fund approves 79 grants with two-year commitment of $1.7B

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Board of Directors on Wednesday approved 79 grants with a two-year commitment of "$1.7 billion dollars for projects against the diseases, amid warnings that some hard-hit African countries were being left out," Agence France-Presse reports. The commitment, according to Ethiopian Health Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who chairs the Global Fund's board, "shows that even in hard economic times, we can continue to expand the fight against the three diseases" (12/15).

17 Dec 2010

Human fetal immune system entirely different from adult immune system

UCSF researchers have shown for the first time that the human fetal immune system arises from an entirely different source than the adult immune system, and is more likely to tolerate than fight foreign substances in its environment.

17 Dec 2010

U.S., South Africa sign PEPFAR partnership agreement

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane on Tuesday signed a "partnership agreement that will guide efforts on fighting HIV/AIDS in the African nation," Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports (Wessels, 12/15).

17 Dec 2010

HIV patient cured!

German researchers working with stem cell therapy have claimed they have cured an American patient with HIV and leukemia. Experts are wary of accepting the development at its face value and caution that there is a need for further research. Dr David Scadden, a co-director of the Harvard University Stem Cell Institute added, “Cured is a strong word. But this is very encouraging… from all indications, there was no residual virus… It’s as good an outcome as one could hope for.”

16 Dec 2010

HIV/AIDS News and Research

Further Reading

Earlier ART initiation should be highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care

The Citizen examines potential impact of EU-India free trade agreement on HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries

Daily Report Global Health Conversations: The QDDR and global health

AIDS patients with serum biomarkers are predisposed to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome

AIDS Healthcare Foundation sues AIDS drug maker for overcharging

Expansion of HIV screening worthwhile

Country must make wise choices in preventing infections, says study on future of AIDS in Cambodia

Researchers develop new malaria vaccine strategy based on ingestion of genetically modified starch

Hutchinson Center's tips for weight loss in the new year

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oncolys complete license agreement for festinavir

AHF calls on Sen. Nelson to address Florida's AIDS drug crisis

Sanofi-aventis, Oxford University to conduct multi-phase oncology research in India

Medical breakthrough: Scientists grow functioning human intestinal tissue from stem cells

Possible stem cell cure for AIDS

Elsevier Foundation's new library grants focus on telemedicine, HIV/AIDS videos and Egyptian cancer database

Prions responsible for BSE can survive in new host environment

Global Fund approves 79 grants with two-year commitment of $1.7B

Human fetal immune system entirely different from adult immune system

U.S., South Africa sign PEPFAR partnership agreement

HIV patient cured!

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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