HIV/AIDS News and Research

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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).

Biologists determine three-dimensional structure of molecule involved in HIV, cancer

In a technical tour de force, structural biologists funded by the National Institutes of Health have determined the three-dimensional structure of a molecule involved in HIV infection and in many forms of cancer. The high-resolution structure sheds light on how the molecule functions and could point to ways to control its activity, potentially locking out HIV and stalling cancer's spread.

8 Oct 2010

Scientists engineer bacterial cell wall with small molecules to combat diseases

A team of Yale University scientists has engineered the cell wall of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, tricking it into incorporating foreign small molecules and embedding them within the cell wall.

8 Oct 2010

ABC news announces one-year reporting series on global health issues

ABC News on Wednesday announced a yearlong project to focus attention on the diseases and health conditions that afflict the world's poorest people the Associated Press reports.

8 Oct 2010

Increased global attention, research needs to be given to stroke prevention: UEA

Increased global attention and research needs to be given to stroke prevention and the social and economic effects of the condition in developing countries, according to an academic at the University of East Anglia.

8 Oct 2010

NIAID awards $6.25M to Profectus to optimize portfolio of genetic adjuvants

Profectus BioSciences, Inc., a technology based vaccine company devoted to the treatment and prevention of chronic viral diseases, today announced that it has received $6.25M in National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) grants and contracts.

8 Oct 2010

CQ Healthbeat examines HIV prevention research funding

The global economy has affected HIV/AIDS prevention research, so "scientists and those who fund them are struggling to set priorities among several competing research methods that could slow the spread of the disease, which causes about 2.7 million new infections worldwide a year," CQ HealthBeat reports.

8 Oct 2010

HIV/AIDS needs more funding: Report

Experts have said that just controlling HIV and AIDS would require finances to the tune of $397bn and $733bn over the next 20 years and unless more money is spent the pandemic will continue to spread. They said that funds need to increase from 2009 otherwise the infections could rise from 2.3 million a year to 3.2 million by 2031. This appeared in a report by the aids2031 financing group, headed by the Results for Development Institute in Washington DC.

8 Oct 2010

Mass. attorney general recommends approval of Caritas sale; Calif. will require students to get whooping cough vaccine

Attorney General Martha Coakley yesterday recommended approval of the proposed sale of Caritas Christi Health Care to a New York private equity firm, a deal that would bring for-profit health care on a large scale to a state long dominated by nonprofit hospitals.

8 Oct 2010

GeoVax receives US Patent for pGA series of plasmids

GeoVax Labs, Inc., a biotechnology company that creates, develops and tests innovative HIV/AIDS vaccines, has been issued via an exclusive license from Emory University, a US Patent for its "DNA expression vectors and methods of use. Issued on September 14, 2010, the patent claims cover novel vectors and novel HIV vaccine inserts.

7 Oct 2010

Vical to manufacture pDNA vaccines against HIV

Vical Incorporated today announced that the company has agreed to manufacture plasmid DNA (pDNA) vaccines against HIV under a $2.4 million contract with the IPPOX Foundation, a collaborating institution for the Poxvirus Vaccine Regimen Design (PVRD) led by the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) under the auspices of the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD).

7 Oct 2010

UEM, San Diego School of Medicine enter partnership to address medical human resource needs in Mozambique

Aimed at enhancing the capacity of Mozambique's flagship medical school, Universidade Eduardo Modlane (UEM), in pre- and postgraduate medical education, the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and UEM entered into a partnership in 2007 to address both short and long-term medical human resource needs in Mozambique.

7 Oct 2010

Donors pledge nearly $12b for Global Fund, missing lowest funding target

Donors at a replenishment meeting in New York on Tuesday pledged $11.7 billion over three years for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, "higher than past support but below the lowest target set by the agency in its efforts to combat disease in the developing world," the Financial Times reports.

7 Oct 2010

HHS partners with PEPFAR to invest $130M for African medical education

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is partnering with the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief with a plan to invest $130 million over five years to transform African medical education and dramatically increase the number of health care workers.

7 Oct 2010

Sudden cardiac arrest survivors to gather at SCAA Annual Meeting

A nationwide gathering of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survivors, emergency responders and civilian rescuers will mark SCA Awareness Month with a Survivors & Heroes Celebration on Friday, October 8 at 6:00 p.m. at the Marriott City Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

7 Oct 2010

3.5 million Calif. residents eligible for tax credits in future exchange; N.Y. prescription drug aid for seniors cut back; Idaho trims dental providers in Medicaid

An estimated 3.5 million Californians would be eligible for federal tax credits to slash the cost of their health coverage when they begin buying policies through a new statewide insurance marketplace in 2014, a study released Tuesday found.

7 Oct 2010

Teen sex on the rise and so are STIs: Survey

A survey of 8,800 Australian year 10 and year 12 students in 300 schools around Australia was taken in three snapshots between 1997 and 2008. It was found that with the rise of risky alcohol consumption among Australia's teenagers there is also a surge of sex “under the influence” and number of sexual partners and unsafe and unprotected intercourse. However, the awareness of HIV/AIDS remained high.

6 Oct 2010

Lumosity.com launches Italian version of cognitive training service

Lumosity.com, the leading online provider of games that improve brain performance, announced today the launch of an Italian version of their cognitive training service -- i.lumosity.com/it. The translation of the site into Italian was sponsored by Abbott Laboratories. Abbott also sponsored hundreds of memberships to make the Lumosity.com cognitive training program available to doctors and patients throughout Italy in an effort to raise awareness about the cognitive deficits associated with HIV/AIDS.

6 Oct 2010

Miller-Mccune examines impact of limited access to schistosomiasis drug in Africa

Miller-McCune examines the limited access populations living in Africa have to the schistosomiasis drug praziquantel the only commercially available treatment for the disease.

6 Oct 2010

Obama administration expected to announce $4B pledge to Global Fund

The Obama administration is expected on Tuesday to announce a large increase in its pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and to call for reform of the organization," the Wall Street Journal reports.

6 Oct 2010

RDI launches HIV-TRePS system to predict patients’ response to HIV drugs

A ground-breaking system for predicting how individual patients with HIV and AIDS will respond to different drugs is launched today by RDI, a UK-based not-for-profit research group. The experimental system, called the HIV Treatment Response Prediction System (HIV-TRePS), is available free of charge over the Internet and helps physicians select the best treatment for their patients.

6 Oct 2010