Immunodeficiency News and Research

RSS

Immunodeficiency (or immune deficiency) is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious disease is compromised or entirely absent.

How do cells protect themselves from viruses?

Amid the coronavirus outbreak that is wreaking havoc across the globe, it is essential to know how the cells of the body evade infection from viruses. A team of scientists has explained the mechanism that takes place in case a virus penetrates the body.

4 Mar 2020

Woman's bladder produces alcohol – a rare medical condition

A 61-year-old woman was set for a liver transplant but was denied due to a high level of alcohol in her system. Her urine contained alcohol, which is unlikely unless someone has consumed large amounts of it.

25 Feb 2020

Promising HIV vaccine fails in a large-scale clinical trial

The human immune deficiency virus (HIV) is an infectious disease that can lead to immunosuppression called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). For decades, scientists race to discover a vaccine that can help prevent the spread of the virus. The latest trial testing a new experimental vaccine in South Africa end in disappointment after deeming ineffective in preventing infection.

4 Feb 2020

Scientists reveal clinical features of Wuhan coronavirus patients

The Wuhan coronavirus, or the 2019-nCoV, which originated in Wuhan City in Hubei province infected more than 7,700 people with the death toll topping more than 170. China reports 38 deaths in just 24 hours, making the outbreak one of the deadliest ones the country has faced.

30 Jan 2020

Scientists reverse HIV latency, take major scientific step toward curative therapies

Approximately 38 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, about 1.1 million people in the United States. Currently, people with HIV take antiretroviral therapy (ART), which can suppress HIV to undetectable levels in blood, but the virus persists throughout the body in latently infected resting CD4+ T cells.

22 Jan 2020

New HIV infections among gay and bisexual men in the UK fall by 71 percent

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a highly contagious infection usually transmitted through body fluids during sexual contact, blood transfusion, during pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding through breast milk. Worldwide, there were about 37.9 million people across the globe with HIV in 2018, and approximately 1.7 million people became newly infected across the globe in 2018 alone.

16 Jan 2020

Lymphopenia may hint a higher risk of future illness, death

Lymphopenia, which indicates lower levels of lymphocytes in the blood, has been tied to a higher risk of future illness and death, a new study found.

13 Jan 2020

Timing is key: preventing infant SHIV infection by PEP

Researchers tested methods to prevent development of SHIV, an infection similar to HIV, in infant macaque monkeys.

9 Jan 2020

Combination of two antibiotics eradicates latent tuberculosis in macaques

A major goal of tuberculosis (TB) research is to find a way to treat people with the latent (or inactive) form of the disease to keep them from developing symptomatic TB.

17 Dec 2019

High HIV infection rates attributed to transgender community's social stigmatization and isolation

Although HIV infection rates are high among the transgender community in Russia, many transgender people know very little about the virus, as well as their own health status.

9 Dec 2019

Expansion of HIV treatment eligibility leads to large increase in ART initiation among youth

A new study published as "Editor's Choice" in The Journal of Infectious Diseases found that expansion of HIV treatment eligibility to include those under age 15 led to large and significant increases in initiation of antiretroviral therapy within 30 days of enrollment in care among 10- to 14-year-olds living with HIV.

3 Dec 2019

Study: Spleen and gut lymph nodes may serve as reservoir replication sites for HIV virus

An international team led by Professor Jerome Estaquier from Universite Laval's Faculty of Medicine and the CHU de Quebec-Universite Laval Research Center may have discovered where in the body HIV takes refuge during antiretroviral treatment.

3 Dec 2019

Many women in Europe are diagnosed at late stage of HIV infection

Many women in the WHO European Region, particularly those in their 40s, are diagnosed at a late stage of HIV infection when their immune system is already starting to fail. They are three to four times more likely to be diagnosed late than younger women.

28 Nov 2019

Sanitization error might possibly have exposed hundreds to HIV at Indiana hospital

An Indiana hospital is in the news for all the wrong reasons. An accidental failure by one of the seven sterilization technicians working at the hospital was recently discovered. The technician failed to carry out a single step in a protocol concerning the sanitization of surgical equipment at Goshen Hospital, over a period from April 1 to September 30.

26 Nov 2019

New way to thwart HIV infection at early stages

1.7 million. That's how many people are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) each year worldwide. 1.7 million people who are condemned to lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) or risk developing fatal AIDS . Out of the 37.9 million people living with HIV (PLWH), 22.3 million have access to ART, allowing them to have an almost normal lifespan.

26 Nov 2019

Cochrane review provides information on HPV vaccines and dose schedules in young women, men

New evidence published in the Cochrane Library today provides further information on the benefits and harms of different human papillomavirus vaccines and vaccine schedules in young women and men.

22 Nov 2019

Wound healing events in mucous tissues could guard against AIDS

Wound healing events in mucous tissues during early infection by Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, or SIV, guard some primate species against developing AIDS, a recent study has learned.

21 Nov 2019

Experimental vaccine elicits antibodies that can neutralize multiple HIV strains

An experimental HIV vaccine developed by scientists at Scripps Research and the nonprofit vaccine research organization IAVI has reached an important milestone by eliciting antibodies that can neutralize a wide variety of HIV strains.

21 Nov 2019

UC Davis study identifies mechanism to rapidly repair leaky gut in monkeys with SIV infections

A UC Davis study found that the damaged gut lining (known as leaky gut) in monkeys infected with chronic simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), an HIV-like virus, was rapidly repaired within five hours of receiving Lactobacillus plantarum bacteria.

19 Nov 2019

Study finds fewer new cases of HCV in HIV-negative men who have sex with PrEP-using men

Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found fewer new cases of hepatitis C infection (commonly called HCV), despite very high rates of other sexually-transmitted infections, in HIV-negative men who have sex with men who take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatments.

10 Nov 2019