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HIV/AIDS, gay rights advocate McFarlane dies

Rodger McFarlane, a leader in gay rights and HIV/AIDS advocacy efforts, died on Friday in New Mexico at age 54, the New York Times reports.

20 May 2009

HIV/AIDS Vaccine Coalition urges continued funding for research amid economic crisis

A recently released AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition report says that although there has been a renewed focus on discovery, innovation and basic science in vaccine research, action is needed to ensure that research funding continues during the economic downturn, VOA News reports.

20 May 2009

HIV/AIDS advocates react to Obama's proposed global health initiative

Some HIV/AIDS advocates have voiced disappointment with the level of HIV/AIDS funding in President Obama's proposed $63 billion, six-year global health initiative, VOA News reports. According to VOA News, the advocates say that Obama has not met pledges he made as a presidential candidate, while other say that the "picture is more complicated."

20 May 2009

Opinion piece examines efficacy of foreign aid

"President Obama signaled recently a major shift in the way the United States tries to help poor countries," Philip Stevens, policy director at the International Policy Network, writes in a Providence Journal opinion piece, adding, "Whereas the Bush presidency pushed to spend enormous sums on individual high-profile diseases such as AIDS, Obama says he will broaden U.S. aid to improve health more generally."

19 May 2009

Convicting HIV-positive people contributes to spread of virus, opinion piece says

The recent conviction of HIV-positive Toronto resident Johnson Aziga is "part of an upward trend," as more "charges and prosecutions for HIV transmission -- and even potential HIV exposure -- are popping up around the planet," Regan Hofmann, editor-in-chief of POZ, writes in a Dallas Morning News opinion piece.

19 May 2009

Maryland County officials create State's first suburban HIV/AIDS commission

Anne Arundel County, Md., Executive John Leopold recently appointed 20 community leaders, government officials and health workers to serve on the county's first HIV/AIDS commission, which aims to understand and develop strategies for addressing the disease, the Baltimore Sun reports.

19 May 2009

Study shows decreased risk of death from opportunistic infections with earlier antiretroviral treatment

HIV-positive people with opportunistic infections who receive earlier antiretroviral treatment lower their risk of death compared with people who delay treatment, according to a new study conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine and published in PLoS One, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

19 May 2009

Researchers develop questions to determine risk of HIV/AIDS drug resistance

Researchers from the Makerere University hospital in Uganda, the U.S. and Belgium have developed a formula, based on a set of questions, for determining HIV-positive people's risk of treatment failure and drug resistance, according to a study recently published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society, the New York Times reports.

19 May 2009

New vaginal ring designed to prevent sexual transmission of HIV

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College have published results showing that a new contraceptive device may also effectively block the transmission of the HIV virus. Findings show that the device prevents infection by the HIV virus in laboratory testing. The promising results are published in the most recent issue of the journal AIDS.

19 May 2009

Global AIDS coordinator Goosby should serve as 'fierce advocate' for pediatric HIV/AIDS programs, letter to editor Says

"The details of President Obama's new global health initiative have left many concerned that the financing described does not reflect the commitment required to lead the United States' efforts in the global fight against HIV and AIDS," Jennifer Delaney, executive director of Global Action for Children, writes in a New York Times letter to the editor.

18 May 2009

Sex workers in Pakistan give recommendations on HIV prevention to health officials

Although the recorded HIV prevalence in Pakistan is relatively low, health officials are concerned that a concentrated epidemic of the virus among injection drug users could carry over to commercial sex workers and other high risk groups in the country, IRIN/PlusNews reports.

18 May 2009

New HIV/AIDS initiative in Tanzania aims to increase condom availability

Condom vending machines will be unveiled on Monday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as part of a six-year pilot HIV prevention initiative in the country, Tanzania's The Citizen reports.

18 May 2009

Denver Post examines efforts to establish needle-exchange programs in Colorado

The Denver Post on Friday examined efforts to establish needle-exchange programs in Colorado to reduce the risk of HIV and hepatitis C among injection drug users.

18 May 2009

Vaccine candidate successful in blocking Simian version of HIV

Researchers have successfully blocked SIV, the simian version of HIV, using a new technique that could help lead to the development of an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The team also included scientists from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and the New England Primate Research Center in Boston.

18 May 2009

Piecing together the HIV prevention puzzle

"It's an exciting time in HIV prevention research. We will see results from a number of critically important HIV prevention research trials this year, as well as see the start of new trials around the world that will yield important answers in the years to come," said Mitchell Warren, AVAC executive director, at the release of AVAC's 13th annual report of the field.

18 May 2009

Gene transfer technology may lead to an HIV vaccine

A research team may have broken the stubborn impasse that has frustrated the invention of an effective HIV vaccine, by using an approach that bypasses the usual path followed by vaccine developers.

17 May 2009

Early retroviral use best for AIDS patients with serious complications

HIV-positive patients who don't seek medical attention until they have a serious AIDS-related condition can reduce their risk of death or other complications by half if they get antiretroviral treatment early on, according to a new multicenter trial led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

17 May 2009

Early use of antiretroviral treatment improves survival rate of HIV patients

A clinical study, led by researchers from University College Dublin, Ireland, and Stanford University, California, USA, with international collaborators, demonstrates that mortality rates of HIV patients can be almost halved when early antiretroviral (ARV) therapy is added to the treatment of AIDS-related opportunistic infections (OIs) such as pneumonia, meningitis or other serious bacterial infections.

17 May 2009

Rates of sexually transmitted infections in Allegheny County, Pa., disproportionately high among blacks, officials say

Health officials in Allegheny County, Pa., on Wednesday held a sexually transmitted infection diversity conference to discuss the disproportionately higher STI rates among blacks and strategies to reduce them, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

15 May 2009

Washington State drops budget provision that would have cut Medicaid pharmacy payments

Washington state lawmakers this week eliminated a budgetary proposal that would have reduced Medicaid payment rates to pharmacies to the lowest levels in the country, the AP/Spokane Spokesman-Review reports.

15 May 2009