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Beneficial bacteria found in healthy women provide clues for slowing HIV transmission

Beneficial bacteria found in healthy women help to reduce the amount of vaginal HIV among HIV-infected women and might make it more difficult for the virus to spread, boosting the possibility that "good bacteria" might someday be tapped in the fight against HIV.

8 Feb 2008

Australian gene test opens door to personalised care

Australian researchers have led a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that shows a simple blood test can allow doctors to predict which HIV patients will have a side effect, known as a hypersensitivity reaction, to a particular medication before it is prescribed.

6 Feb 2008

Getting under the skin of HIV, hep C

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is working towards a new approach to treat people with HIV/AIDS, with a drug which has already shown promise in the laboratory.

5 Feb 2008

Breastfeeding now safer for infants of HIV-infected mothers

An antiretroviral drug already in widespread use in the developing world to prevent the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their newborns during childbirth has also been found to substantially cut the risk of subsequent HIV transmission during breast-feeding.

4 Feb 2008

New discovery, immune cells confront viruses just inside of the lymph node

Vaccines have led to many of the world's greatest public health triumphs, but many deadly viruses, such as HIV, still elude the best efforts of scientists to develop effective vaccines against them. An improved understanding of how the immune system operates during a viral infection is critical to designing successful anti-virus vaccines.

4 Feb 2008

Researchers examine immune cells where HIV can lie dormant, possible treatments

Researchers have determined how HIV is able to lie dormant in certain immune system cells and prevent the cells from self-destructing, according to a study published Thursday online in the journal Retrovirology, the AP/Google.com reports.

4 Feb 2008

Researchers examine effect of male circumcision on female partners

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4 Feb 2008

Democrats to seek changes, boosted funding during PEPFAR reauthorization debate

Some Congressional Democrats have proposed removing abstinence program spending requirements and a mandatory pledge against commercial sex work in the upcoming reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the AP/Yahoo! News reports (Abrams, AP/Yahoo! News, 2/2). The lawmakers also are hoping to allow "reproductive health groups to have broader access to U.S. money," according to CQ Today.

4 Feb 2008

PNG Coalition Against HIV/AIDS to implement programs in businesses nationwide

The Papua New Guinea Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS plans to work with businesses in the country to implement the coalition's policy on HIV/AIDS in the workplace, Rod Mitchell, CEO of the coalition, said recently, the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier reports.

4 Feb 2008

New anti-HIV medication etravirine shows great promise

The AIDS Institute, a national public policy research, advocacy, and education organization, is encouraged with the FDA's approval of the first new non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) in nearly a decade.

4 Feb 2008

Researchers seek trial participants for experimental HIV vaccine called PENNVAX-B

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers are recruiting healthy, HIV-negative adults to participate in a phase I clinical trial of an experimental HIV vaccine called PENNVAX-B, a DNA-based vaccine which is made using synthetic DNA-based HIV genes.

4 Feb 2008

Virtual human in HIV drug simulation

The combined supercomputing power of the UK and US 'national grids' has enabled UCL (University College London) scientists to simulate the efficacy of an HIV drug in blocking a key protein used by the lethal virus.

31 Jan 2008

Number of HIV cases among seniors in Puerto Rico increasing

The number of new HIV cases recorded among people ages 60 and older in Puerto Rico is increasing, the Miami Herald reports.

30 Jan 2008

Bush in State of the Union address calls on Congress to allocate $30 billion for PEPFAR

President Bush on Monday during his last State of the Union address urged Congress to authorize a $30 billion, five-year extension of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the New York Times reports (Stolberg, New York Times, 1/29).

30 Jan 2008

Texas officials studying needle-exchange program

Health officials in Bexar County, Texas, are considering if they should launch the state's first needle-exchange program in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and other bloodborne diseases, but Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed has said that she will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who distributes needles before the program is approved, the Los Angeles Times reports (Bustillo, Los Angeles Times, 1/28).

30 Jan 2008

Brazil to distribute 19.5 million condoms during carnival

Health officials in Brazil on Sunday began distributing millions of condoms ahead of the country's five-day Carnival in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

30 Jan 2008

U.S. PTO's rejection of Gilead's antiretroviral patents might affect applications in India

Last week's rejection by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of four patents on Gilead Sciences' antiretroviral drug Viread might affect patent applications for the drug in India, the Times of India reports.

28 Jan 2008

Evolutionary 'battle scars' identify enhanced antiviral activity

Rapid evolution of a protein produced by an immunity gene is associated with increased antiviral activity in humans, a finding that suggests evolutionary biology and virology together can accelerate the discovery of viral-defense mechanisms, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

25 Jan 2008