Immunodeficiency News and Research

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

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

Debate over safety of gene therapy trials focuses on issue of informed consent

Can a patient who agrees to participate in a safety study of a gene therapy protocol give truly informed consent and understand the risks involved when the consent forms are highly technical and the physician or institution seeking their consent has a stake in the study and its outcome?

23 Jan 2008

Anti-retrovirals given daily before and after exposure to HIV prevent vaginal transmission AIDS virus

Prescription drugs now used to treat human immunodeficiency virus infection in adults may prevent the vaginal transmission of HIV, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

15 Jan 2008

Uncovering the Achilles' heel of the HIV-1 envelope

New structural details illustrate how a promising class of antibodies may block human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection and reveal valuable clues for design of an effective HIV-1 vaccine.

15 Jan 2008

Wisconsin now screens all newborns for severe combined immune deficiency

Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to screen all newborns for Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID).

4 Jan 2008

FDA reviews new data on risks of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reviewing new data from two studies that provide further evidence of the risks of anemia drugs known as erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, or ESAs.

4 Jan 2008

Authorities in the U.S. say hold back on children's Hib vaccine

Health authorities in U.S. are advising doctors to defer giving booster shots of a childhood vaccine following suspicions that production equipment may not have been properly sterilized.

20 Dec 2007

Boy in a bubble gets leukaemia after gene therapy

A child who was born with a rare immunodeficient condition has developed leukaemia as a result of gene therapy he received at Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London.

19 Dec 2007

Ingredient found in human semen enhances HIV infection

A plentiful ingredient found in human semen drastically enhances the ability of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to cause infection, according to a report in the December 14, 2007, issue of the journal Cell, a publication of Cell Press.

14 Dec 2007

Aggressive TB control can yield big economic gains

A new World Bank research report finds that 22 countries with the world's highest numbers of TB cases could earn significantly more than they spend on TB diagnosis and treatment if they signed onto a global plan to sharply reduce the numbers of TB-related deaths.

14 Dec 2007

The true picture of AIDS in the U.S. yet to be revealed

Despite widespread reports in the U.S. media concerning the sharp rise in the number of annual infections from HIV/AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is yet to confirm that is the case.

3 Dec 2007

First genome sequence of XDR strain of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis

An international collaboration led by researchers in the US and South Africa today announced the first genome sequence of an extensively drug resistant (XDR) strain of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one linked to more than 50 deaths in a recent tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

21 Nov 2007

New explanation for how regulatory networks of genes evolved

When ancient retroviruses slipped bits of their DNA into the primate genome millions of years ago, they successfully preserved their own genetic legacy.

15 Nov 2007

Testing delays cause severe AIDS complications

Despite the availability of life-saving antiretroviral treatment, people infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) continue to die and suffer from complications of AIDS, mainly due to delayed diagnosis and initiation of treatment.

5 Nov 2007

AIDS first came to the U.S. from Haiti almost 40 years ago

According to the latest research, the AIDS virus invaded the United States from Haiti, sometime around 1969, it then flourished and spread worldwide

30 Oct 2007

HIV combination antiretroviral drug therapy key to saving the lives of African children

Letting nurses and other trained health care workers deliver that therapy and monitor patients, especially when doctors are in short supply, is just as important to saving lives, according to a new study by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

24 Oct 2007

Critical need for earlier diagnosis and referral of HIV-infected children in Africa

Care provided by nurses and other clinicians in primary health care settings in sub-Saharan Africa can result in good outcomes for children with HIV infection.

22 Oct 2007

Good outcomes possible for HIV-infected children in Africa enrolled in pediatric treatment programs

Care provided by nurses and other clinicians in primary health care settings in sub-Saharan Africa can result in good outcomes for children with HIV infection.

22 Oct 2007

New model helps explain rules governing the transmission of microbes

Many of the most successful microbes are those that inhabit but do not kill their host. Cheaters lose. Tuberculosis settles into the lungs. Helicobacter pylori, the microbe causing ulcers, burrows into the stomach where it thrives on acids. And Salmonella typhi takes up residence in the gallbladder. All of these organisms can persist in our bodies for decades. What explains their success?

18 Oct 2007

FDA approves raltegravir new HIV drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved raltegravir tablets for treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-1 infection in combination with other antiretroviral agents in treatment-experienced adult patients who have evidence of viral replication and HIV-1 strains resistant to multiple antiretroviral agents.

17 Oct 2007