HIV 1 News and Research

RSS

State news: Rate hikes approved in Mass., Va. families still wait for autism coverage, health IT booming

State regulators have approved premium increases averaging 2.3 percent for health insurance covering hundreds of thousands of residents, the most modest hikes in at least a decade and a sign that years of efforts to control costs may be working. The new rates are in Massachusetts' "small group'' market, which includes tens of thousands of small businesses as well as self-employed and formerly uninsured individuals.

24 Jan 2012

Pets help women manage HIV/AIDS: Study

A spoonful of medicine goes down a lot easier if there is a dog or cat around. Having pets is helpful for women living with HIV/AIDS and managing their chronic illness, according to a new study from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

24 Jan 2012

UNAIDS officials say progress being made against HIV/AIDS in Africa, Asia

Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva on Thursday, Sheila Tlou, UNAIDS director of the regional support team for Eastern and Southern Africa, said the region is making progress in scaling up access to prevention and treatment services, including behavior change and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs, the U.N. News Centre reports.

21 Jan 2012

Resources dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS among MSM 'grossly inefficient,' report says

"Funding to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS consistently fails to reach programs designed to control the disease among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM), according to a new analysis released Wednesday by amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research and the Center for Public Health and Human Rights (CPHHR) at Johns Hopkins University," an amfAR press release states.

21 Jan 2012

More than half of high-risk Americans do not receive HBV vaccination

Although there is an effective vaccine for hepatitis B and public health officials have a strong sense of who is at highest risk for the infectious liver disease, tens of thousands of people in the United States contract the virus every year. According to a new study by researchers at Brown University, missed opportunities to administer the vaccine continue to be a reason why infections persist.

20 Jan 2012

MSU focuses on cultural competency to help turn tide of new infections

While global attention to HIV/AIDS remains strong, a lack of focus on prevention strategies is stonewalling health experts in many developing nations, specifically in the Caribbean.

20 Jan 2012

Harare maternity clinics reportedly conducting compulsory HIV/AIDS tests on pregnant women

"In a move that is likely to raise the ire of HIV/AIDS activists, maternity clinics in Harare are conducting compulsory HIV/AIDS tests on pregnant women before they can register for delivery," the Zimbabwean reports, adding, "Scores of pregnant women in the high-density suburb of Glen-Norah told this newspaper that they were being asked to bring their spouses to be tested if they wanted to register to deliver their babies."

19 Jan 2012

Aspirin may benefit HIV-infected women at risk of cervical cancer

Research conducted by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center global health investigators and cancer specialists in New York, Qatar and Haiti suggests that aspirin should be evaluated for its ability to prevent development of cervical cancer in HIV-infected women.

19 Jan 2012

The AJMS publishes updates on type 2 diabetes, STIs

Research is leading to new insights on two major public health challenges: preventing the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and improving disease control for patients with type 2 diabetes. Expert updates on these critical topics appear in a special symposium section of the January issue of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (The AJMS), official journal of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation.

19 Jan 2012

NGOs in Balkan countries to establish regional body to fight HIV/AIDS stigma, discrimination

Agence France-Presse reports that a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is working to establish a regional association to combat HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination that is prevalent in the Balkan countries.

19 Jan 2012

Gilead Sciences receives FDA approval for Viread to treat pediatric HIV infection

Gilead Sciences, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Viread in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in pediatric patients ages 2-12.

19 Jan 2012

Scientists crack genetic code for Schistosoma haematobium

Scientists have cracked the genetic code and predicted some high priority drug targets for the blood parasite Schistosoma haematobium, which is linked to bladder cancer and HIV/ AIDS and causes the insidious urogenital disease schistosomiasis haematobia in more than 112 million people in Africa.

19 Jan 2012

State roundup: Single-payer plans in Calif., Vt.; Calif. may regain state prison health care control; Abortion issues in Texas, Minn.

The California universal health care bill didn't make it past the Senate Appropriations Committee last year -- but Tuesday, more than 100 advocates plan to present it to the committee again, hoping for a better outcome. Under the single-payer bill, Californians would pay the state -- instead of private insurance companies -- to negotiate health care. The bill would cover any resident, including the estimated 7 million Californians who don't have health insurance now. ... A legislative health committee estimated the cost of plan would be around $200 billion.

18 Jan 2012

Counterfeit malaria drugs endanger millions of lives

According to researchers fake and poor quality anti-malarial drugs are threatening efforts to control the disease in Africa and could put millions of lives at risk. These counterfeit medicines could harm patients and promote drug resistance among malaria parasites, warns the study, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

18 Jan 2012

Global Fund executive director urges Ukraine to step up efforts to fight HIV/AIDS

Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, on Monday "urged Ukraine to step up its efforts to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic," calling "on the Ukrainian authorities to expand opiate substitution therapy, ensure HIV/AIDS treatment in prison and increase government funding of anti-AIDS programs," the Associated Press reports.

18 Jan 2012

UI chemists debunk misconception about amphotericin

With one simple experiment, University of Illinois chemists have debunked a widely held misconception about an often-prescribed drug.

17 Jan 2012

Women's health, rights especially vulnerable during an election year

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, writes, "In 2012, there is a presidency at stake -- so what does that mean for women's health and rights in the coming year? How will political posturing and the race for votes affect what really matters?"

13 Jan 2012

Reaching WHO PMTCT goal in Zimbabwe

Researchers in this PLoS Medicine article examine the efforts necessary to reach the WHO goal of reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) risk to less than five percent in Zimbabwe.

12 Jan 2012

HIV/AIDS awareness workshop held in Pakistan

The International Herald Tribune's "Express Tribune" reports on a two-day HIV/AIDS awareness workshop held in Pakistan this week. Speaking on Monday at the inaugural session of the event, titled "The State of HIV in Pakistan-2011," Amir Maqbool, acting program manager of the National AIDS Control Program (NACP), stated that HIV/AIDS could not be controlled in the country without legislation and strong financial funding for prevention and control efforts, according to the newspaper.

12 Jan 2012

Study confirms condom use reduces risk of HIV infection by 78%

The level of HIV-1 in the blood of an HIV-infected partner is the single most important factor influencing risk of sexual transmission to an uninfected partner, according to a multinational study of heterosexual couples in sub-Saharan Africa.

12 Jan 2012