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Kenyan AIDS activists protest over unspent PEPFAR funds

"More than 400 Kenyan AIDS activists have demonstrated in the capital, Nairobi, demanding that the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief release some $500 million for HIV programs in Kenya that is stuck in the pipeline," PlusNews reports.

27 Apr 2012

Southern African countries could improve GDPs through fiscal policies on HIV treatment

"Southern African governments could use public spending in their battle against the extremely high rates of HIV/AIDS in their countries and still achieve a positive economic impact, argues a new paper from the African Development Bank (AfDB)," an AfDB press release states.

27 Apr 2012

Blog posts report on International Treatment as Prevention conference in Vancouver

Two separate posts in the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog report on the International Treatment as Prevention conference in Vancouver. The first post recaps an update from Stephen Becker of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday "about the Foundation's treatment optimization activities," writing, "According to Becker, the Foundation acknowledges that treatment will be at the center of HIV prevention efforts, but 'no amount of treatment will obviate the need for primary prevention modalities.'"

27 Apr 2012

Interests and advocates wait anxiously for Supreme Court's health law decision -- for very different reasons

The Associated Press reports that people with HIV/AIDS have a lot at stake regarding the health law's future -- specifically, its Medicaid expansion and ban on pre-existing condition exclusions. In a second story, though, AP reports on why the small business group, the NFIB, hopes to see the law overturned. Meanwhile, MarketWatch reports that some wealthy Americans would save big money if the high court rejects the overhaul.

27 Apr 2012

Poverty linked to HIV infection among heterosexuals living in inner-city neighborhoods

In a groundbreaking study published last year, scientists reported that effective treatment with HIV medications not only restores health and prolongs life in many HIV-infected patients, but also curtails transmission to sexual partners up to ninety-seven percent. However, a new study by UCSF scientists shows that lack of basic living needs severely undercuts these advances in impoverished men.

27 Apr 2012

International Microbicides Conference 2012 concludes

The conclusion of the 2012 International Microbicides Conference, a gathering of researchers, advocates and funders in the HIV prevention field, wrapped up three days of discussion focused on access to prevention technologies, adherence in clinical trials, innovative financing, dual prevention technologies and new methods of preventing rectal transmission of HIV.

26 Apr 2012

First Edition: April 26, 2012

Today's headlines include news about how House Republicans are eyeing the health law's prevention trust fund as a means to pay the cost of extending the current student loan interest rate for another year. House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, has scheduled a Friday vote on this proposal.

26 Apr 2012

Funding for HIV programs among MSM populations lacking, largely due to stigma

"Despite high prevalence rates of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM), funding for HIV prevention, treatment and care consistently neglects these populations, often due to stigma and discrimination," Owen Ryan, deputy director of public policy at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, writes in this guest post in the Funders Concerned About AIDS blog.

26 Apr 2012

Allowing countries to use PEPFAR funding for voluntary contraception for women aligns with GHI's 'women-centered' approach

"PEPFAR has said it will use" nearly $1.5 billion in unspent aid "to invest in commodities (condoms, HIV rapid test kits and voluntary medical male circumcision kits), systems and institutions, and program strengthening," Suzanne Ehlers, president of Population Action International, writes in this post in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

26 Apr 2012

Gladstone researcher wins 2012 Alumni Achievement Award from WUSTL

Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD-who directs virology and immunology research at the Gladstone Institutes-has won the 2012 Alumni Achievement Award from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

26 Apr 2012

Pig mucus effective at blocking viruses associated with cervical and oral cancer

Scientists are reporting that the mucus lining the stomachs of pigs could be a long-sought, abundant source of "mucins" being considered for use as broad-spectrum anti-viral agents to supplement baby formula and for use in personal hygiene and other consumer products to protect against a range of viral infections. Their study appears in ACS' journal Biomacromolecules.

26 Apr 2012

Daily ART safe and effective in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission

In early results of a large-scale randomized study published in 2010 and led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, giving daily antiretroviral drugs (ART) to HIV-infected moms or their breastfeeding babies for 28 weeks proved safe and effective for preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission through breast milk.

26 Apr 2012

U.N. SG Ban speaks about need for reproductive health care for young people, releases UNFPA report

In remarks to the U.N. Commission on Population and Development, which on Monday opened a week-long session in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "stressed the need to provide reproductive health care for young people, as well as give them access to the necessary information and the means to protect themselves from sexual abuse and violence," the U.N. News Centre reports.

25 Apr 2012

Non-coding RNA gives off biological signals during viral infection

Once considered unimportant "junk DNA," scientists have learned that non-coding RNA (ncRNA) - RNA molecules that do not translate into proteins - play a crucial role in cellular function. Mutations in ncRNA are associated with a number of conditions, such as cancer, autism, and Alzheimer's disease.

25 Apr 2012

USAID Administrator Shah launches social media campaign to garner support to improve child health, survival

Under the slogan "Every Child Deserves a Fifth Birthday," USAID on Monday launched a social media campaign featuring childhood photos of celebrities, global health leaders and lawmakers, with the aim of "building support to fight preventable deaths of children," CQ HealthBeat reports.

25 Apr 2012

Researchers describe novel mechanism of HIV-1 spread by dendritic cells

A new understanding of the initial interactions of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and dendritic cells is described by Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers in a study currently featured in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

24 Apr 2012

Strategic innovations will help prevent HIV transmission from mothers to children, high-level meeting attendees state

At a High-Level Meeting on Innovation for Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT) on Friday in Washington, D.C., "HIV experts, business leaders, aid agencies and ambassadors of 22 priority countries -- home to 90 percent of new HIV infections among children --" agreed that strategic innovations are necessary to curb the spread of the virus from women to their children, PANA/Afrique en Linge reports.

24 Apr 2012

Kenyan government must review law on counterfeit drugs, High Court rules

"Kenya's High Court ruled on Friday that lawmakers must review legislation that could threaten the import of generic drugs, allowing Kenyans to continue accessing affordable medicine," Reuters reports.

23 Apr 2012

Preliminary data hint at how neem extracts may stop replication of HIV virus

Tall, with dark-green pointy leaves, the neem tree of India is known as the "village pharmacy." As a child growing up in metropolitan New Delhi, Sonia Arora recalls on visits to rural areas seeing villagers using neem bark to clean their teeth. Arora's childhood memories have developed into a scientific fascination with natural products and their power to cure illnesses.

23 Apr 2012

Single biennial HIV prevention conference planned

This year's International Microbicides Conference, held this week in Sydney, "will be the last of its kind" because "from 2014 onwards, it is planned, a single biennial conference on all aspects of HIV prevention will be held," according to an aidsmap news story.

21 Apr 2012

HIV News and Research

Kenyan AIDS activists protest over unspent PEPFAR funds

Southern African countries could improve GDPs through fiscal policies on HIV treatment

Blog posts report on International Treatment as Prevention conference in Vancouver

Interests and advocates wait anxiously for Supreme Court's health law decision -- for very different reasons

Poverty linked to HIV infection among heterosexuals living in inner-city neighborhoods

International Microbicides Conference 2012 concludes

First Edition: April 26, 2012

Funding for HIV programs among MSM populations lacking, largely due to stigma

Allowing countries to use PEPFAR funding for voluntary contraception for women aligns with GHI's 'women-centered' approach

Gladstone researcher wins 2012 Alumni Achievement Award from WUSTL

Pig mucus effective at blocking viruses associated with cervical and oral cancer

Daily ART safe and effective in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission

U.N. SG Ban speaks about need for reproductive health care for young people, releases UNFPA report

Non-coding RNA gives off biological signals during viral infection

USAID Administrator Shah launches social media campaign to garner support to improve child health, survival

Researchers describe novel mechanism of HIV-1 spread by dendritic cells

Strategic innovations will help prevent HIV transmission from mothers to children, high-level meeting attendees state

Kenyan government must review law on counterfeit drugs, High Court rules

Preliminary data hint at how neem extracts may stop replication of HIV virus

Single biennial HIV prevention conference planned

Small solutions for big problems in drug discovery and delivery

Professor Nancy Ip: Pioneering New Paths in Neurodegenerative Therapy

Utilizing process Raman in optimizing cultivated meat production

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