HIV News and Research

RSS

Novartis defends challenge to Indian medicines patent law

Pharmaceutical company Novartis "has spoken out following criticism about its challenge to India's patent laws, insisting that access to life-saving drugs is not under peril by the move," Pharma Times World News reports. The case, which the Indian Supreme Court is scheduled to hear next month, challenges "Indian patent law, notably Section 3(d), which states that a modification of a known chemical composition is non-patentable," the news service writes.

29 Feb 2012

Breakthrough discovery about Rhizobium radiobacter

A new discovery involving two Simon Fraser University scientists could lead to a little known and benign bacterium becoming a vital new tool in the development of a vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus.

29 Feb 2012

Examining link between 'power structures,' disease spread through study of incarceration, HIV treatment

In this Open Society Foundations (OSF) blog post, Daniel Wolfe, director of the International Harm Reduction Development Program at OSF, examines "the ways that power structures, rather than individuals, contribute to disease rebound and spread," citing a recent study by MJ Milloy and colleagues, published in the journal JAIDS, "which shows the link between incarceration and the failure of HIV treatment."

29 Feb 2012

Health indicator reports show more HIV-positive South Africans receiving care but costs increasing

Two new reports from southern Africa's Health Systems Trust show that pregnant women, infants, and people newly diagnosed with HIV infection are receiving more services, but the costs of care are increasing, PlusNews reports.

29 Feb 2012

TMED7 protein can shut down immune system after infection has been cleared

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have discovered a new 'off switch' in our immune response which could be boosted in diseases caused by over-activation of our immune system, or blocked to improve vaccines.

29 Feb 2012

WUSM to study children with weakened immune systems

Not all viruses make us sick. But which ones are friends and which ones are foes? Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a five-year, $3.3 million grant to study children with weakened immune systems to identify the viruses that make children sick.

29 Feb 2012

IDWeek 2012 to take place October 17-21 in San Diego

Abstracts are now being accepted for IDWeek 2012, the first-ever combined meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS).

29 Feb 2012

Swaziland looking to shore up funding for AIDS treatment, testing supplies

"Cash-strapped Swaziland is struggling to fund its HIV programs, and experts are warning of long-term damage to treatment and prevention schemes if steps are not taken to ring-fence funding and supplies," the Mail & Guardian reports.

28 Feb 2012

Examining HIV/AIDS in Zambian prisons

In this post in PSI's "Healthy Living" blog, Mannasseh Phiri, PSI's country representative in Zambia, examines HIV/AIDS in Zambian prisons. Phiri reports the findings of a survey recently conducted by the IN BUT FREE (IBF) Prisons Project "to determine the extent and magnitude of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Zambia's prisons."

28 Feb 2012

Scripps Florida receives NIH grant to create novel HIV inhibitors

A Scripps Florida team has been awarded nearly $1.5 million by the National Institutes of Health to identify and develop novel potent inhibitors of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS.

27 Feb 2012

New technique effective in jumpstarting defective immune systems against many diseases

In a study published in Nature Medicine, Loyola researchers report on a promising new technique that potentially could turn immune system killer T cells into more effective weapons against infections and possibly cancer.

26 Feb 2012

South Sudan's army calls for concerted efforts to fight HIV/AIDS

"South Sudan's army on Wednesday appealed for concerted efforts to fight against HIV/AIDS, stressing that the war against the sexually transmitted disease cannot be fought by one institution or group of some officials tasked by the government," the Sudan Tribune reports.

24 Feb 2012

HIV to be covered under insurance in India beginning in October

In this post in PSI's "Healthy Lives" blog, Benoy Peter, senior manager for knowledge management at Project Connect in India, reports that the government of India will cover HIV care under insurance in the country beginning in October 2012.

24 Feb 2012

Despite economic downturn, Global Fund 'needs and deserves' international support

In recognition of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's 10th anniversary, Sisonke Msimang, executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, recounts the Fund's history and development in this Project Syndicate opinion piece, stating that the organization is "driven by the idea that people need not die of preventable and treatable diseases simply because they are poor."

24 Feb 2012

Science Speaks blog interviews country director for CDC in Haiti

Science Speaks interviews John Vertefeuille, the country director for CDC in Haiti, "about his time heading the Global AIDS Program in Nigeria, efforts to extend HIV prevention messages to youth in Tanzania with cell phones, and a brief update on current immunization efforts underway in Haiti."

24 Feb 2012

NSF project aims to develop online HIV prevention tools for African-American women

African-American women make up a disproportionate number of HIV/AIDS cases in the United States. Researchers from North Carolina State University are trying to change that, leading a National Science Foundation project aimed at developing HIV/AIDS prevention materials that resonate with African-American female college students.

24 Feb 2012

India lags in efforts to meet Millennium Development Goals

"India is lagging in its effort to reach United Nations goals to reduce poverty and improve health and sanitation, but has shown significant progress boosting education, treating AIDS and addressing environmental concerns," Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, said last week, the New York Times' "India Ink" blog reports.

24 Feb 2012

Researchers begin clinical trial of first visceral leishmaniasis vaccine

"Researchers say they've developed the first vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) -- a disease that affects 500,000 people each year and has been called the 'parasitic version of HIV,'" although the diseases are unrelated, U.S. News reports.

24 Feb 2012

State legislatures contemplate controlling costs, health IT, prescribing authority

The proposed premium hikes for hundreds of thousands of California consumers with individual coverage would outpace the cost of overall medical care, which has risen just 3.6 percent in the last year.

24 Feb 2012

Scientists identify promising strategy for HIV vaccine design

HIV has eluded vaccine-makers for thirty years, in part due to the virus' extreme ability to mutate. Physical scientists and clinical virologists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ragon Institute in Cambridge, Mass., have identified a promising strategy for vaccine design using a mathematical technique that has also been used in problems related to quantum physics, as well as in analyses of stock market price fluctuations and studies of enzyme sequences.

24 Feb 2012