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Latin American HIV/AIDS advocacy group launches magazine for women

The Inter Press Service on Monday examined a new magazine published by the Latin American branch of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS.

25 Mar 2009

Southern African development community should do more to fight HIV/AIDS, official says

Parliamentarians across the Southern African Development Community should do more to address HIV/AIDS in the region, Kasuko Mutukwa, SADC Parliamentary Forum secretary-general, said recently at a media briefing in Zambia's capital of Lusaka, the Inter Press Service reports.

25 Mar 2009

About 25% of tuberculosis deaths occur among HIV-positive people

About one-quarter of tuberculosis-related deaths involve an HIV-positive person, twice as high as previous estimates, according to the Global Tuberculosis Control Report 2009, which the World Health Organization released Tuesday to coincide with World TB Day, the Wall Street Journal reports.

25 Mar 2009

Auditory regions of brain convert to sense of touch in hearing loss

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have discovered that adult animals with hearing loss actually re-route the sense of touch into the hearing parts of the brain.

24 Mar 2009

Staggering new data shows TB-HIV co-infection a bigger threat

The World Health Organization released staggering new data about the threat of tuberculosis and the toll it takes on people with HIV/AIDS today, in recognition of World TB Day.

24 Mar 2009

Lancet opinion piece examines progress made against HIV/AIDS

"Nearly 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, we are able to access our progress in tackling the disease with both increased knowledge and the benefit of hindsight," former UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot of Imperial College London, who also serves as an adviser on global health strategy to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Mark Dybul of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and former U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator; and Julian Lob-Levyt of the GAVI Alliance write in a Lancet opinion piece.

24 Mar 2009

New HIV/AIDS data released in Latvia

Latvia's Public Health Agency recently released data about HIV/AIDS in the country in 2008, indicating that the spread of the virus through heterosexual contact is increasing, the Baltic Times reports.

24 Mar 2009

Formal education curbing spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa

Formal education is helping to curb the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa after having opposite effects during the early stages of the pandemic, according to a study by researchers from Pennsylvania State University and published recently in the UNESCO journal Prospects, UPI/RedOrbit reports.

24 Mar 2009

HIV-related tuberculosis deaths higher than past estimates

The total number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases remained stable in 2007, and the percentage of the world's population becoming ill with TB has continued the slow decline that was first observed in 2004, according to a new report released by WHO today.

24 Mar 2009

Rewrite of the recipe for life - new type of DNA

In a dramatic rewrite of the recipe for life, scientists from Florida today described the design of a new type of DNA with 12 chemical letters instead of the usual four.

23 Mar 2009

Plastic protein protects bacteria from stomach acid's unfolding power

A tiny protein helps protect disease-causing bacteria from the ravaging effects of stomach acid, researchers at the University of Michigan and Howard Hughes Medical Institute have discovered.

23 Mar 2009

Vietnam to include input from HIV-positive people for new prevention project

An institute in Vietnam is formulating a new HIV/AIDS prevention project that will include input from people living with the disease, the Vietnamese News Agency reports.

23 Mar 2009

Ugandan Army to make HIV/AIDS education part of military training

The Ugandan army plans to include HIV/AIDS prevention and care information as part of its training curriculum, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, chief of defense forces, said recently, the New Vision reports. "In the 1990s, the army was affected by HIV/AIDS," he said, adding, "Our resolve then and now has been to learn to leave in the spirit of togetherness to fight the epidemic."

23 Mar 2009

Reproductive health group in Cambodia reports increase in HIV testing among women

A report released on Monday by the Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia found that 40,587 women in the country underwent HIV tests in 2008 -- up from 38,660 who were tested in 2007 -- the Phnom Penh Post reports.

23 Mar 2009

Advocates, Vatican respond to Pope statement that condom distribution will not curb HIV/AIDS in Africa

Pope Benedict XVI's statement on Tuesday that condom distribution will not curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa has "sparked an international outcry" among HIV/AIDS advocates and prompted a response from the Vatican, AFP/Google.com reports (AFP/Google.com, 3/18).

23 Mar 2009

HIV testing campaign in launched Washington, D.C.

Mayor Adrian Fenty and top health officials in Washington, D.C., on Monday announced a new initiative aimed at increasing HIV testing in the city, the Washington Post reports. The testing campaign follows a report that found an HIV/AIDS prevalence of 3% in the district.

23 Mar 2009

Responses to Pope's statement on condoms, HIV/AIDS

Newspapers recently published editorials and opinion pieces responding to Pope Benedict XVI's recent statement that condom distribution will not curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

23 Mar 2009

Report on HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C., raising concerns among health officials in South Carolina

A recent report finding that HIV/AIDS prevalence in Washington, D.C., has reached 3% is "raising alarm bells" in South Carolina's Lowcountry region, the Charleston Post and Courier reports.

23 Mar 2009

Record number of HIV diagnoses reported in New Zealand

New Zealand reported 184 HIV diagnoses last year, the highest on record, according to recently released statistics from University of Otago's AIDS Epidemiology Group, the NZPA/New Zealand Herald reports.

23 Mar 2009

U.S., South African scientists launch $60 million HIV/TB research initiative

Scientists from the U.S. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and South Africa's University of KwaZulu Natal on Wednesday announced the launch of a $60 million, 10-year initiative to establish a new research facility to examine the associations between HIV and tuberculosis, the Boston Globe reports.

23 Mar 2009