Archive for the ‘HIV / AIDS’ Category
Friday, February 19th, 2010
UCSF has received a $1.15 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to determine if integrating family planning into HIV treatment and care will increase contraceptive use and decrease unintended pregnancy among HIV-positive women. UCSF will partner with the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Ibis Reproductive Health to conduct the research...
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
The Associated Press examines efforts to prevent the spread of HIV by circumcising "about 50 million men across Africa - where 70 percent of the world's HIV-infected population lives...
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Texas health care providers are now required to test pregnant women for HIV at some point during the last three months of pregnancy under a new law (HB 1795) that took effect on Jan. 1, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Prior to the provision, Texas required health providers to test pregnant women for HIV during their first prenatal visit and at the time of delivery...
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Performing circumcisions on newborn boys to lower their risk for HIV infection later in life is more cost-effective than adolescent or adult circumcision, according to researchers at Rwanda's health ministry, Reuters reports...
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
A PLoS One study published Tuesday sheds new light on why men who have been circumcised are less likely to become infected with HIV, ANI/Times of India reports (1/6)...
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Circumcision, which substantially lowers HIV risk in men, also dramatically changes the bacterial communities of the penis, according to a study led by scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Johns Hopkins University and published Jan. 6 in the scientific journal PLoS ONE...
Friday, December 4th, 2009
In a World AIDS Day speech on Tuesday, South African President Jacob Zuma announced a new national policy that would provide HIV-positive children and pregnant women with broader, earlier access to antiretroviral medications, the New York Times reports (Dugger, New York Times, 12/2)...
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
Kaiser Family Foundation HIV/AIDS Resources In advance of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, the Kaiser Family Foundation has updated resources that shed light on the epidemic's impact worldwide, and the U.S. policy role in addressing the challenges...
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
Kaiser Family Foundation HIV/AIDS Resources In advance of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, the Kaiser Family Foundation has updated resources that shed light on the epidemic's impact worldwide, and the U.S. policy role in addressing the challenges...
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
'Prevention is the best cure' is a common expression, but what happens if preventative measures are not used? A large proportion of pregnant Ugandan women are going out of their way not to be HIV tested, increasing the risk of mother-to-child transmission. A recent paper by Larsson et al...
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
TIME examines the Kenyan government's upcoming survey of gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in the country's "three biggest cities" in an effort to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS...
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Sperm, and not just the fluid it bathes in, can transmit HIV to macrophages, T cells, and dendritic cells (DCs), report a team led by Ana Ceballos at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. By infecting DCs, which carry the virus and potently pass it to T cells, sperm may play a leading role in spreading HIV. The article appears in the November 23, 2009 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine (online October 26).
Monday, October 5th, 2009
The number of HIV-positive pregnant women taking antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission increased in parts of Africa in 2008 to more than 50% of those in need of the medications, according to the United Nations' 2009 progress report on HIV/AIDS, the
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
News Outlets Focus On Participants In AIDS Vaccine Study, Potential Impact Of AIDS Vaccine The Associated Press examines the role of the Thai participants in the recent clinical trial of an
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe in New York on Monday signed a partnership agreement with several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) pledging to work towards eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Africa, Agence France-Presse reports. Presidents Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda attended the signing ceremony.
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) launches a major new awareness raising campaign aimed at gay men in London. 'Assumptions' is aimed at men who don't use condoms because they think they have correctly identified their partner's status. This campaign urges men not to assume that they 'know' the HIV status of a new partner. Research shows that some gay men 'sort' potential sexual partners based on first impressions and assumptions rather than actual disclosure.
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Coupling an HIV prevention program with group prenatal care may be an effective method of reducing risks for HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Researchers bundled an HIV prevention program with group prenatal care and examined its effect on STI incidence, repeat pregnancy, sexual risk behavior and psychosocial risk. Among the sample of 1,047, the average age of participants was 20.4 years and 80 percent were African American women.
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Today sees the launch of a new report called Testing targets: findings from the United Kingdom Gay Men's Sex Survey 2007. The survey was carried out by Sigma Research and commissioned by Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), on behalf of the CHAPS partnership. It is the largest survey of its kind in the world, with over 6,000 men taking part. The findings indicate a big increase in the number of gay men who have ever had an HIV test.
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
Male circumcision among heterosexual men in low male circumcision, high HIV prevalence settings is beneficial and cost effective, says a new article in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. Male circumcision should be considered as part of a combination HIV prevention package and not as an isolated measure.
Monday, September 14th, 2009
Clinical Infectious Diseases Examines Relationship Between HIV, Nutrition, Food Insecurity "Despite calls from national and international organizations to integrate HIV and nutritional programs, data are lacking on how such programs can be effectively implemented in resource-poor settings, on the optimum content and duration of nutritional support, and on ideal target recipients," write the authors of a
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
A new Florida State Department of Health report (.pdf) "shows that for the first time since 1999, Florida has seen a significant decline in AIDS-related deaths," among black, white and Hispanic men, the Orlando Sentinel reports (Quintero, 9/1).