http://www.health.am/aids/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/insurer-targeted-hiv-patients-to-drop-coverage/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/insurer-targeted-hiv-patients-to-drop-coverage/ In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance. Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis, revoked his policy. Mitchell was told that without further treatment his HIV would become full-blown AIDS within a year or two and he would most likely die within two years after that. HIV/AIDS news 2010-03-18T11:57:01-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/circumcision-may-not-cut-hiv-spread-among-gay-men/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/circumcision-may-not-cut-hiv-spread-among-gay-men/ Although studies in Africa have shown that circumcision can lower the spread of HIV among heterosexuals, it may not do much to prevent infections among gay and bisexual men in Western countries, a new study suggests. A number of studies in African nations have found that circumcised heterosexual men were up to 60 percent less likely than uncircumcised men to contract HIV during the study periods. But it is unclear whether circumcision could have an impact on HIV transmission in the U.S. or other Western countries, where much of the transmission is among men who have sex with men. There has so far been no good evidence that circumcision lowers HIV risk among these men. HIV/AIDS news 2010-03-10T19:06:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/philippines-hiv-cases-spike-to-record-in-january/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/philippines-hiv-cases-spike-to-record-in-january/ The Philippines diagnosed 143 people with HIV in January - a national high - and the country’s health secretary said on Thursday she would seek more public funds to distribute condoms among high-risk groups. The number of people diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is the highest reported since the disease first surfaced in the country in 1984, said Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral. Since the start of 2009, Cabral said, an average of about 60 Filipinos had been diagnosed as HIV-positive each month. But that figure rose sharply to 126 cases in December. HIV/AIDS news 2010-03-06T11:53:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/expert-consultation-on-male-circumcision-for-hiv-prevention/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/expert-consultation-on-male-circumcision-for-hiv-prevention/ In response to the urgent need to reduce the number of new HIV infections globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNAIDS Secretariat convened an international expert consultation to determine whether male circumcision should be recommended for the prevention of HIV infection. Based on the evidence presented, which was considered to be compelling, experts attending the consultation recommended that male circumcision now be recognized as an additional important intervention to reduce the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men. The international consultation, which was held from 6-8 March 2007 in Montreux, Switzerland, was attended by participants representing a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, civil society, researchers, human rights and women’s health advocates, young people, funding agencies and implementing partners. “The recommendations represent a significant step forward in HIV prevention”, said Dr Kevin De Cock, Director, HIV/AIDS Department, World Health Organization. “Countries with high rates of heterosexual HIV infection and low rates of male circumcision now have an additional intervention which can reduce the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men. Scaling up male circumcision in such countries will result in immediate benefit to individuals. However, it will be a number of years before we can expect to see an impact on the epidemic from such investment.” HIV/AIDS news 2010-02-26T13:22:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/removes-cell-receptor-that-attracts-hiv/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/removes-cell-receptor-that-attracts-hiv/ UCLA AIDS Institute researchers successfully removed CCR5 — a cell receptor to which HIV-1 binds for infection but which the human body does not need — from human cells. Individuals who naturally lack the CCR5 receptor have been found to be essentially resistant to HIV. Using a humanized mouse model, the researchers transplanted a small RNA molecule known as short hairpin RNA (shRNA), which induced RNA interference into human blood stem cells to inhibit the expression of CCR5 in human immune cells. IMPACT: The findings provide evidence that this strategy can be an effective way to treat HIV-infected individuals, by prompting long-term and stable reduction of CCR5.  HIV/AIDS news 2010-02-25T22:46:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/experts-recommend-fine-tuning-of-hiv-treatment/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/experts-recommend-fine-tuning-of-hiv-treatment/ How quickly an HIV patient’s immune system deteriorates may not affect the outcome of the illness, a study has found, and this could help change current guidelines for treatment of the disease. There is no cure for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, but combinations of drugs can keep the virus from replicating and damaging the immune system. Doctors normally do not start treatment until there is some evidence of damage to this system, measured by counting the number of immune cells, called CD4 T-cells. HIV/AIDS news 2010-02-24T00:24:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/future-of-aids-gels/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/future-of-aids-gels/ The quest for a cream or gel to prevent AIDS infection has narrowed to using powerful HIV pills that are already on the market, scientists say. AIDS experts have long been searching for a microbicide - a cream, gel or vaginal ring that women or men could use as a chemical shield to protect themselves from sexual transmission of the deadly and incurable virus. Several substances have been tried unsuccessfully but experiments presented this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, a scientific meeting of AIDS experts, suggested HIV drugs might hold the key to making such gels work. HIV/AIDS news 2010-02-22T18:00:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/aids-vaccine-effects-may-wear-off/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/aids-vaccine-effects-may-wear-off/ An AIDS vaccine that appears to have worked at least partly in Thailand may only temporarily protect patients, with the effects starting to wane after a year or so, researchers reported on Thursday. That may explain why results of the experimental vaccine have been so difficult to interpret, said Dr. Nelson Michael, a colonel at the Walter Reed Army Research Institute of Research in Maryland, who helped lead the trial, Michael’s team is trying to find out how or why it might have worked. They surprised the world last September when they showed the experimental vaccine cut the risk of infection by 31 percent over three years. HIV/AIDS news 2010-02-19T20:53:01-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/hiv-transmission-among-male-partners/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/hiv-transmission-among-male-partners/ A team of scientists, led by a virologist from the University of California, San Diego’s Center for AID Research (CFAR), has discovered the origin of strains of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among men who have sex with men. The study, which may be important in developing prevention strategies for HIV, will appear in Science Translational Medicine on February 10, 2010. “If we want to stop the HIV epidemic, then we must know the mechanisms by which HIV uses human sex to spread,” said principal investigator Davey Smith, MD, MAS, associate professor of medicine in UCSD’s Division of Infectious Diseases and in the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, and director of the CFAR Viral Pathogenesis Core. It is known that most HIV infections worldwide result from exposure to the HIV virus in semen, made up of seminal cells and the fluid around these calls, called seminal plasma. HIV virus particles contain RNA and exist in the plasma, while infected seminal cells contain HIV DNA.  HIV/AIDS news 2010-02-10T23:15:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/burden-of-hiv-tb-infections-falling-on-hispanics/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/burden-of-hiv-tb-infections-falling-on-hispanics/ The results of an innovative study to understand what factors may influence who contracts tuberculosis (TB)/HIV co-infection in San Diego show a significant shift in the ethnic makeup of the disease, with the majority of cases now coming from the Hispanic community. The results of this paper, “HIV and Tuberculosis Co-infection Among Hispanics in Southern California: An Increasing Health Disparity,” will appear in the February edition of the American Journal of Public Health. “While the overall numbers are modest, our study shows that what used to be mostly a disease of white and black patients in San Diego is now largely a disease of Hispanics,” said Timothy Rodwell MD, PhD, MPH, associate physician/fellow in the Division of Global Public Health at UC San Diego. “This indicates that the benefits of prevention and treatment of TB and HIV over the last decade have been uneven in the different ethnic/racial groups in this region.” HIV/AIDS news 2010-02-10T23:09:01-08:00