An International AIDS Society report on 110,000 adults in South Africa suggests circumcision may cut sexually transmitted HIV risk in men by 60%. The piece stresses this is an association rather than a trial and that condoms remain necessary, then raises vitamin D as a possible factor.
Section archive
HIV
- All desks
- Abortion
- Accutane
- Acetaminophen
- Acid Reflux
- Acidic Foods
- Acne
- Acrylamide
- Acupuncture
- Additives
- ADHD
- Adiposity
- Advisories
- Aerobic Exercise
- Aflatoxin
- Agave
- Agent Orange
- Aging
- Agriculture
- AIDS
- Air Pollution
- Airline Passengers
- Airport
- ALA
- Alcohol
- Alcoholic Beverage
- Alerts
- Allergy
- Alli
- Aloe Vera
- ALS
- Alternative Medicine
- Aluminum
- Alzheimer's
- Amalgam
- AMD
- Ampyra
- Amygdala
- Anal Cancer
- And
- Anemia
- Angiogenesis
- Animal Protein
- Animals
- Anorexia
- Anthocyanins
- Anthrax
- Anti-Angiogenesis
- Anti-Obesity
- Antibacterial
- Antibiotic
Disease
HIV Transmitted from a Living Organ Donor --- New York City, 2009
An MMWR report confirms HIV passed to a kidney recipient from a living donor in New York City in 2009. The CDC advises transplant centers to screen living donors as close to surgery as possible, using both serology and nucleic acid testing.
Disease
HIV patients suffer more strokes
Reviewing U.S. hospital data from 1997 to 2006, Bruce Ovbiagele found stroke admissions fell 7 percent overall while those with co-existing HIV rose 60 percent, from 888 to 1,425. HIV patients went from 0.09 to 0.15 percent of stroke hospitalizations.
Government
Importance of HIV Testing: CDC Vital Signs Report
A CDC Vital Signs report: more than a million Americans live with HIV and roughly one in five do not know it. The agency calls for routine testing in healthcare settings for everyone and yearly tests for those at higher risk, counting more than 56,000 new infections and 14,000 AIDS deaths a year.
Drug
Merck Quits Testing New HIV Treatment with Isentress
Merck halted a trial of once-daily Isentress after 48 weeks showed 83.2% of patients reached undetectable viral loads versus 88.9% on the approved twice-daily dose - a statistically significant gap concentrated among those starting with high viral loads.
Vitamins
Vitamin supplements benefit HIV carriers
Harvard researchers measured vitamin A in six-week-old infants born to HIV-positive women and found those in the highest quartile were 49 percent less likely to die by 24 months. A separate study ties efavirenz and zidovudine use to vitamin D deficiency.
Drug
HIV drugs boost risk of diabetes and heart disease
Washington University researchers report in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that first-generation protease inhibitors such as ritonavir block a protein that carries blood sugar into cells, leaving sugar in the blood, a marker of diabetes, in patients being treated for HIV.
Healthcare
HIV Transmission Through Transfusion --- Missouri and Colorado, 2008
CDC reports the first US case of transfusion-transmitted HIV since 2002. A Missouri donor tested positive in November 2008 after a June donation on which he reported no risk factors and tested negative; a kidney transplant patient who received those components was found to be infected.
Vitamins
HIV carriers at risk of vitamin D deficiency
Blood samples from 115 Danish men with HIV showed 20 percent vitamin D deficient and 4 percent severely deficient, with another 27 percent insufficient. Levels were not linked to age, years infected, antiretroviral therapy or CD4 count.
Disease
HIV among Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)
A CDC fact sheet reports that gay and bisexual men make up about 2 percent of the US population yet accounted for 53 percent of new HIV infections in 2006 — the only risk group whose infections have climbed steadily since the early 1990s. Young black MSM saw the most new infections.
Miscellaneous
Five U.S. medical workers arrested in Zimbabwe
Five American medical workers from an Oakland church AIDS ministry were arrested in Zimbabwe while delivering donated antiretroviral drugs, accused of dispensing without a pharmacist or proper licenses. Their lawyer calls the charge unjustified and expects release on bail and at most a fine.
Vitamins
Vitamin A increases the presence of the HIV virus in breast milk (PR)
Two studies by University of Michigan epidemiologist Eduardo Villamor suggest vitamin A and beta-carotene supplements raise HIV levels in breast milk, possibly by increasing subclinical mastitis. He says the supplements do not look like a safe intervention for HIV-positive women.
Autoimmune Diseases
Controversy Surrounds Link Between CFS and HIV
Researchers from NIH, FDA and Harvard Medical School report in PNAS finding gene sequences from MRV-related viruses in the blood cells of 33 of 37 chronic fatigue syndrome patients, against 3 of 44 healthy people. Four earlier studies had failed to confirm a 2009 Science report of such a link.
Disease
Can Vaginal gel beat vitamin D in preventing HIV infection?
In the CAPRISA 004 trial of 889 South African women, 1% tenofovir vaginal gel cut HIV acquisition by about 39 percent overall, 54 percent among women who used it as instructed and 28 percent among low adherers. Adverse event rates did not rise. Published in Science.
Vitamins
Vitamin D Helps Prevent Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission
A Journal of Infectious Diseases study of 884 HIV-infected women in Tanzania found those with low vitamin D were 50 percent more likely to pass HIV to their infants by six weeks. Maternal vitamin D status was not linked to low birth weight or preterm birth.
Vitamins
Gene Therapy Could be The Cure for HIV/AIDS
At the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, researchers said antiretrovirals suppress active replication but cannot eradicate HIV. A Berlin patient given a bone marrow transplant from a donor lacking the CCR5 receptor has been off drugs for two years, pointing toward gene therapy.
Drug
How to stop HIV transmission?
Researchers told the International AIDS Conference in Vienna that about 400,000 infants acquire HIV from their mothers each year although antiviral drugs can virtually eliminate transmission. A JAMA study at African clinics points to patients not taking the drugs and gaps in testing.
Disease
HIV News: Gene therapy stops HIV in mice
USC researchers disabled the CCR5 gene in human stem cells and transplanted them into mice with human immune systems, where the cells multiplied and resisted HIV infection. Cannon says human trials may be four years away, and a one-time treatment could cost $100,000.
24 stories