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Wits researchers have played a pivotal role in an AIDS study published today in the journal, Nature Medicine, which describes how a unique change in the outer covering of the virus found in two HIV infected South African women enabled them to make potent antibodies which are able to kill up to 88% of HIV types from around the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-unique-feature-hiv-antibodies.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:25:42 EST news270116729 Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have gotten us one step closer to understanding and overcoming one of the least-understood mechanisms of HIV infection—by devising a method to precisely track the life cycle of individual cells infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-scientists-technique-decipher-dormant-aids.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:54:58 EST news266586891 A new pill to treat HIV infection—combining two previously approved drugs plus two new ones—has been approved for adults living with the virus that causes AIDS, US regulators said Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-fda-in-hiv-combination-pill.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:58:59 EST news265309134 As a step toward designing the first effective vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, scientists are reporting new insights into how a family of rare, highly potent antibodies bind to HIV and neutralize it — stop it from infecting human cells. The antibodies were isolated from people infected with HIV and work against a wide range of HIV strains. The researchers described the study today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-sugars-quest-vaccine-hiv-.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:57:47 EST news264779731 Community pharmacies with specially trained staff to provide HIV services can help HIV-infected individuals be more compliant with their essential antiviral drug regimens and hence improve patient outcomes. Users of HIV-specialized Walgreen pharmacies across the U.S. had significantly greater adherence to and persistence with their therapeutic drug regimens according to a study published in AIDS Patient Care and STDs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-specialized-hiv-pharmacies-treatment.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:34:47 EST news264159280 Women comprise nearly half of the HIV-infected population worldwide, but these 15.5 million women tend to be under-represented in clinical trials of anti-HIV drug therapies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has created a database from 40 clinical studies to assess gender differences in the efficacy of antiretroviral treatments. The results of this study are presented in an article in AIDS Patient Care and STDs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-gender-differences-anti-hiv-drug-efficacy.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:37:35 EST news263731047 The world's largest AIDS conference returned to the U.S. on Sunday with a plea against complacency at a time when the epidemic is at a critical turning point. "We can start to end AIDS," one expert said. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-aids-conference-sunday-key.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 23 Jul 2012 04:28:35 EST news262236503 The percentage of HIV patients taking antiretroviral drugs who experienced the full benefit of the drugs jumped from 45 percent of 72 percent during the past decade, a figure that is lower than previous estimates. The findings, considered important for HIV prevention efforts, since patients whose virus is in tight control are less likely to transmit the infection to others, are published this week in JAMA by a team of researchers led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The issue's publication coincides with AIDS 2012, the annual international AIDS conference, being held in the United States for the first in over 20 years this week in Washington, D.C. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-benefits-hiv-drugs-previously.html HIV & AIDS Sun, 22 Jul 2012 15:12:22 EST news262188661 Drug resistance to HIV medicines has been creeping higher in parts of Africa and Asia but is not steep enough to cause alarm, said a survey released by the World Health Organization on Wednesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-hiv-drug-resistance-higher.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:39:17 EST news261826745 Scientists on Sunday said they had found a key piece in the puzzle as to why a tiny minority of individuals infected with HIV have a natural ability to fight off the deadly AIDS virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-revealed-secret-hiv-natural-born.html HIV & AIDS Sun, 10 Jun 2012 13:56:41 EST news258555394 (AP) -- Look for a fundamental shift in how scientists hunt ways to ward off the devastation of Alzheimer's disease - by testing possible therapies in people who don't yet show many symptoms, before too much of the brain is destroyed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-scientists-ways-stall-alzheimer-earlier.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Wed, 16 May 2012 04:21:28 EST news256360868 (AP) -- A panel of HIV specialists is recommending that U.S. regulators approve the first over-the-counter HIV test designed to quickly return a result in the privacy of a person's own home, a new option which could expand testing for the virus that causes AIDS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-fda-panel-rapid-home-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 15 May 2012 17:19:16 EST news256321148 (AP) -- Condoms and other safe-sex practices have accomplished only so much. Now the 30-year battle against AIDS is on the verge of a radical new phase, with the government expected to endorse a once-a-day pill to prevent infection with the virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-aids-phase-pill.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:39 EST news255972865 (AP) -- A pill to prevent HIV infection is already being given to some healthy people, but without government approval, it remains out of reach and too costly for many who need it. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-advocates-hiv-pill.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 11 May 2012 11:59:29 EST news255956363 A drug once taken by people with HIV/AIDS but long ago shelved after newer, modern antiretroviral therapies became available has now shed light on how the human body uses its natural immunity to fight the virus—work that could help uncover new targets for drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-patients-infected-hiv-hepatitis-drug.html Medications Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:32:02 EST news249748315 A larger waistline may be linked to an increased risk of decreased mental functioning in people infected with the AIDS virus HIV, according to research published in the February 14, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-larger-belly-linked-memory-problems.html Neuroscience Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:38:25 EST news248351892 Ever since the water supply in Walkerton, Ont., was contaminated by E. coli in 2000, Dr. Philip Marsden has been trying to figure out just how a toxin released by that particular strain of the bacteria causes kidney damage in children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-cells-therapy-kidney-failure-coli.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:17:24 EST news245420232 Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered new protein fragments in semen that enhance the ability of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to infect new cells -- a discovery that one day could help curb the global spread of this deadly pathogen. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-scientists-human-proteins-fuel-hivaids.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:00:19 EST news243090006 (AP) -- China will have about 780,000 people infected with the AIDS virus by the end of this year, state media reported Wednesday, with most having contracted it through heterosexual sex. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-china-hiv-cases-year.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:49:15 EST news241850947 (Medical Xpress) -- A powerful topical preventative for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, could soon be in the works thanks to a newly discovered molecular compound that research at Texas A&M University and the Scripps Research Institute shows dissolves the virus on contact. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-hiv-killing-compound.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:20:01 EST news241346031 (Medical Xpress) -- Northeastern researchers have played a key role in studying how antibodies that neutralize HIV function are structured, a further step in ongoing global efforts by scientists to develop a vaccine for the pandemic virus that causes AIDS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-neutralizing-hiv-function.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:39:26 EST news239524687 University of Utah researchers have discovered a new class of compounds that stick to the sugary coating of the AIDS virus and inhibit it from infecting cells – an early step toward a new treatment to prevent sexual transmission of the virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-hiv-sugar-coating-microbicide-block.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 23 Sep 2011 04:13:20 EST news235969982 Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a genome-based immunization strategy to fight feline AIDS and illuminate ways to combat human HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The goal is to create cats with intrinsic immunity to the feline AIDS virus. The findings -- called fascinating and landmark by one reviewer -- appear in the current online issue of Nature Methods. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-cats-aids-diseases.html Genetics Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:01:37 EST news234963865 Hepatitis G virus was identified in 1995. Some little research was carried out on the virus and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared it a non-harmful virus in 1997. Researchers in Saudi Arabia, writing in the International Journal of Immunological Studies present evidence to suggest that this may have been the wrong decision. They claim that transmission of the virus through donated blood that was not screened for the virus as well as infection through other routes has led to an increase in cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-virus-liver-cancer.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:03:50 EST news233226210 (AP) -- The number of Americans infected with the AIDS virus each year has been holding steady at about 50,000, according to a government report released Wednesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-hiv-infections-steady.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:59:47 EST news231602366 The AIDS virus is spreading like an epidemic in some Middle East and North African countries because of homosexual encounters between men, a study warned on Wednesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-hiv-epidemics-emerging-mena-region.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:40:02 EST news231581938 A campaign to encourage African men to get circumcised to prevent infection by HIV gained a powerful boost Wednesday by three new studies unveiled at the world AIDS forum in Rome. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-aids-evidence-circumcision-campaign.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:05:01 EST news230396691 Just a few years ago, anyone who talked of a cure for the AIDS virus would in all likelihood have met with a sad, ironic smile. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-reservoir-dogs-scientists-aim-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:13:24 EST news230299992 Scientists have now provided revolutionary tools to roll back HIV but only a major funding boost, supported especially by emerging giant economies, will determine the outcome, experts say. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-funding-gap-imperils-science-exploits.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:12:22 EST news230299930 Using HIV treatment drugs to reduce the risk of spreading the AIDS virus may be even more effective than thought, according to new analysis from a landmark trial presented here on Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-hiv-drugs-effective-thought.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:23:38 EST news230207007