http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A small French study of 14 HIV patients who have remained healthy for years after stopping drug treatment offers fresh evidence that early medical intervention may lead to a "functional cure" for AIDS, researchers said Thursday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-french-patients-hiv-bay-drugs.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:09:00 EST news282499733 Results of a study published online in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy today (Thursday), demonstrate that computer models can predict how HIV patients whose drug therapy is failing will respond to a new treatment. Crucially for patients in poorer countries, the models do not require the results of expensive drug resistance tests to make their predictions. The study also showed that the models were able to identify alternative drug combinations that were predicted to work in cases where the treatment used in the clinic had failed, suggesting that their use could avoid treatment failure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-patients-hiv-drugs.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:10:01 EST news282421952 A study led by University of Massachusetts Medical School professor and immunologist Katherine Luzuriaga, MD, and Johns Hopkins Children's Center virologist Deborah Persaud, MD, highlights the long-term benefits of early antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiated in infants. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-early-antiretroviral-treatment-viral-reservoirs.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:00:02 EST news281624209 A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins Children's Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School describe the first case of a so-called "functional cure" in an HIV-infected infant. The finding, the investigators say, may help pave the way to eliminating HIV infection in children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-functional-hiv-infant.html HIV & AIDS Sun, 03 Mar 2013 16:39:40 EST news281551169 (HealthDay)—HIV infection is significantly associated with an increased risk of developing sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL), according to research published online Feb. 21 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-young-males-hiv-greater-loss.html Surgery Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:33:00 EST news281367166 The large antiretroviral treatment (ART) scale-up in a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has led to a rapid and dramatic increase in population adult life expectancy—a gain of 11.3 years over eight calendar years (2004-2011)—and the benefit of providing ART far outweighs the cost, according to new research from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-scale-up-hiv-treatment-rural-south.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:00:23 EST news280676191 In a study of patients at two HIV clinics in the Houston area, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center found that those who were satisfied with the care they received had higher adherence to care and higher retention rates. Their report appears today in PLOS ONE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-patient-satisfaction-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:13:42 EST news278788362 HIV patients who participated in an intervention that helped them identify barriers to taking their drugs properly and develop customized coping strategies took a significantly greater amount of their prescribed doses than those receiving standard care, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results, published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine, may point to a new strategy to improve adherence to medications for many other conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-personalized-barriers-hiv-drug-adherence.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:57:23 EST news278683034 HIV-positive patients have a higher incidence of non-melanoma skin cancers, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in the current online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Specifically, basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas occur more than twice as often among HIV-positive individuals compared to those who are HIV-negative. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-reveals-two-fold-higher-incidence-non-melanoma.html Cancer Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:28:30 EST news278677701 Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are the first line therapy for patients with HIV; however, ARV-treated, HIV-infected individuals still have a higher mortality rate than uninfected individuals. During the course of infection, HIV patients develop inflammation that damages the walls of the intestines, known as the gut mucosa, allowing intestinal microbes to escape and enter the blood stream to cause a life-threatening systemic infection. The health of the gut mucosa is significantly influenced by the complement of bacteria in the gut and there is mounting evidence that probiotic supplements benefit patients intestinal disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, C. difficile infection, and inflammatory bowel disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-probiotics-hiv-patients.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:00:08 EST news277556199 (AP)—Authorities are asking why a Buffalo veterans hospital may have reused insulin pens on many patients, causing an HIV scare, despite federal advice to the contrary. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-feds-buffalo-va.html Health Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:38:30 EST news277403902 HIV patients from ethnic minorities receive better quality of care from doctors and other primary healthcare professionals who are the most competent at caring for patients from diverse backgrounds – those who are "culturally competent." These patients also tend to manage both their treatment and condition better, according to a new study by Somnath Saha from Portland VA Medical Center, and the Oregon Health & Science University in the US, and colleagues. Their findings appear in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-doctors-culturally-aware.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:14:35 EST news277384469 A team of Spanish researchers say they have developed a therapeutic vaccine that can temporarily brake growth of the HIV virus in infected patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-scientists-vaccine-temporarily-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 03 Jan 2013 08:26:58 EST news276423978 In Ethiopia, where more than 1.2 million people are infected with HIV, disclosure of infection by patients is important in the fight against the disease. A new study led by a Brown sociology researcher investigates HIV-positive status disclosure rates among men and women in Africa's second most populous country. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-ethiopia-hiv-disclosure.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:32:41 EST news276359553 Among HIV patients receiving well-organized care with free access to antiretroviral therapy, those who smoke lose more years of life to smoking than to HIV, according to a Danish study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online. The findings highlight the importance of smoking cessation efforts in the long-term, integrated care of patients infected with HIV. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-hiv-patients-years-life-infection.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:00:02 EST news275073204 Children with HIV have a 2.5 fold increased risk of atherosclerosis, according to research presented at EUROECHO and other Imaging Modalities 2012. Antiretroviral treatment, lipid lowering drugs and prevention with healthy lifestyles are needed to prevent early death from cardiovascular disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-atherosclerosis-hiv-children.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:48:36 EST news273905307 A new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers suggests that, for HIV patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to treat HIV, there is no benefit from high- vs. standard-dose micronutrient supplementation—and that, in fact, high-dose supplements may cause harm. The study is the first large randomized trial to look at how high-dose multivitamin supplementation affects clinical outcomes among people on HAART. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-benefit-high-dose-multivitamins-hiv-patients.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:00:15 EST news269614593 The HIV protease inhibitor, Nelfinavir, can be used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer in the same capacity and dosage regimen that it is used to treat HIV, according to a study published October 5 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-hiv-drug-efficacy-mouse-her2.html Cancer Sat, 06 Oct 2012 07:14:51 EST news268726474 A sugar-loving protein drives the growth of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) tumors, according to a study published on October 1st in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Interfering with these sugary interactions inhibited growth of Kaposi sarcomas in mice, hinting at the potential for new treatment strategies in humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-sugar-free-approach-kaposi-sarcoma.html Cancer Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:00:04 EST news268308218 Improved treatment options, a multi-pronged treatment model, and federal funding from the Ryan White Program have helped an inner city Baltimore clinic improve outcomes for HIV patients across all groups, including those most often hardest hit by the disease. Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the results from the 15-year analysis of patients at a clinic serving a primarily poor, African-American patient population with high rates of injection drug use demonstrate what state-of-the-art HIV care can achieve, given appropriate support. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-effective-hiv-benefited-patients-demographics.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 28 Sep 2012 05:30:01 EST news268026105 A new postage stamp-sized, paper-based device could provide a simple and reliable way to monitor for liver damage at a cost of only pennies per test, say researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Diagnostics For All (DFA), a Cambridge, MA nonprofit dedicated to improving the health of people living in the developing world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-bidmc-diagnostics-low-cost-paper-based-liver.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:01:02 EST news267281992 A new community-based HIV/AIDS registry, one of the first in the nation to include patients from rural areas, will provide a unique opportunity to find answers to myriad medical questions, from the impact of drugs such as marijuana on the virus to why some patients naturally ward off the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-hivaids-registry-key.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:45:04 EST news265481098 Nurse-centred care of HIV patients can be just as safe and effective as care delivered by doctors and has a number of specific health benefits, according to a new study led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Cape Town (UCT). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-nurses-effective-doctors-treatment-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:00:03 EST news264165809 (HealthDay) -- Among the 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, just one in four has the virus under control, U.S. health researchers say. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-americans-hiv-virus-cdc.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:38:34 EST news262622295 Small but significant breakthrough studies on people who have been able to overcome or control HIV were presented Thursday at a major world conference on ways to stem the three-decade-old disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-paths-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:36:09 EST news262542964 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 New research from the University of Alberta's School of Public Health has demonstrated that community-based resources in rural Uganda can successfully provide HIV treatments to patients, where economic and geographical barriers would typically prevent access to care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-community-based-approach-hiv-infection-rural-uganda.html Health Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:00:01 EST news261913813 An HIV drug that redirects immune cell traffic significantly reduces the incidence of a dangerous complication that often follows bone marrow transplants for blood cancer patients, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings represent a new tactic for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), which afflicts up to 70 percent of transplant patients and is a leading cause of deaths associated with the treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-hiv-drug-graft-vs-host-disease-bone.html Immunology Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:00:04 EST news261241119 An American man whose HIV seemed to disappear after a blood marrow transplant for leukemia may be showing new hints of the disease, sparking debate over whether a cure was really achieved. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-hiv-patient-scientists.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:16:28 EST news258797774 In a critical step that may lead to more effective HIV treatments, Harvard scientists have found that, in a small number of HIV patients, pre-existing mutations in the virus can cause it to develop resistance to the drugs used to slow the progression of the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-pre-existing-mutations-drug-resistance-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:00:24 EST news258305965