http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The integration of mental health interventions into HIV prevention and treatment platforms can reduce the opportunity costs of care and improve treatment outcomes, argues a new Policy Forum article published in this week's PLOS Medicine. Syvia Kaaya from the School of Medicine at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and her international colleagues say that effective interventions exist for recognition and treatment of co-morbid mental disorders and can be implemented successfully by trained non- specialized providers in HIV care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-mental-health-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:02 EST news288374135 Cambodia is on track to become one of the few countries in the world to successfully reverse its HIV epidemic and may eliminate new infections by 2020, the World Health Organization said Friday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-cambodia-hiv-infections.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 10 May 2013 07:34:46 EST news287390079 The majority of gay men in relationships say they establish a "sexual agreement" with their partner, primarily to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to a University of Michigan study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-sexual-agreements-gay-couples-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:31:22 EST news283519877 (Medical Xpress)— Facebook and other social networking technologies could serve as effective tools for preventing HIV infection among at-risk groups, new UCLA research suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-social-media-hiv-stds.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:42:24 EST news279384133 A novel head-to-head study looking at differences in how the antiretroviral (ARV) drug tenofovir gets absorbed in the body as either an oral tablet or a vaginal gel found tenofovir gel can achieve substantially higher concentrations of active drug in vaginal tissue than the oral tablet, suggesting that tenofovir gel should be highly effective in protecting women against HIV transmitted through vaginal sex. Yet, as unequivocal as the study's results may be, they have not been borne out in HIV prevention trials to date, leading the researchers to believe that effectiveness of tenofovir-based products depends on factors other than ARV tissue concentrations alone. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-tenofovir-gel-drug-absorption-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:08:15 EST news278788086 New research led by Ryerson scientists have found that street youth who have been sexually abused as children are far more likely to engage in trading sex for food, shelter and other basic necessities. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-street-youth-sex-food-abused.html Health Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:01:09 EST news278323261 Trends in the sexual practices of gay men in Australia show that HIV prevention remains firmly embedded in gay communities. However, to curb the epidemic and start driving down numbers of new infections, "a re-invigoration of prevention approaches is now needed for Australia to continue its role as global leader in the HIV response," says Professor John de Wit, lead editor of the Annual Report of Trends in Behaviour 2012 (ARTB 2012). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-cites-urgent-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:26:40 EST news269677593 New research from an international team of HIV/AIDS experts has reaffirmed the effectiveness of Truvada—the first and only medication approved by the FDA for HIV prevention. Led by Gladstone Investigator Robert Grant, MD, MPH and Peter Anderson, PharmD, at the University of Colorado, the research provides the first estimate of the drug concentration levels needed for Truvada to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS—expanding our understanding of Truvada's potency and opening the door to new dosing strategies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-underscores-truvada-potency-transmission-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 12 Sep 2012 14:00:05 EST news266673587 Population Council scientists have found that a vaginal ring releasing an anti-HIV drug can prevent the transmission of SHIV in macaques. This study provides the first efficacy data on the delivery of a microbicide from a vaginal ring, and indicates strong potential for the success of such rings in women. Microbicides are compounds that can be applied inside the vagina or rectum to protect against sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-anti-hiv-vaginal-virus-transmission-animal.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 05 Sep 2012 14:00:05 EST news266057842 (HealthDay) -- Doctors should consider prescribing the HIV prevention pill Truvada to their heterosexual patients who are at high risk for the virus, not just high-risk gay and bisexual men, experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-high-risk-heterosexuals-hiv-pill.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 10 Aug 2012 06:10:01 EST news263794662 The results from a nationally representative HIV incidence study in Swaziland indicate that the national rate of new HIV infections is 2.38% among adults ages 18-49. This figure, comparable to the 2009 UNAIDS estimate of 2.66% for Swaziland adults ages 15-49, suggests that the HIV epidemic in Swaziland may have begun to stabilize in the past few years. The findings of the Swaziland HIV Incidence Measurement Survey (SHIMS) were presented today at the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington DC. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-swaziland-hiv-incidence-results-aids.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:50:52 EST news262619446 (Medical Xpress) -- In a study published in the latest edition of The Lancet, researchers from Emory University propose that biomedical interventions, including pre-exposure prophylaxis, combined with behavioural and structural prevention strategies could prevent as many as 25 percent of new HIV infections among men having sex with men (MSM) globally over the next decade. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-hiv-cases-combined-efforts.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:10:01 EST news262248558 From a cafe near the go-go bars of a Bangkok red light district where she campaigns for safe sex, Gigi gives an unvarnished view of how she joined Thailand's growing ranks of transgender people with HIV. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-sex-drugs-stigma-thai-transsexuals.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 23 Jul 2012 04:26:54 EST news262236409 An examination of the characteristics of persons born outside the United States diagnosed with HIV while living in the U.S. finds that, compared to U.S.-born persons with HIV, they are more likely to be Hispanic or Asian, and to have a higher percentage of HIV infections attributed to heterosexual contact, according to a study appearing in JAMA being published online. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-characteristics-factors-hiv-positive-persons-born.html HIV & AIDS Sun, 22 Jul 2012 15:23:42 EST news262189415 HIV prevention must be better targeted, according to David Holtgrave from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, and colleagues. Health care professionals need a more detailed analysis and understanding of the interplay between HIV risk behavior, access to treatment and treatment success among those living with HIV. The authors discuss their proposed framework in a study¹ in a special issue of Springer's journal AIDS and Behavior. The special issue, "Turning the Tide Together: Advances in Behavioral Interventions Research"² is freely available online and will be published in July to coincide with the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, from 22 – 27 July 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-risky-behaviors-key-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:19:06 EST news261224340 A drug that has been shown to prevent HIV infection in a significant number of cases must be combined with behavioral approaches if the U.S. health care establishment is to succeed in reducing the spread of the virus, according to the American Psychological Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-hiv-behavioral-strategies-apa.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 14 May 2012 13:56:00 EST news256222504 (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 US health advisers on Thursday urged regulators to approve Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences, as the first preventive pill against HIV/AIDS instead of just a treatment for infected people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-health-advisors-mull-aids-pill.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 10 May 2012 11:29:00 EST news255868134 The first findings from a nationally representative HIV survey were presented today at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2012) in Seattle, WA. The Swaziland HIV Incidence Measurement Survey (SHIMS) found that overall HIV prevalence, or percentage of the population living with HIV infection, is 31% among adults ages 18-49. This figure matches the 2006 Demographic Health Survey findings for the same age group, indicating that the HIV epidemic in Swaziland has stabilized over the past five years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-swaziland-hiv-incidence-survey-croi.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:23:18 EST news250446188 While global attention to HIV/AIDS remains strong, a lack of focus on prevention strategies is stonewalling health experts in many developing nations, specifically in the Caribbean. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-revamping-hiv-prevention-caribbean.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:59:02 EST news246214735 (AP) -- The head of a global health fund on Monday urged Ukraine to step up its efforts to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Europe's largest. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-ukraine-urged-aids.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:20:01 EST news245952518 Over the past year, researchers at the California Institute of Technology, and around the world, have been studying a group of potent antibodies that have the ability to neutralize HIV in the lab; their hope is that they may learn how to create a vaccine that makes antibodies with similar properties. Now, biologists at Caltech led by Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, president emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, have taken one step closer to that goal: they have developed a way to deliver these antibodies to mice and, in so doing, have effectively protected them from HIV infection. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-biologists-neutralizing-antibodies-hiv-infection.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:03:38 EST news241880490 A collection of nine new articles to be published in PLoS Medicine and PLoS ONE, in conjunction with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), highlights how scaling up voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention in eastern and southern Africa can help prevent HIV not only at individual but also at community and population level as well as lead to substantial cost savings for countries due to averted treatment and care costs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-scale-up-voluntary-male-circumcision-cost-effective.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:14:41 EST news241852472 In this week's PLoS Medicine, Mona Loutfy of the University of Toronto, Canada and colleagues report their study examining experiences of stigma and coping strategies among HIV-positive women in Ontario, Canada. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-stigma-hiv-positive-women-complex-overlapping.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:26:14 EST news241205156 In sub-Saharan Africa, couples in long-term relationships where one partner is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative (HIV serodiscordant couples) could benefit from anti-AIDS drugs (antiretroviral therapy) given either as treatment or as a prevention measure (prophylaxis) to reduce the risk of HIV transmission. These findings, from a modelling study led by Timothy Hallett from Imperial College London and published in this week's PLoS Medicine, also show that this strategy could be cost-effective. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-options-couples-partner-hiv-positive.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:00:02 EST news240602393 (Medical Xpress) -- Women who are clinically depressed at the time they enter drug court have a substantially higher risk of using crack cocaine within four months, according to a new study. Because current but not past depression was associated with a higher risk of use, the study published in the journal Addiction suggests that addressing depression could reduce the number of women who fail to beat crack addiction in drug court. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-current-prior-depression-cocaine.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:22:34 EST news229861334 Today, researchers from two major HIV prevention trials announced favorable results of an approach called oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. One of these trials, the Partners PrEP Study, has provided the strongest evidence yet of PrEP's effectiveness. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-voice-action-results-trials.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:25:41 EST news229767927 In a result that will fundamentally change approaches to HIV prevention in Africa, an international study has demonstrated that individuals at high risk for HIV infection who took a daily tablet containing an HIV medication – either the antiretroviral medication tenofovir or tenofovir in combination with emtricitabine – experienced significantly fewer HIV infections than those who received a placebo pill. These findings are clear evidence that this new HIV prevention strategy, called pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP), substantially reduces HIV infection risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-pivotal-africa-hiv-medications-infection.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:24:32 EST news229767846 An AIDS drug already shown to help prevent spread of the virus in gay men also works for heterosexual men and women, two studies in Africa found. Experts called it a breakthrough for the continent that has suffered most from AIDS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-pills-hiv-straight-men-women.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:35:30 EST news229754113 Determining whether a promising HIV prevention gel is safe for women to use while they are pregnant or breastfeeding is the aim of a new clinical trial being conducted by the National Institutes of Health-funded Microbicide Trials Network (MTN). Researchers are hopeful that the study -- the first clinical trial of the vaginal microbicide tenofovir gel in breastfeeding women and only the second in pregnant women -- will bring them a step closer to developing a safe and effective HIV prevention product women can use throughout their lives. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-anti-hiv-gel-pregnant-breastfeeding-women.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:38:53 EST news227806719