http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Public health officials in New York City have launched a successful program to locate HIV-positive patients who have been "lost to follow-up" and reconnect them with treatment services, reports a study published in AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-york-city-successfully-hiv-positive-patients.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 30 May 2013 11:36:51 EST news289132604 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 One in ten South Africans is HIV positive but AIDS-related deaths are falling as ramped-up treatment begins to have an impact, the country's official statistics agency said Tuesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-south-africans-hiv-positive.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 14 May 2013 12:58:22 EST news287755093 (HealthDay)—Danish scientists testing a novel HIV treatment in human trials contend that they're confident their strategy will result in a cure for the AIDS-causing virus, according to news reports. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-hiv-danish-scientists-contend.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:10:01 EST news286459297 (Medical Xpress)—Earlier this year, doctors at an infectious disease conference announced that a baby in rural Mississippi born with HIV had been "functionally cured" of the infection after receiving aggressive treatment immediately after birth. With such a result deemed to be virtually impossible only a few years ago, it's a development Tulane infectious disease expert Dr. Russell Van Dyke calls "extremely gratifying." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-mississippi-child-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:00:02 EST news286095863 In South Africa, people with HIV who start treatment with anti-AIDS drugs (antiretroviral therapy) have life expectancies around 80% of that of the general population provided that they start treatment before their CD4 count drops below 200 (cells per microliter), according to a study by South African researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-treatment-near-normal-life-people-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:00:02 EST news284745277 South Africa's health minister on Monday launched a new single dose anti-AIDs drug which will simplify the world's biggest HIV treatment regime to just one life-saving pill a day. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-south-africa-dose-aids-drug.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:10:22 EST news284627415 Early HIV treatment can save lives as well as have profound prevention benefits. But those infected with the virus first must be identified before they can be helped. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-current-hiv-screening-guidelines.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:12:01 EST news282388314 Researchers have moved a step closer to finding a cure for HIV by successfully luring the 'sleeping' virus out of hiding in infected cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:50:01 EST news281604450 Bacterial pneumonia is one of the commonest and most serious infections occurring in people infected with HIV. A metanalysis of cohort and case control studies published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine finds that current smokers with HIV were at double the risk of bacterial pneumonia than non-smoking counterparts, but that when people stopped smoking their risk was reduced. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-bacterial-pneumonia-people-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:00:04 EST news278012579 Replacing the combination of brand-name, antiretroviral drugs currently recommended for control of HIV infection with soon-to-be-available generic medications could save the U.S. health care system almost $1 billion a year but may diminish the effectiveness of HIV treatment. A study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, appearing in the January 15 Annals of Internal Medicine, examines the potential impact of such a change. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-hiv-treatment-strategy-billion-annually.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:00:01 EST news277381002 Can treatment with modern anti-HIV drugs help fight hunger for HIV-infected patients in Africa? Starting antiretroviral therapy for HIV reduces "food insecurity" among patients in Uganda, suggests a study published online by the journal AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-antiretroviral-treatment-hiv-food-insecurity.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:32:24 EST news273861135 Investigating the genetic footprint that drug resistance causes in HIV, researchers in Europe have discovered that compensatory polymorphisms enable resistant viruses to survive. Presented in the journal Retrovirology, the study was supported in part by three EU-funded projects: VIROLAB, EURESIST and CHAIN. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-scientists-genetics-hiv-resistance.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:50:01 EST news270459248 The World Health Organization is about to roll out a new strategy for AIDS prevention in South Africa, a country where more than 5 million people are infected with HIV. Based on a mathematical model, the WHO predicts this strategy will completely eliminate HIV in South Africa within a decade. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-strategy-defeat-hiv-south-africastudy.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:00:09 EST news266063583 In South Africa, HIV-infected men who are receiving treatment with anti-HIV drugs (antiretroviral therapy) are almost a third more likely to die than HIV-positive women who are receiving similar treatment: however, these differences are likely to be due to gender differences in death rates in the general population rather than related to HIV, according to a study by a team of international researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-mortality-hiv-positive-south-african-men.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:00:02 EST news265972579 (AP) —Brazil's anti-AIDS program will be expanded to include at least 35,000 more people, a Health Ministry official said Wednesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-brazil-anti-aids.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:52:05 EST news265477919 WHAT: Further analyses of the landmark NIH-funded treatment-as-prevention study (HPTN 052) have found that providing antiretroviral treatment to HIV-infected individuals earlier, when their immune systems are healthier, delays AIDS-related health events, such as chronic herpes simplex virus and tuberculosis, as well as death. Additionally, researchers found that earlier HIV treatment is also cost-effective because it increases survival, prevents costly opportunistic infections and averts transmission of the virus to uninfected individuals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-landmark-hiv-treatment-as-prevention-additional-health.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:46:53 EST news262619200 In a new study by ICAP at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, researchers are assessing a novel approach to encourage newly diagnosed HIV positive people to seek care and adhere to HIV treatment. The unique study in the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) gives people who test HIV positive a coupon for a gift card to claim after they complete clinic visits and laboratory tests. Patients who adhere to HIV treatment regularly can decrease the amount of HIV in their blood, leading to viral suppression. Study participants who achieve viral suppression also receive gift cards as a reward and motivation for a maximum of four times a year. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-incentive-hiv-patient-treatment.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:24:09 EST news261764642 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 Is it possible to cut HIV transmission by using antiretroviral treatment? A collection of new articles published in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine, in conjunction with the HIV Modelling Consortium, addresses this pressing question. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-impact-treatment-hiv-infections-plos.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:00:06 EST news261157380 The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPfAR) began in 2003 with good intentions, but it was not until the U.S. government's massive overseas public health campaign adopted generic drugs that it became a success, according to a new article by Brown University researchers in the July issue of the journal Health Affairs. Nearly a decade later, expanding the availability of generics remains urgent, especially as doctors in the field encounter resistance to first-line treatment regimens. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-drugs-key-overseas-hiv-relief.html Medications Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:00:12 EST news261066195 A new once-daily pill combining three antiretrovirals and a booster molecule is a safe and effective alternative to two widely used drug regimens for newly diagnosed HIV-positive adults who have had no previous treatment. The findings of two large international randomized trials published in this week's Lancet also indicate that the new "Quad" pill is faster acting, doesn't have the neuropsychiatric side effects associated with other combinations, and could improve compliance with treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-once-daily-quad-pill-hiv-safe.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 28 Jun 2012 18:30:01 EST news260123746 A pressure group that includes six former presidents called Tuesday for the United Nations to acknowledge that "repressive drug law enforcement" was driving an HIV/AIDS pandemic. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-war-drugs-fueling-hiv-epidemic.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 26 Jun 2012 02:53:04 EST news259897970 In the battle against HIV/AIDS conditions on the frontlines are constantly in flux as treatment, research and policy evolve. The landmark HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 052 study, which established that antiretroviral treatment in people who are HIV positive decreases the likelihood of transmitting HIV to their sexual partners, was no exception. One year after publication the study serves as a case study of ethical challenges faced at every stage of the research trial process in the new paper "Establishing HIV treatment as prevention in the HIV Prevention Trials Network 052 randomized trial: an ethical odyssey," published in the June 2012 issue of Clinical Trials. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-lessons-ethical-odyssey-hiv-trial.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:02:03 EST news258894113 The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the government's far-reaching health-care foreign aid program, has contributed to a significant decline in adult death rates from all causes in Africa, according to a new study by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-documents-benefits-aids-relief.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 15 May 2012 16:00:11 EST news256309510 (AP) -- For many HIV-positive Americans, and those who advocate on their behalf, these are days of anxious waiting as the Supreme Court ponders President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-health-debate-high-stakes-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:18:55 EST news254593127 An HIV prevention trial that pre-dates the shift to antiretroviral (ARV)-based approaches is nonetheless helping to answer some of the most relevant and topical questions the field is facing today. More than three years after reporting the primary results of HPTN 035, one of the last trials of the so-called first generation microbicides, researchers from the National Institutes of Health-funded Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) reported two new sets of findings gleaned from the study's trove of statistical data and laboratory specimens. The results of both analyses were presented at the International Microbicides Conference (M2012). The meeting, which started Sunday, April 15 and ends tomorrow, April 18, is being held in Sydney. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-microbicide-trials-network-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:15:51 EST news253876530 Physical violence, sexual abuse and other forms of childhood and adult trauma are major factors fueling the epidemic of HIV/AIDS among American women. Scientists have known for years that traumatized women are at greater risk of becoming infected. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-trauma-hiv-epidemic-women.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:00:01 EST news251396763 One in four HIV patients was found to have been sexually abused as a child, according to a two-year Duke University study of more than 600 HIV patients. Traumatic childhood experiences were also linked to worse health outcomes among these patients, who are aged 20 to 71. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-quarter-adults-hiv-abused-children.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:31:12 EST news250943467 A new study shows that people living in areas where uptake of HIV treatment is high are less likely to acquire the virus than in places where few are given care, UNAIDS said Thursday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-hiv-infection-high-treatment-areas.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:27:46 EST news250450060