Scientists are developing a drug that may be effective in treating two sexually transmitted infections at once - HIV and genital herpes - as well as potentially preventing the spread of HIV from one person to another. Researchers from the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium say the...
Detection of HIV antibodies is used to diagnose HIV infection and monitor trials of experimental HIV/AIDS vaccines. New, more sensitive detection systems being developed use microspheres to capture HIV antibodies and can measure even small amounts of multiple antibodies at one time. This novel...
A team of NIH scientists has developed a new tool to identify broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) capable of preventing infection by the majority of HIV strains found around the globe, an advance that could help speed HIV vaccine research. Scientists have long studied HIV-infected...
New recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) urge physicians to screen all adults and adolescents aged 15 - 65 for HIV. In addition, all pregnant women should receive screening, even those who are in labor but have not yet been screened. Rapid screening...
HIV-infected mothers who exclusively breastfeed for more than the first four months of life have a lower risk of transmitting the virus to their babies through their milk. The finding came from scientists at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and was published in the journal...
A new study shows that 14 HIV-infected adults appear to be "functionally cured", that is they still carry small, barely detectable reservoirs of the human immunodeficiency virus but their bodies are preventing them from rising to a point where they cause symptoms, despite stopping treatment...
In Africa and Thailand, communities that worked together on HIV-prevention efforts saw not only a rise in HIV screening but a drop in new infections, according to a new study presented this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta. The U.S...
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Infectious disease experts at Johns Hopkins have found that among people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), co-infection with HIV, speeds damage and scarring of liver tissue by almost a decade. In a second study of HCV infection, the Johns Hopkins research team participated in the...
According to two studies published in this week's Science journal, ramping up HIV antiretroviral treatments in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal has been worth the extra expense. According to the findings of the HTPN 052 (HIV Prevention Trials Network 052) trial, people who are HIV...
Researchers in the US have identified a natural antiviral protein that stops HIV and certain other deadly viruses like Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, and Nipah, from entering host cells. They hope the discovery will help efforts to develop broad-spectrum antivirals against many of the deadly viruses...
One out of every four people living with HIV/AIDS is 50 or older, yet these older individuals are far more likely to be diagnosed when they are already in the later stages of infection. Such late diagnoses put their health, and the health of others, at greater risk than would have been the case...
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...
Breakthrough drugs have made it possible for people to live with HIV longer than ever before, but more work must be done to actually cure the disease. One of the challenges researchers face involves fully eradicating the virus when it is latent in the body. A new report appearing in the December...
Are a cold (sore throat, sneeze, dry cough, runny nose), strep throat, a yeast infection, a uti, white streaks on tonsils (not tonsil stones), change in vaginal discharge (white, thick with egg-like smell) symptoms of HIV? I've experienced these all in the last 6 months since a possibly contact...
The Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio has applied for a patent for a genetically-engineered vaccine strategy to prevent HIV infection that targets the outer layers of body structures that are the first sites of contact with the virus. Designed to be a single dose and last a...
Scientists have developed an ultra-sensitive sensor for doctors to detect viral infections, such as HIV, as well as cancers in their early stages, with the naked eye. The researchers, from Imperial College London, reported on their prototype sensor in Nature Nanotechnology. According to the...
A new 90-day intravaginal ring has been developed - that for the first time - enables the long-lasting vaginal delivery of tenofovir (TFV), the only topical prophylactic shown to be effective at reducing the sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) when formulated in a...
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can contain dozens of different mutations, called polymorphisms. In a recent study an international team of researchers, including University of Missouri scientists, found that one of those mutations, called 172K, made certain forms of the virus more...