Aarhus, Denmark – A HIV cure could be close, according to a team of Danish scientists conducting human trials.

Researchers at the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark are testing what they describe as a “novel strategy,” and reveal trials so far are “promising.”

The technique, which has already proven a success in lab experiments, involves freeing the HIV virus from DNA cells, where it collects in “reservoirs.” This brings the virus to the surface of the cells, where it can be permanently destroyed by a “vaccine” that primes the body’s natural immune system.

“I am almost certain that we will be successful in releasing the reservoirs of HIV,” senior researcher Dr. Ole Sogaard told The Daily Telegraph.

The trials currently feature fifteen patients. Should they be successfully cured of HIV, the “cure” will be used on a larger test group, along with an immune system booster. Says Dr. Sogaard:

“The challenge will be getting the patients’ immune system to recognize the virus and destroy it. This depends on the strength and sensitivity of individual immune systems.”

Dr. Sogaard was quick to point out that a “cure” is quite different from a preventative vaccine. Though a HIV cure would bring hope to millions of sufferers around the world, campaigning to raise awareness of what causes HIV would continue.

The US government halted a large study of an experimental HIV vaccine last week after it was found the shots weren’t preventing infection. That trial featured around 2,500 people, mostly gay men, from 19 cities.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Possible HIV Cure Talked Up By Danish Scientists is a post from: The Inquisitr

HIV immunity might be a step closer. A team of researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine has stopped the deadly virus that causes AIDS in humanized mouse models by removing a single gene, according to research published Thursday in open access journal PLOS Pathogens.

A humanized mouse is a genetically modified mouse designed for use in the lab. The so-called BLT mice used in this experiment lack the natural mouse immune system. Instead, they have a human immune system that includes tissues from the human bone marrow, liver, and thymus.

The team led by UNC’s J. Victor Garcia discovered that, if they removed a single gene from the virus, HIV could be completely destroyed by the natural human immune system. You can see where this is going. According to Garcia, researchers now have “a new target for developing drugs fully capable of killing the virus.”

The retrovirus that causes AIDS was identified in 1984 when it was named human immunodeficiency virus or HIV for its ability to neutralize the human immune system, leaving the patient’s body vulnerable to being killed by diseases that wouldn’t affect most people. About one percent of people, most or perhaps all descended from a Northern European lineage, have the CCR5 HIV immunity gene. Those people have a natural immunity to HIV invading their blood cells.

In 2006, the co-called Berlin patient, Timothy Ray Brown, was allegedly cured of an HIV infection diagnosed ten years earlier. He had received a stem cell transplant from a donor who carried the natural immunity gene.

Transplant surgery has difficulties of its own, and repeating the cure has been a slow process. If a drug could be developed that attacks the specific gene that makes the virus effective, all humans might potentially be able to receive immunity to HIV.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that around 50,000 people a year are infected with HIV in the United States. Over one million Americans are now living with the disease.

Sometimes it seems like the news about HIV is all bad. For example, a Tulsa dentist is being investigated for using sloppy practices that have exposed up to 7,000 people to HIV. The Kansas state legislature may soon pass a bill that allows the quarantine or imprisonment of people with HIV.

The new research offers hope that one day we will have a simple medicine to give people HIV immunity.

[artist's model HIV courtesy Alterganon via Wikipedia Commons]

[photo HIV budding courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Wikipedia Commons]

HIV Immunity From Turning Off One Gene is a post from: The Inquisitr

A proposed bill in Kansas that is pretty close to being passed calls for people with HIV or AIDS to be quarantined or to “have their movements restricted.”

The proposed bill would actually be an amendment to Kansas’ current health statute to allow for the quarantine of people with infectious diseases. Now is the part where you, with even a minor understanding of HIV and AIDS, point out that these diseases can’t be passed through casual contact like, say, Tuberculosis.

Well, you’re right. They can’t. That’s exactly what Democratic Sen. Marci Francisco is saying. She’s trying to get people suffering from HIV or AIDS exempted from the bill before it passes, but strangely, it seems to be an uphill battle.

Indeed, support for the bill seems to stem from poor state education as to how HIV and AIDS are transmitted, according to Cody Patton, the Executive Director of the sexual health charity Positive Directions.

“We live in a very conservative state and I’m afraid there are still many people, especially in rural Kansas, that have inadequate education and understanding concerning HIV/AIDS,” Patton said. “My fear would not be the state uses the law as some way to move all people living with HIV/AIDS into an isolated community, but that this law could allow some county employee to use this law to justify their religious beliefs over their professional responsibilities and discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS.”

Kansas actually banned the quarantine of people with AIDS in 1988. If this new law is passed, the fear is that health officials will be able to intimidate people with HIV and AIDS with the threat of isolation from non-infected friends or family.

Another opponent, Michael Weinstein, President of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said that the new amendment reminds him of the “earliest, darkest days” of the AIDS epidemic.

“At best, it is short-sighted of Kansas legislators to reject Senator Francisco’s amendment. It either shows how little they understand about HIV and how it is transmitted – it is not spread through casual contact such as TB or other airborne communicable diseases – or it shows that they want the ability to quarantine people, and/or discriminate against them in other ways as they see fit.

“For the senators, either choice shows a real lack of understanding about public health and safety—one of the most basic services that is government’s role to ensure.”

Still, it is widely held that the law will be voted on and passed in the next few weeks. Expect protests.

Do you think that people with HIV or AIDS should be quarantined?

Kansas Bill To Quarantine HIV And AIDS Sufferers Close To Being Passed is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent study has shown that HIV infection rates are highest among states in the South. On the positive side, infection rates have either remained the same or dropped across most parts of the country.

The 2011 HIV Surveillance Report marks the first time HIV infection infection numbers have been tracked from all corners of the country. The areas with the highest rates were the entire South, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. The total number of HIV infections remained stable between 2008 and 2011, the years covered in the report.

The number of infections increased in some groups while decreasing in others. HIV infection increased among people in their twenties. The rate of infection decreased for people aged 30 – 64 years old. Rates remained the same for children, teenagers, and the elderly.

HIV infection rates decreased among African Americans, Hispanics, Pacific Islands, and people of multiple rates, but rates remained highest among African Americans.

The female rate of infection decreased over the three year period. Males accounted for 79 percent of all HIV infections. HIV infections increased among men who had sex with men; but the number of infections resulting from drug needles, male-to-male sex combined with drug needle use, and heterosexual contact dropped.

While infection rates are highest in the South, the rate has dropped in the past three years. No states have seen a drastic upswing in infections.

The older someone was when they got diagnosed, the faster they died from the infection. Death rates were highest among people who acquired HIV through the use of drug needles.

ThinkProgress, a progressive blog owned by the Center for American Progress, noted that many of the states with the highest rates are also states that lack comprehensive sexual education requirements that would provide an education about HIV infection from an early age. The states with the highest infection rates also have a larger number of African Americans, among whom HIV transmission remains the highest.

HIV infection rates may be highest in the South, but the epidemic remains a problem that affects the entire US.

[Image via ShutterStock]

HIV Infection Rate Highest In The South is a post from: The Inquisitr

People with HIV may have inhibited fear recognition ability, a new study has found, and are less likely to become fearful in situations where uninfected individuals may find themselves frightened or afraid.

The study on HIV and fear was published in the open-access journal BMC Psychology and seems to expand upon previous discoveries regarding the “subtle cognitive” damage HIV infection can cause in people living with the virus.

According to LiveScience, the HIV and fear link may have been portended in previous studies, where ”abnormalities in the frontostriatal region” of the brain were observed alongside HIV infection as the virus’ effect may have been taking hold long-term.

Study researcher Eleonora Baldonero of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome explained of the HIV and fear study that “frontostriatal structures are involved in facial emotion recognition, so [it was] expected that HIV-positive subjects were impaired in facial emotion recognition tasks.”

The site explains of the HIV fear recognition findings, noting that fear is a particularly challenging feeling to pinpoint:

” … HIV-positive patients were less accurate at identifying fear compared with the healthy adults, the researchers found. Even patients without any other signs of cognitive struggles on the other neurological tests performed worse than healthy people at telling when a face was fearful … Fear might provide a particular challenge, because other research has shown it to be the most difficult emotion to recognize, Baldonero said. It’s also possible that HIV affects specific brain regions that are more important for processing fear than other emotions.”

In an email, Baldonero explained:

“The two abilities (emotion and cognitive) may be subject to the integrity of the same brain areas … It would be useful to explore this issue in future studies.”

Further study to examine HIV positive patients’ reaction to fear may help shed light on the findings.

HIV May Inhibit Fear Recognition In Infected Individuals, Study Finds is a post from: The Inquisitr

A potential AIDS cure may be on the horizon after a discovery by scientists in Australia, and researchers at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research may have found a way to turn crippling HIV cells self-destructing using gene therapy.

The potential AIDS cure was initially pegged during research back in 2007 by Dr. David Harrich and his team, and the researcher, who has been working to unlock a cure for the disease for more than 20 years, tells the Australian Times:

“With money running out, I had my PhD student try one more experiment in late 2007. The experiment was to test if Nullbasic could render HIV non-infectious. The student came back and said it worked, so I told him to do it again and again and again. It works every time.”

According to the paper, the potential AIDS cure could work in such a way that the damaging virus is nullified and unable to replicate, halting the devastating effects the disease has on a sufferer’s immune system:

“By modifying the proteins that make up HIV into a mutated form, referred to as Nullbasic, Harrich’s research team have determined that it is possible to block the process of reverse transcription that allows HIV to damage the immune system. This would ultimately render the virus inert, preventing the condition of those infected with HIV from deteriorating further.”

Harrich explains that the potential AIDS cure “instead of assisting the virus … actually impedes virus replication and does it quite strongly.”

The potential AIDS cure is set to be tested on mice in 2013, and clinical trials for the method could occur in the next ten years.

Potential AIDS Cure Discovered By Australian Scientists is a post from: The Inquisitr

Life Magazine published a photo in November of 1990 of a man on his death bed, wasting away from the devastating disease that ransacked his body. The photo of David Kirby surrounded by his mourning family, quickly became “the one photograph most powerfully identified with the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

More than two decades later, on World AIDS Day, LIFE.com re-released the heart-wrenching photograph, taken by young journalism student Theresa Frare.

More than 20 years after Frare stood in the corner of Kirby’s room and took photographs of his last moments of his life, she speaks with LIFE about the picture she snapped, the controversy it sparked after it was used in a United Colors of Benetton ad, and the story behind the photograph.

“I started grad school at Ohio University in Athens in January 1990,” Frare told LIFE.com. “Right away, I began volunteering at the Pater Noster House, an AIDS hospice in Columbus. In March I started taking photos there and got to know the staff — and one volunteer, in particular, named Peta — who were caring for David and the other patients.”

There she met Peta, a fellow volunteer who was also HIV positive. Peta became a dear friend to Frare, and it was he who invited her to meet Kirby.

David Kirby was born and raised in a small Ohio town. A gay activist in the 1980s, Kirby discovered in the late 80s that he had contracted HIV. At the time of his diagnosis, he was living in California, estranged from his family. When he learned of his disease, he returned home. He wanted to “die with his family around him.” The Kirbys welcomed their son back.

“On the day David died, I was visiting Peta,” Frare recalls.

“Some of the staff came in to get Peta so he could be with David, and he took me with him. I stayed outside David’s room, minding my own business, when David’s mom came out and told me that the family wanted me to photograph people saying their final goodbyes. I went in and stood quietly in the corner, barely moving, watching and photographing the scene. Afterwards I knew, I absolutely knew, that something truly incredible had unfolded in that room, right in front of me.”

David did not mind having his picture taken, Frare recalls, ” ‘as long as it’s not for personal profit.’ ” Although Frare remembers wondering at the time of David’s death, “who’s going to see these pictures anyway?”

20 years later, most of the world has seen the photograph that she snapped at David’s last moment.

To this day, Frare will not take any money for the photo, which became controversial when United Color of Benetton used a colored version in a 1992 ad campaign. Purposed to raise awareness for the disease that was affecting, at that point, more than 12 million people, the ad sparked controversy. England’s high-profile AIDS charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, called for the ad to be banned, claiming that it was “offensive and unethical.” Many magazines refused to run the ad.

The Kirby family said that it was merely another way to get David’s face out to the public, to raise awareness of the disease that killed their son.

“My son more or less starved at the end,” Kay Kirby remembers bluntly, adding that the Kirby family “felt it was time that people saw the truth about AIDS, and if Benetton could help in that effort, fine. That ad was the last chance for people to see David — a marker, to show that he was once here, among us.”

David Kirby died when he was just 32 years old. When he was in the hospital prior to his death, doctors and nurses wore gloves and masks whenever they were around him, fearful of contracting AIDS. The disease, which we now know cannot be transmitted by air, water, or casual touch, made many of Kirby’s initial caregivers fearful of being around him.

“My husband and I were hurt by the way David was treated in the small country hospital near our home where he spent time after coming back to Ohio,” Kay Kirby remembers. “Doctors and nurses wore gloves and gowns whenever they were around him, and even the person who handed out menus refused to let David hold one. She would read out the meals to him from the doorway.”

When Frare’s friend Peta’s HIV transitioned to AIDS, the Kirby family saw to it that Peta was not treated the way their son was.

World AIDS Day is observed tomorrow, December 1, 2012.

World AIDS Day: The Photo That Changed The Face Of AIDS is a post from: The Inquisitr

The federal government’s decision to look into such a vaccine was to boost the amount of research dedicated to fight the peculiar strands of HIV which are common in Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region, The Daily Trust reports.

It is hoped that Nigeria will be able to do what has so far been impossible-to find a cure for HIV. In the past, some have claimed to have a cure, yet none have been scientifically established to be known as a cure for HIV.

The government intends to move forward from the research already established and continue using new techniques, such as stem cell research to try and find a cure.

Currently, HIV and AIDS are not the death sentence they were in the past, thanks to the advances in medicine. Now, disease like cancer and malaria kill more people and do so faster than HIV and AIDS.

It is hoped that enlightenment programs will be introduced to encourage people to come out and discuss their conditions in order to better establish research; most victims of the disease are reluctant to release their status.

Currently, most victims who die from the disease do so because the anti retroviral drugs are too expensive for the poor to afford.

Nigeria Sets Date For HIV/AIDS Cure is a post from: The Inquisitr

Angry Birds designers heralded Freddie Mercury for his accomplishments as a legendary musician by turning the Queen singer into an animated game character. The 1970s rock icon died from HIV complications in 1991. Each year on September 5, the Mercury Phoenix Trusts hosts the Freddie For A Day (FFAD) campaign. The non-profit AIDS charity uses the annual birthday celebration to encourage fans to dress like the “We Are The Champions” frontman and raise both funds and awareness about the disease.

Rovio Entertainment designed a Bird Queen character and a special edition t-shirt for the 2012 birthday event. A portion of the proceeds from the limited edition shirt sales will be donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, according to What’s Trending Now.

Liz Swanton devised the first FFAD event in 1992 when she chose to dress like the rock singer at work; she raised more than $1,000 in donations for the AIDS charity. One woman’s decision to wear a whacky outfit to work to raise awareness about the potentially deadly disease gave birth to an annual worldwide movement. Participants can simply craft their own 70s era costume to mimic the style of the “Fat Bottom Girls” musician or purchase an outfit from the charity’s online store.

FFAD participants often host themed parties and organize flash mobs during the annual awareness celebration. Winners of the online-based best costume and most original location contests score cool commemorative prizes.

The Angry Birds join Freddie For A Day short flick is one of the top five YouTube videos on What’s Trending Now. The animated clip plays a portion of the “I Want To Ride My Bicycle” tune while supporting the FFAD charity.

Freddie Mercury Immortalized As An Angry Birds Character On His Birthday [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

A disease that leaves people with AIDS-like symptoms but not actually with the disease has been identified by researchers in the United States and Asia where scores of people have become infected.

While not a contagious STD like HIV, the disease weakens a patients immune system, leaving them unable to fend off germs in the same way healthy people achieve.

Because the disease does not seem to be contagious, doctors are baffled as to why so many people have contracted it.

According to Dr. Sarah Brown of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease:

“This is another kind of acquired immune deficiency that is not inherited and occurs in adults, but doesn’t spread the way AIDS does through a virus.”

Dr. Brown helped lead the group of researchers who identified the new disease mostly in Thailand and Taiwan where a majority of the cases have been discovered since 2004.

The disease, which does not appear to be genetic, tends to develop in patients around the age of 50, which makes in unlikely that a single gene mutation is too blame for the condition.

In some cases, “overwhelming infections” have led to death as a patients body becomes unable to fight off even the most basic of bacteria and viruses.

Most of the cases in the United States appear to have come over from Asians who immigrated state side.

Researchers now refer to the condition as “adult-onset” immunodeficiency syndrome.

Patients who survive a myriad of infections can go on to live a full life, although the condition typically remains a chronic issue for the patient’s entire life.

Disease That Mimics AIDS Symptoms Identified By Researchers is a post from: The Inquisitr

A U.S. health panel plans to recommend that when you go in for your yearly physical, you have an HIV test.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task force, a government-backed group of clinicians and scientists is going to make their recommendations available for public comment this year, according to Reuters, and many consider this a positive step in containment of HIV.

“This would be one of those major sea changes … moving away from what has been somewhat the segmentation of HIV — either by population, by geography,” Michael Kharfen, chief of community outreach for the Washington DC Department of Health, told Reuters.

USA Today notes that the recommendation is significant not only because it could lead to increased testing, but because recommendations by the panel will have to be covered by insurance.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as other groups, have previously called for more widespread testing to help identify and treat those who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The global health community also has called for more HIV testing and earlier treatment of those infected as studies show that early treatment can add decades to patients lives, but can also reduce the risk of transmittance of HIV from one partner to another.

While the public health benefits to widespread HIV tests seem clear, there is a cost. Stanford researchers say expanding HIV testing to the general U.S. population would reach $27 billion dollars over a 20-year span. Adding an HIV test to a routine blood exam would cost about $1.50 per test.

Health Panel Likely To Make HIV Tests Routine is a post from: The Inquisitr

Pediatric care with regard to HIV-infected children living in sub-Saharan Africa has always been a challenge. A lack of infrastructure is primarily to blame, and many children live with the disease, despite the fact that studies show that antiretroviral treatment (ART) significantly decreases mortality rates in afflicted children.

The Baylor International Pediatrics AIDS Initiatives in Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland are particularly confronted with this challenge. Though evidence from both developed and developing countries regarding the effectiveness of antiretroviral treatment and its reduction of mortality in HIV-infected children does exist, numerous health system, financial, and human resource troubles prevent sub-Saharan initiatives from delivering quality pediatric HIV care. Despite such obstacles in these areas, mortality and clinical outcomes approaching those from developed countries are determined to be feasible in a new study published in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Researchers set out to determine mortality and immune status improvement in pediatric patients infected with HIV taking antiretroviral treatments in Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland. They conducted a retrospective study of patients 12-years of age and under taking antiretroviral treatments (ART) at three sites between 2004 and 2009. The study followed 2,306 patients with an average follow-up of 2.3 years. Unfortunately, immune system improvement at 12 months was less likely in patients with advanced conditions.

Despite the challenges that go along with pediatric ART in developing countries, the study found that low mortality and positive treatment outcomes are possible. The study also showed that outcomes are worse in younger patients and patients in which the disease is more advanced at the time of ART implementation. This highlights the importance of early intervention and treatment.

“Despite the challenges associated with the public health approach to implementation of comprehensive pediatric HIV care in developing countries,” note researchers, “additional resources need to be directed toward children who are still underrepresented in many national ART.”

The Status Of Pediatric Care For HIV-Infected Children In Sub-Saharan Africa [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

AIDS has become a huge problem for the southern part of America.

America has put a lot of effort into educating today’s society on safe sex practices and coming up with a new generation of pharmeceuticals. Because of this effort, many Americans have begun to believe that the AIDS problem has been, if not solved, at least addressed. However, this is not the case for some southern American states. According to Los Angeles Times, these states make up 50% of all new HIV infections within the United States.

The South has the highest rate of deaths involving HIV in the United States. They also have the highest amount of teens and adults living with HIV, and sadly the fewest amout of resources to fight the epidemic. The horrible disease seems to be concentrated, for the most part, in poor minority communities. Unfortunately, by the time most of these HIV cases are diagnosed, they have already developed into full-fledged AIDS. This is unfortunate because by the time HIV has developed into full-fledged AIDS, treatment is much less effective. AIDS treatment is not easy to come by either. Thousands of people living with the virus are unable to get the medication they need. These people wait for slots to open up in state AIDS drug assistance programs. President Obama has recently spoken out and pledged to get rid of the waiting lists, so that these AIDS patients can get the treatment they need without the wait.

Mississippi has the highest AIDS death rate in America with it being 60% higher than the national average, and sadly about half of the people who know they are living with the AIDS virus are not geting the treatment they need. This is about the same percentage of untreated AIDS patience as it is in Ethiopia.

Public health workers and researchers from around the world are meeting for the annual International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. this week. This will be the first time in 22 years that the conference has been held in the United States.

HIV/AIDS Epidemic On The Rise In The South is a post from: The Inquisitr

In 2011 a man was cured of a HIV infection after undergoing chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant to fend off leukemia, now two more men are believed to have beat HIV infections after undergoing similar bone marrow transplants.

While HIV is no longer in the men’s blood researchers warn that HIV can hide and reveal itself at another time, however researchers believe anti-retroviral therapy mixed with marrow transplants might offer the cure they have been searching for.

Dr. Timothy Henrich, one of the researchers studying the two men tells ABC News:

“We expected HIV to vanish from the patients’ plasma, but it is surprising that we can’t find any traces of HIV in their cells. It suggests that under the cover of anti-retroviral therapy, the cells that repopulated the patient’s immune system appear to be protected from becoming re-infected with HIV.”

Unlike Timothy Ray Brown, aka the “Berlin patient” the two men treated this time were not specifically given transplants from a donor who had a genetic mutation resistant to HIV. Instead the men both received transplants with normal cells. Both men involved in the recent marrow transplants are still taking anti-retroviral medications which Brown has stopped consuming.

Researchers note that further research is necessary, including biopsies of lymphatic tissue to determine if the men treated this time around are truly free of the HIV virus.

While changing a person’s immune system may “cure” HIV the cost and dangers associated with bone marrow transplants are considered too high at this time for most patients.

In another study scientists are trying to use gene therapy to alter a patients’ immune system to rid them of HIV however a cure from that type of methodology is still years away. Some scientists believe that genetically modified stem cells resistant to HIV could one day offer a cure.

Scientists earlier in the month revealed a “roadmap for AIDs” which they hope will revitalize the HIV/Aids research community and lead to a faster cure for the deadly disease which still inflicts millions of people around the world.

HIV Cured In Two Men Following Bone Marrow Transplant is a post from: The Inquisitr

A disease like AIDS is scary enough by itself but what about a disease that can be just as deadly and is transmitted by insects, that disease is called Chagas and researchers are warning that its being quickly spread throughout the Americas, much in the same pattern as the early HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Chagas is caused by parasites carried by blood-sucking insects and so far more than 8 million people in the Americas have been infected, including people in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia. It is also suspected that nearly 300,000 people in the United States, mostly immigrants, also carry the Chagas parasite.

Once infected many patients never know they have Chagas because symptoms never form for 75% of patients, however the remaining 25% can develop fatally enlarged hearts or intestines which can ultimately lead to a painful and unexpected death.

Aside from a simple animal bite Chagas can be transmitted in blood transfusions. According to researchers in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, like the AIDS virus, Chagas, also known as American trypanosomiasis, has a long incubation time, is hard if not impossible to cure and because it is a “disease of the poor” little money is spent on prevention or finding new treatments.

It’s not as if Chagas is a new parasite, some researchers believe a bug that bit Charles Darwin gave him the disease which eventually led to his death, how’s that for survival of the fittest.

While not quite the same as the AIDS virus which effects a larger number of people once inside their blood stream, Chagas is following a similarly scary pattern of infection and with its easier to transmit capabilities it could grow into an epidemic. Just take a look at the Central American bug Rhodnius Priloxius (shown above), that little insect is the main spreader of Chagas in Central America, proving that it doesn’t take much to spread the potentially deadly disease to one in four people it attacks.

Chagas Disease Becoming ‘New Aids’ Of The Americas is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Food and Drug Administration indicated on Tuesday that Truvada appears to be both safe as well as effective when it comes to the prevention of HIV.  They concluded that daily ingestion of the HIV pill has the potential to prevent patients from being infected with the “serious and life-threatening illness that requires lifelong treatment,” MSNBC reported.

The HIV pill favored by the FDA is now that much closer to becoming the first drug approved on the market that is capable of preventing the virus which causes AIDS from infecting healthy people.

A panel of FDA advisers will take the review into consideration on Thursday, as they decide whether or not to approve Truvada as a preventative treatment for those at high risk of contracting HIV through sexual intercourse.  While the FDA is not technically required to adhere to the advice of its panel, it typically does.

Gilead Sciences Inc., based in California’s Foster City, has been marketing the their AIDS pill as a treatment for those infected with the virus since back in 2004.

Truvada is a composed of two older HIV drugs known as Viread and Emtriva.  The two predecessors were often prescribed by doctors as part of a drug cocktail designed to make reproduction for the virus more difficult.  Not only do those with low viral levels experience reduced symptoms, they are also far less likely to develop AIDS.

Researchers first reported, back in 2010, that Truvada was capable of preventing healthy individuals from contracting the HIV virus.  The conclusion came as the result of a three-year study in which patients were administered daily doses of the drug.  When accompanied by counseling and condoms, healthy bisexual and homosexual men taking their daily regiment of HIV pills were 44% less likely to be infected by the virus.

AIDS United’s vice president, Ronald Johnson, was quoted having said:

“If we’re going to reduce the more than 50,000 new HIV infections in this country each year, we need to increase the available options for people.”

HIV Pill Truvada Side Effects Video:

HIV Pill ‘Truvada’ Might Soon Be Released is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bill Gates on Thursday announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $750 million to the Global Fund which is currently fighting the worldwide spread of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The announcement arrived at the World Economic Forum and comes in the form of a promissory note which ”gives the Global Fund the flexibility and authority to distribute funds efficiently based on immediate needs.”

In his statement Gates noted:

“By supporting the Global Fund, we can help to change the fortunes of the poorest countries in the world. I can’t think of more important work.”

By providing a promissory note with the funds Bill Gates says money can be made available immediately to

“Saves lives, whether it is bed nets (to protect against mosquitoes carrying malaria) or TB (tuberculosis) treatment, those are two diseases that don’t get perhaps the visibility of the work done in HIV but they are every bit as important.”

The money is a big donation to the fund and the second for Bill & Melinda Gates, through their foundation the Global Fund received $650 million 10 years ago.

The three-quarter of a billion dollar donation comes at a time when the funds executive director Dr. Michel Kazatchkine has announced he will step down after a controversy erupted regarding misuse of funds.  Gates for his part downplayed the controversy by revealing that while it’s “pretty disappointing” he also acknowledges that ”If you are going to do health programs in Africa, you are going to have some percentage that is misused.”

“The interest is saving lives,” Gates said, adding there were “all sorts of things that are going on that far overwhelm any amount of misdirection or whatever it was.”

Funds are available now to the Global Fund on an as needed basis.

Bill Gates Gives Away $750 Million To Help Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new weapon has been created in the fight against HIV.  Researchers have developed a vaccine that protects rhesus monkey from an extremely virulent form of  simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which is distantly related to the virus that causes AIDS in humans.

This is not the first time that SIV vaccines have been successful, but scientists are hoping that when combined with data learned from a current human trial that is being conducted, they will be able to develop a vaccine for human HIV.

Bruce Walker, a virologist at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard University told Nature Magazine. “To me, if it’s possible in monkeys it’s got to be possible in humans,”

The vaccine is a two stage virus blocker, where the first stage protects against the common (read easy to kill) strains of the virus followed by a boost vaccine which teaches the antibodies to fight the more virulent strains.

Of the monkeys who were given the vaccine, 12% developed SIV, while the ones who were untreated contracted the disease 74% of the time.

Interestingly enough, the team of scientists continued to inject the monkeys every week with the virus and eventually all the monkeys contracted it, but the vaccine prevented SIV after a single exposure by more than 80%

Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the head of the study team said.”Because HIV does not cause disease in monkeys, SIV is the best model for evaluating vaccines before they are tested in humans”.

Researchers have told people to be cautious in evaluating the results of the trial as it has not been done in humans, but there is some cause for optimism.

If there were an HIV Vaccine on the market, would you take it?

HIV Vaccine Protects Monkeys from the Virus is a post from: The Inquisitr

“The individual suffering from AIDS certainly is a victim — frequently a victim of his own lifestyle — but this same individual victimizes innocent citizens by forcing them to pay for his care,” he wrote in the book.

Paul went on to say that everyone in life makes dumb decisions and that doesn’t mean that innocent citizens should have to pay for them.

He also called the idea that society should pay for anyone’s care as a “Socialistic Attitude” and said that Insurance companies should be responsible for determining care.

In the same book, Paul said that there should not any type of law against Sexual Harassment.  He said that people can decide where they want to work and if they don’t like the way they are treated in a company they can go elsewhere.  He went on to write that there are already violence in the workplace laws to deal with harassment that goes too far.

Paul does not apologize for these comments and in fact stands by them.

Paul is currently polling second in Iowa, which holds the nations first caucus this Tuesday.  He says he is going to win because his supporters are way more loyal than anyone else. Some really recent polls show his standing slipping a bit.

Congressman Paul is often finding himself defending his views against the more mainstream candidates.

DO you agree with Congressman Ron Paul that AIDS patients bear the responsibility for their own diseases?

Ron Paul: AIDS Patients Bear Responsibility, Not Society is a post from: The Inquisitr

As the end of 2011 getting closer, China is expecting about 780,000 people infected with the AIDS virus, mostly due to heterosexual sex. The state media, citing a report from the Ministry of Health and the United Nations, said that there will be an estimated 48,000 HIV infections and 28,000 deaths in China this year.

Other than unprotected sex, the virus spread can attributed also to unsanitary blood plasma buying schemes and tainted transfusions in hospitals. The Ministry of Health also said that heterosexual sex in China has already overtaken drug abuse as main cause of virus transmission.

About 88,000 people have already died in China since 1985 when the first case was found in the country.

China’s government is also now taking a more active role in battling the spread of the virus.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that the State Council will be rolling out a special medical aid next year in regions with high HIV/AIDS incidence that would hopefully ease heavy financial burdens encountered by patients caused by treatment. The Premier also said that some AIDS drugs will be included in the essential medicine system so that its prices can be regulated and covered by basic health insurance.

780,000 People Infected with AIDS Virus in China by End 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released a new report in which they reveal that upwards of 20% of people with HIV in the United States don’t realize they have the disease.

According to the agency that would mean that of the 1.2 million US citizens estimated to have HIV, 240,000 people aren’t aware they have contracted the disease.

The study also reveals that almost three-quarters of those people who have been infected are not getting the treatment they need to keep the virus from turning into AIDS or from being passed onto other people. With the lifetime cost of treating the disease placed at $367,000 it’s no wonder so many patients go untreated.

The CDC also reveals that of those infected 50,000 more people are added to their number every single year.

Speaking to WebMD  the director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the CDC noted:

“The HIV crisis in America is far from over,” and “Closing the gaps in testing, care, and treatment will all be essential to slowing or reversing the US AIDS epidemic.”

Does it surprise you to learn that the lack of care for HIV sufferers is so high in the United States after more than three decades of fighting the virus.

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

20% Of HIV Carriers In The United States Don’t Know About Their Infection is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $258 million to help prevent AIDS in India and now a recent study has shown that nearly 100,000 people in the region have avoiding the virus because of the organizations educational efforts.

The study concluded that prevention programs targeting high-risk populations were effective in helping reduce HIV and AIDS.

Dubbed the Avahan initiative the program has focused on prevention techniques such as needle-exchange programs, safe-sex counseling and condom distribution, standard practices in many parts of the world that had been overlooked in India.

The current study examined date from 2003 trhough 2008 and found that higher spending from the Avahan initiative correlated to lower AIDS cases in the country.

Critics say sthe methodology used in the study is flawed because it included pregnant women from antenatal clinics and because the study was funded directly through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

One critic says the findings are positive but “hard to quantify.”

Do you believe prevention programs created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are making a 100,000 person difference in India?

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Reduced India Aids Cases By 100,000 [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

12-15 dedicated gamers did in less than 10 days what scientists studying the AIDS virus have never managed to accomplish, they solved a molecular puzzle that has been a headache for AIDS researchers for a very long-time.

Known as “citizen science” the game called Foldit asked gamers to manipulate virtual structures that look like Tinkertoys. Players worked in tag-teams to find the most efficient molecular configuration, a process often witnessed in nature.

With the successful completion of the new gaming model scientists now hope to use citizen science in other endeavors including biofuels, the development of new drugs and even genetic engineering.

While the idea of solving complex molecular structures might sound like fun, biochemist Firas Khatib tells MSNBC that it’s not quite like playing Angry Birds and other popular games, he notes:

“Let’s be honest, proteins aren’t the sexiest video game out there.”

Regardless of how much fun the system may or may not be, the ability to control the outcome of entire technologies, medicines and other man made items might be just enough to create a culture around social science based gaming

Would you be willing to pore over a tedious social science game if it meant you could help find the cure for cancer or build the next generation of biofuels?

Gamers Unlock AIDS Molecular Puzzle is a post from: The Inquisitr

June 27 marks National HIV Testing day and all around our country thousands will make their way to various health centers, hospitals and community-based organizations to participate in a range of community events including free HIV testing.

“One of the best ways to take control of your health is getting an HIV test to learn your status.”
explained Dr. Tina Tan, Acting Deputy Commissioner for New Jersey Public Health Services. “Since the discovery of HIV 30 years ago, great strides have been made in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. However, every day, people are still getting infected.”

National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) was founded in 1995 in response to the HIV epidemic’s steadily increasing growth rate – especially in marginalized communities like people of color and men who have but also in middle-income neighborhoods where people thought, “it doesn’t happen here.”

Check out these alarming statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

At the end of 2008, approximately 20% of the estimated 1.2 million persons living with HIV were undiagnosed and unaware of their infection. In 2008, an estimated 33% of all HIV diagnoses were late diagnoses, often made after persons had already developed acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

For more information, head over to the National Association of People with AIDS’ — the organization that not only established HIV Testing Day, but that is in charge of implementing it — website.

via CDC.gov

National HIV Testing Day is Today is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Indonesian State of Papua is preparing to pass a new law that will require some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with RFID chips.

Under the proposal, patients who had shown “actively sexual behavior” could be implanted with the RFID chip to monitor their activity.

Lawmaker John Manangsang told Reuters: “It’s a simple technology. A signal from the microchip will track their movements and this will be received by monitoring authorities.” If a patient with HIV/AIDS was found to have infected a healthy person, there would be a penalty.

The Jakarta Post newspaper the head of Papua’s National AIDS Commission as saying the plan violated human rights. The Indonesian Government claims that the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Papua is 20 times the national average.

I have to agree with Gizmodo on this: “I wonder if his plan B is just putting them in camps or shoot them straight away.”

Indonesian State wants to tag AIDS patients with RFID tags is a post from: The Inquisitr