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

Well here’s one for the old DUH! column.

It seems that scientists wanted to see if there was any validity to the old saying that drinking too much can lead to having unsafe sex, and potentially an HIV infection, so they got some grant money and conducted some research into the matter.

What had researchers confused over the issue it seems is the whole cause-and-effect thing. Was it too much alcohol that caused unsafe sex that could lead to HIV or was it more about personality traits in individuals where a disposition to risky behavior in general that was the cause.

The results of the research was published in the January issue of the journal Addiction and summarizes the results of 12 experiments that tested the cause-and-effect theory in a systematic way.

As anyone with any common sense would have surmised they found that alcohol consumption does indeed affect decision-making and the effect rises with the amount of alcohol consumed.

The more alcohol that participants consumed, the higher their willingness to engage in unsafe sex.

In these experiments, study participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups in which they either consumed alcohol or did not. Then their intention to engage in unsafe sex was measured. An increase in blood alcohol level of 0.1 mg/mL resulted in an increase of 5.0% (95% CI: 2.8% – 7.1%) in the indicated likelihood of engaging in unprotected sex. This result remained stable in sensitivity analyses aimed to correct for a potential publication bias.

via MedicalXpress

Like I said – DUH!

Hey folks it’s official – drinking too much alcohol leads to unsafe sex 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

If you were a child or teenager in the 90s, one of the most sobering and frightening pop culture moments came when basketball great Magic Johnson announced that he was HIV positive. (Video below.)

At the time of his diagnosis, testing positive for HIV was seen as a death sentence. Few people were living long with the illness, and medications that extend the life of those living with the virus were in their infancy. The athlete’s diagnosis was held up as a cautionary tale, and Johnson immediately retired from the game. (He eventually returned, but several active players protested his involvement due to fears of contamination from open wounds.)

Johnson was one of the first heterosexual, high-profile individuals to come forward with a positive diagnosis, and the basketball star was determined to use the bad news as a springboard to educate HIV-negative people about the risks of HIV infection as well as provide inspiration to individuals living with HIV or AIDS. The press conference in which Johnson calmly delivered the news occurred 20 years ago today, and in the intervening years, Johnson has done both exceedingly well.

Staying healthy on a cocktail of medications and returning to the game, Johnson has been active in working towards HIV awareness as well as appearing in ads for medications to halt the virus’ progress. He has also since become a grandfather, and many point out that the athlete was the only person who managed to keep an upbeat demeanor on news of his diagnosis. At the time, he said to the shocked crowd of reporters:

“I plan on going on living for a long time. I guess now I get to enjoy some of the other sides of living.”

Even now, Johnson maintains the same positive attitude. Yesterday, he tweeted:

Excited for a big day tomorrow celebrating 20 years. Thank you to everyone for the kind words and support.

Did you think Johnson would survive twenty years? Do you still worry about HIV?

Magic Johnson Reflects on HIV Announcement, Two Healthy Decades is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises that HIV tests for teens are introduced in most U.S. metropolises.

Back in 2006, more than a million Americans were living with HIV, and 5% of that total – around 55,000 – were aged between 13 and 24. Now, that number is on the rise. The AAP is recommending HIV tests for those teens aged 16 and above who live in an area where more than 0.1% of the population has been diagnosed with the virus.

Co-author of the AAP report Patricia Emmanuel, also a professor of pediatrics at the University of South Florida, says, “Our youth are having sex and our youth are getting HIV.”

The report, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, also advises routine screening at urgent-care clinics and emergency departments in high-prevalence areas. And it argues any teen tested for an STD should authomatically receive a HIV test.

The idea of routine HIV testing is not new. In 2006, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended testing for people aged between 13 and 64, but the U.S. Public Health Service did not endorse it, and many doctors ignored the advice due to cost-effectiveness.

But now the issue is back on the table, doctors are also being urged to talk to their teen patients more about the dangers of unsafe sexual behavior. As Emmanuel states:

“HIV is not just a grown-up disease. The greatest increase is in young gay men, mostly ethnic minorities. Many are 16, 17 and 18. They are not 13, but they are teenagers.”

[Image via Piotr Marcinski / Shutterstock.com]

HIV Tests Advised For Teens is a post from: The Inquisitr

A recent large scale study has revealed that the most popular injectable contraception in southern Africa is leading to twice as many cases of HIV.

Published on Monday the research study found that women were twice as likely to become infected with HIV while men were also twice as likely to become infected compared to when they used no contraception at all.

According to the NY Times:

The findings potentially present an alarming quandary for women in Africa. Hundreds of thousands of them suffer injuries, bleeding, infections and even death in childbirth from unintended pregnancies. Finding affordable and convenient contraceptives is a pressing goal for international health authorities.

The study has found that injectable contraceptive drugs have biological properties that make both men and women more susceptible to H.I.V.

Speaking about injectable drugs Isobel Coleman, director of the women and foreign policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations said:

“The best contraception today is injectable hormonal contraception because you don’t need a doctor, it’s long-lasting, it enables women to control timing and spacing of birth without a lot of fuss and travel,” while adding, “If it is now proven that these contraceptions are helping spread the AIDS epidemic, we have a major health crisis on our hands.”

According to prescription numbers nearly 12 million women in Africa from the age of 15 to 49 use injectable hormone treatments, nearly 6 percent of all women in the country. In the United States 1.2 million women (3 percent of the population) use the treatments.

The study was led by researchers at the University of Washington and is fully published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and included 3,800 couples in Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia

According to the study:

The study found that women using hormonal contraception became infected at a rate of 6.61 per 100 person-years, compared with 3.78 for those not using that method. Transmission of H.I.V. to men occurred at a rate of 2.61 per 100 person-years for women using hormonal contraception compared with 1.51 for those who did not.

[via]

African Contraception Leading To Two Times As Many HIV Cases is a post from: The Inquisitr

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Joseph Rahimian has commented on news that a vaccine could severely impact the impact of an HIV infection, and has indicated the discovery is cause to be cautiously optimistic.

Scientists at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid made the discovery, one which has been long sought-out after HIV emerged as a worldwide pandemic in the early 80′s. While great strides have been made in managing the infection, the potential of a vaccine is a massive development in the field of HIV prevention and treatment.

Rahimian explains:

“An HIV vaccine has been the holy grail for infectious disease doctors for a very long time… There are a lot of people interested in creating one and obviously a lot of demand for it, so there would be a lot of excitement if this research is accurate.”

CSIC researcher Mariano Esteban commented:

“MVA-B vaccine has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more… If the virus enters the body and tries to develop in a cell, the immune system is ready to inactivate the virus and destroy the infected cell.”

Esteban likened the vaccine to showing the immune system a photo of HIV “so that it is able to recognize it if it sees it again in the future.” While the study said the vaccine stands to make HIV far less contagious and likened a vaccine-weakened HIV to herpes, Rahimian warns further testing is necessary to determine the impact of the discovery:

“The population that they used is very small, and they followed them out to one year. So one important question is how long does this last for? A vaccine that has to be given repeatedly every year is less exciting than a vaccine that can give long-term immunity.”

HIV Vaccine Reason For Cautious Optimism, Infectious Disease Doc Says is a post from: The Inquisitr

A team in Spain is currently testing a vaccine prototype that they say is “much more powerful” than any other HIV drugs currently available on the market.

The research is a joint effort between Mariano Esteban, of the National Biotechnology Center of Spain’s CSIC research council; Felipe Garcia, with Barcelona’s Clinic Hospital; and Juan Carlos Lopez Bernaldo de Quiros, with Madrid’s Gregorio Marañon Hospital.

Researchers performed a “random and double blind” test to avoid bias in their choice of subjects who would receive the vaccine and who would receive the placebo.

6 people received a placebo and 24 received the vaccine, researchers then determined that the vaccinated group only received “limited” and “slight” secondary effects making it safe for human consumption.

The group then found that ninety-five percent of patients who received the vaccine built up bodily defenses, far exceeding prior HIV vaccines which only showed bodily defenses building up in 25 percent of patients.

The new vaccine was also able to stimulate the production of cells or antibodies while vaccines in the past typically only stimulated one or the other.

The next step will be for researchers to perform a clinical trial on volunteers infected with HIV to see if the vaccine can also be used to treat HIV.

If successful the vaccine will help fight HIV subtype B which is most commonly found in Europe, South and Central American, the Caribbean and the United States.

[via Fox]

Spain Researchers Claim To Be Testing “Most Powerful” HIV Vaccine To Date is a post from: The Inquisitr

HIV treatment might soon be helped along through the use of gene therapy. An early stage trial by Sangamo BioSciences has found that gene therapy can help reduce levels of the virus, even eliminating it in one patient.

The company warns that their early study only involved a small group of 10 people who helped test the SB-728-T gene therapy process. The method was designed to disrupt the CCR5 gene that is used by HIV to infect cells found in the immune system.

The hope is that gene therapy can help end the need for antiretroviral drugs which are now used to fight back the AIDS virus by fighting back HIV viral replication.

According to Reuters:

Trial results presented in Chicago on Sunday at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy show a “statistically significant relationship between estimated modification of both copies of the CCR5 gene and viral load,” said Dr. Carl June, trial investigator and director of translational research at the University of Pennsylvania’s cancer research institute.

Research has shown that just a single infusion of the treatment vastly improved immune system damage in almost all subjects analyzed during first trial treatment.

The study helps to hope the 33 million people worldwide who suffer from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

More study’s will be revealed in the future, until then the use of such gene therapy is merely a possibility for the future.

HIV Treatment Getting Boost From Gene Therapy [Trial Results] is a post from: The Inquisitr

HIV Testing and HIV treatment are the keys to ending the AIDS epidemic according to Dr. Trevor Hawkins, an HIV researcher who is attempting to raise further awareness about the disease. Hawkin’s is the lead physician at the Southwest CARE center and has been treating people with the virus for decades.

The clinic’s current research on therapy for patients has allowed them to increase the quality of life patients have after contracting HIV, so much so that people with HIV fly to Santa Fe just to meet with the doctor and his team.

Hawkin’s tells the Santa Fe New Mexican:

“As far as this epidemic goes the key is frank and open sex education, plus reminders in the media on a regular basis. And I think that an HIV test should be part of every medical visit, at least once a year.”

While Andrew Gans, director of the state’s HIV Prevention Office says the virus needs to be a top priority for testing facilities since many people are unaware they have the disease:

“Across the country, the federal government estimates that somewhere between 20 and 25 percent of the people who have HIV don’t know about it.”

Testing is key because researchers have found that those people who know they have the disease are unlikely to transmit it since they tend to change their risky behavior of unprotected sex.

Treatment is also key to help those with the disease live healthier lives thanks to new combinations of several antiretroviral medications that keep the virus from replicating, allowing HIV levels to remain almost undetectable.

Researchers also warn that while gay men and injection-drug users are still among the highest demographics to contract the disease, a study in 2009 found that almost a third of newly discovered cases did not involved either one of those groups.

The group asks that everyone, even if they don’t think they are at risk, get tested for the virus once a year, with early detection HIV treatment has a better chance of helping victims live a longer, healthier life.

HIV Treatment Along With Testing Is Key To Ending Virus Says Experts is a post from: The Inquisitr

One of the most incredible parts of our technology world is where it meets up with the medical one and some of the incredible discoveries that seem to be happening everyday.

As much as we might complain about our healthcare systems the fact is that we have made some fantastic strides in ways to detect and treat diseases.

Much like this news from researchers at Columbia University who have discovered a way to quickly, 15 minutes quickly, diagnose HIV for a the cost of a single buck. Yes, just for a $1.00.

The diagnoses involves nothing more than a credit card size piece of plastic; that can be cheaply replicated using plastic injection molding as there are no moving parts involved, and an optical sensor. Called the mChip it will not only diagnose HIV, with a detection rate of 100%, but also syphilis, or HIV and syphilis together with only 4% to 6% false positive.

An mChip that diagnoses prostate cancer has already been approved for use in Europe. In the future, Columbia researcher Samuel K. Sia hopes to use the chip to test pregnant women in Rwanda for HIV and other STDs. Many of these women live too far away from labs to be diagnosed with traditional methods. “When you’re in these villages, you may have the drugs for many STDs, but you don’t know who to give treatments to, so the challenge really comes down to diagnostics,” Sia explained in a statement

via Fast Company

While the target use of the mChip is in places like Africa it also promises to be another great tool in any doctor’s arsenal to fight disease.

Diagnosing HIV in 15 minutes and only for a $1 is a post from: The Inquisitr

In their ever growing commitment to admirable reporting of the day’s serious issues, the New York Post has revealed that the unnamed victim in Saturday’s high-profile alleged rape by former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn lives in housing for HIV victims.

The paper stopped short of revealing the woman’s HIV status specifically, but not out of any journalistic integrity. No, the rag rather couldn’t get the people who run the housing to disclose the confidential data about the woman, even citing medical privacy laws in the piece. Just not, you know, respecting them, or anything.

The paper described the woman’s movements over the years across a few apartments, adding:

According to the agency, it is not uncommon for people with HIV/AIDS to move around.

Housing Works, the agency the Post IDs in their article, condemns the paper’s irresponsibility in publishing the information:

“The Post’s reckless disregard for the sexual assault survivor’s confidentiality potentially jeopardizes her relationships with friends, family, and coworkers, and further victimizes a woman who may have already suffered a grievous attack,” said Housing Works. “The tabloid headline of the story, as well as its glib, vulgar lead sentence are a transparent attempt to fan the flames of AIDSphobia.”

The Post says at the beginning of the piece that Strauss-Kahn “may have more to worry about than a possible prison sentence.” The actual chance of a male contracting HIV from a female during standard heterosexual sex is virtually nil.

New York Post blasted for revealing alleged rape victim’s possible HIV status is a post from: The Inquisitr

The recipient of a kidney from a living donor unknowingly carrying HIV has contracted the virus, public health officials have confirmed.

Due to privacy laws, neither the hospital nor any of the involved patients have been identified. The case is the first of its kind involving a live donor transplant since effective testing to prevent infection during organ transplants was developed in 1985.

The donor patient tested negative for the virus, but between testing and donating the organ, engaged in high-risk unprotected sex. The CDC has updated guidelines to recommend donors are tested fourteen days prior to transplants in light of the 2009 case. The agency says the case highlights the need for diligence in pre-transplant testing:

“This case highlights the need to revise national policy on the type and timing of HIV tests used to screen living donors… Specifically, transplant centers should screen living donors using the most sensitive test — currently nucleic acid testing (NAT) — as close to the time of transplant surgery as feasible. Donors should also be counseled to avoid behaviors that place them at risk of acquiring HIV because even the most sensitive HIV test can miss recent infections.”

Matthew Kuehnert, director of the CDC’s Office of Blood, Organ, and Other Tissue Safety commented to the Wall Street Journal that “[transplant related infection] may be happening more frequently than we recognize and we are likely missing cases.”

[Image]

Organ recipient infected with HIV in live donor transplant in NYC is a post from: The Inquisitr

A vaccine to prevent HIV or a cure for AIDS has been a medical holy grail since the disease emerged with a vengeance in the late 70s and early 80s.

Treatment protocols for patients who carry the virus that causes AIDS have progressed rapidly since the virus became known as an indiscriminate killer in the past few decades, but what if we’ve been sitting on the answer all along? Researchers at UCLA and George Mason University in Manassas, Virginia have made preliminary discoveries that indicate the decline in use of the vaccine for smallpox, vaccinia, may have inadvertently allowed HIV to grab a foothold on humanity.

Let’s start with a fun fact about HIV: to infect white blood cells, most strains need to be able to latch onto a protein on the cells’ surface called CCR5. Many people of European descent have a mutated version of CCR5, and resist HIV as a result…

Fascinatingly, (researchers) found that lymphocytes from people vaccinated up to six months earlier – or in preliminary results from a much larger study, 14 months – were up to 10 times less likely to be infected by HIV strains that need to use CCR5. Viruses like measles only interfere with HIV as long as they are there causing their particular disease, but the effect of the vaccinia virus seemed to last months.

The researchers conclude that vaccinia prevents HIV – and that once smallpox was eradicated, and smallpox vaccination wound down, HIV surged as a result.

A news release about the findings, published in the May 17th issue of BMC Immunology, discusses the theory:

“There have been several proposed explanations for the rapid spread of HIV in Africa,” Dr. Raymond Weinstein of George Mason U. said in a news release. These include “wars, the reuse of unsterilized needles and the contamination of early batches of polio vaccine,” he said.

“However, all of these have been either disproved or do not sufficiently explain the behavior of the HIV pandemic,” he said. “Our finding that prior immunization with vaccinia virus may provide an individual with some degree of protection to subsequent HIV infection suggests that the withdrawal of such vaccination may be a partial explanation.”

The piece linked above in New Scientist goes on to suggest that perhaps the smallpox virus itself, and not the vaccine to prevent it, was providing the inadvertent protection against HIV infection. Although the exact reasons behind the fall of smallpox and concurrent rise of HIV infections worldwide remain to be seen, this particular study could eventually prove very valuable in preventing HIV-related deaths.

Concurrent rise in HIV and eradication of smallpox may be key to HIV resistance is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has developed an iPod-sized device for HIV testing that could deeply impact HIV testing in rural, impoverished areas.

The device, which will prototypes of which will cost only $250 to build, can return a result in just 10 minutes. In contrast with the large machines currently used for HIV testing in most hospitals, large flow cytometers that cost “a hundred times more” than the inexpensive prototype, the use of lasers cuts down on cost and size:

The device works by measuring the reflection of a laser beam off a small sample of blood. Depending on the density of T-white blood cells, a key indicator for the presence and progress of HIV, the laser will scatter differently.

PARC is hopeful that if the device comes to market that it will “empower” doctors in poorer, more rural places heavily affected by AIDS. PARC isn’t the only company trying to simplify HIV testing either- a number of other companies are trying to develop and market handheld HIV testing devices:

(Peter) Kiesel is competing against a dozen other groups vying to fill the need for cheap, portable CD4 tests. Other technologies have been under development for years, including a half-dozen recent projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that include disposable CD4 tester kits as easy to use as a home pregnancy test. Kiesler’s laboratory-tested device is a couple of years behind these projects, some of which have been tested in the field in African countries.

[PopSci, Image]

Palo Alto Research Center creates faster, cheaper HIV test is a post from: The Inquisitr