The Brazilian Ministry of Health does not have the capacity to reach its goal of distributing one billion condoms annually as part of a campaign to fight the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in the country, Mariangela Simao, coordinator of the National Program to Combat HIV/AIDS, said in a statement, DPA/Monsters and Critics reports (DPA/Monsters and Critics, 1/10).
A gene called HAX1 is mutated in some individuals with an immunodeficiency syndrome known as severe congenital neutropenia (SCN), according to a study to be published in the January issue of Nature Genetics. The identification of mutations in HAX1 ends a 50-year search for the genetic basis of one form of this disease.
Brazilian researchers have developed an algae-based, microbe-killing gel for women aimed at blocking the sexual transmission of HIV. The microbicide was 95 per cent efficient in the first phase of testing over the last three years, the research’s coordinator, immunologist Luiz Castello Branco, told Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.
A study of nearly 4,000 HIV-infected people in Denmark, matched with about 380,000 people who were not infected, found that people diagnosed with HIV infection between 1995-2005 had a shorter life expectancy (20 years beyond age 25) than the general population (51 years beyond age 25).
While there is no cure for lingering viral infections such as HIV and herpes, a recent study at Princeton University suggests it may be possible to deactivate such viruses indefinitely with the flick of a genetic switch.
The Treatment Action Group (TAG) announced it has been awarded a four-year, $4,736,587 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its TB/HIV Advocacy Project and strengthen global responses to the overlapping TB/HIV epidemics.
Thai researchers have discovered that patients who fail treatment with a commonly used, inexpensive, first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) are also usually resistant to other, similar drugs, leaving progressively fewer options for replacement therapies. Since catching treatment failure early is key to preventing further resistance, this research, published in the February 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases also argues for greater access in the developing world to tests that detect when the amount of virus in a patient’s blood is increasing.
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have developed a highly sensitive test for identifying which drug-resistant strains of HIV are harbored in a patient’s bloodstream.
Stating that his statement on AIDS was wrongly presented in the media, yoga exponent Baba Ramdev said he will not reply to Health Ministry’s notice. “I never claimed AIDS can be cured through Yoga. It was wrongly been presented in media. I only said cancer can be cured but in case of AIDS one can get encouraging improvement by doing Yoga,” Ramdev told reporters here.
The Indian U nion health ministry will sign a memorandum of understanding with former US president Bill Clinton’s foundation and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) as part of a public-private partnership to fight sexually transmitted infections like HIV.