A team of Canadian and American researchers have found a new way to fight, and possibly eradicate, HIV.  The new method combines antiretroviral therapy, which is the current treatment for HIV, with what they refer as "intelligent targeted chemotherapy."

Introduced in the mid-1990s, antiretroviral treatment aims to block the virus.  It has enabled patients with HIV to live longer instead of dying within the next five years.  However, this treatment only diminishes the number of HIV-infected cells in the body and never eliminates them.  Also, patients would have to undergo antiretroviral treatment for... Read More »

Officials of United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that almost half of the HIV-positive American adolescents and young adults are not aware they are infected, while less than a quarter of sexually active high school students get tested for the virus.

In an analysis using data from a 2007 survey of students between the ages 14 to 18, only 22 percent of sexually active high school students are tested for HIV.  Meanwhile, an estimated 48 percent of teens and young adults who are infected with HIV are unaware of their infection, which CDC says represents missed opportunities for... Read More »

When it comes to treating HIV, there is only one obstacle that prevented doctors from eliminating the dreaded virus:  its tendency to go dormant most of the time.  Recently, a research group in Italy has developed an unusual technique, which they believe may hold the key in the discovery of a cure.

According to Dr. Enrico Garaci, president of the Italian Institute of Health, he and his team studied the HIV's "barrier of latency," which has become a singular obstacle that prevents HIV patients from experiencing full recovery despite the advanced treatments doctors can provide.  A particularly inactive genome in HIV's... Read More »

For years, controlling HIV was all about prevention, especially the use of condoms.  However, with the advancement in HIV research, experts have suggested that the fight should also concentrate on HIV treatment. 

Many people around the world have yet to realize that HIV medication can reduce the number of infections to the same degree as prevention.  Modern HIV treatment has become so advanced that people living with the dreaded virus can actually live a normal lifespan.  It has also given another desirable outcome-the people who regularly take HIV medication are less infectious.

Although the currently available treatments cannot cure a person... Read More »

A recent study shows that HIV's spread across Europe can be blamed largely on holidaymakers who were infected with the virus abroad.  Using the samples gathered from 17 countries around Europe, the researchers were able to track the movement of HIV around the continent.

According to the research, which was published in the Retrovirology journal, the biggest exporters of HIV are Greece, Portugal, Serbia, and Spain, largely because of tourists and migrants who leave the country with proper education.  Meanwhile, United Kingdom is both an exporter and an import.  This trend is the same when it comes to Israel, Norway... Read More »

Since the onset of the HIV pandemic, many scientists have been baffled on why only a few percentage of people have the ability to resist the dreaded virus even when exposed repeatedly.  Now, a group of researchers think that completing the genome sequences of those fortunate few may hold the key in the search for rare genetic variants that can offer significant protection from HIV.

Resistance to HIV is not common and exists only in very few people.  It has been traced to the presence of genetic variants linked to the ability to block infection, but scientists think there are... Read More »

Health officials are worried that the H1N1 "swine" flu may come in a more deadly form.  In an interview with London's Financial Times, head of the World Health Organization Dr. Margaret Chan warned that the H1N1 swine flu virus could return in the fall in yet another mutated form that is far more dangerous that what is presenting today.

According to WHO, there are 985 cases of H1N1 infection in more than 20 countries in a matter or weeks, while there are 286 confirmed cases of swine flu in 36 states in the United States.  Despite the outbreak, both the... Read More »

An ongoing research has a hot topic among health experts as a long-dormant gene could hold the key in protecting humans from HIV.

Nitya Venkataraman of the University of Central Florida has managed to reawaken a group of guardian genes called retrocyclins, which has been sleeping in our genomes for over 7 million years.  The retrocyclins enable monkeys to protect themselves from viruses similar to HIV and this research hopes that it can do the same for humans.  Several safety tests and clinical trials have been conducted so far and the results have been promising.

Retrocyclins are the only circular proteins... Read More »