The apparent success of a case in which German doctors cured a man of AIDS using a bone marrow transplant comes as no surprise to Gerhard Bauer, a UC Davis stem cell researcher. Bauer has been working for more than 10 years on a similar cure for AIDS based on replacing the devastated immune system of an HIV-infected patient with stem cells that have been engineered to resist human immunodeficiency syndrome.

Against the backdrop of World AIDS Week, the Nike Foundation has launched a global effort with government partners to put adolescent girls in developing countries at the center of HIV-prevention strategies. Every day, 6,000 young people ages 15 to 24 become infected with HIV. Two-thirds of these new cases are girls. Yet, although girls face the greatest risks, prevention strategies to date have not put them at the core.

A UCSF study has found that a surprisingly high number of maternal cells enters the fetus during pregnancy, prompting the generation of special immune cells in the fetus that suppress a response against the mother. Such peaceful co-existence represents a form of "tolerance," or the way in which the immune system of one individual is able to live side-by-side with foreign objects (or "antigens") that come from elsewhere.

People who manage to control HIV on their own are providing scientists with valuable information about how the immune system eliminates virus-infected cells. A new study, published in the December 4th issue of Immunity, a Cell Press publication, identifies specific characteristics of the immune cells that successfully destroy HIV-infected cells and may drive strategies for developing the next generation of HIV vaccines and therapies.

The candidate vaginal microbicide gel Carraguard does not protect women from HIV infection, reports an Article in this week's edition of The Lancet, written by Stephanie Skoler-Karpoff and Barbara Friedland, Population Council, New York, USA, and colleagues. Around 33.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV, of whom 68% live in sub-Saharan Africa; and in that region, women and girls are disproportionately affected, accounting for 61% of infections.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer on Tuesday examined the increasing number of new HIV/AIDS cases recorded among people over age 50 and efforts to curb the spread of the virus among the population.

The Arkansas HIV/AIDS Minority Task Force on Monday released its final report and said it will request $3 million in state funding over the next two years to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in minority communities and establish testing sites, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports (Frago, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 12/2).The 19-member task force was formed in January by Gov.

"In a radical departure from earlier strategies, public health officials are now arguing that circumcision of men should be a key weapon in the fight against" HIV in Africa, Ingrid Katz of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Alexi Wright of the

HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in Alabama and other Southern states fail to reach the Hispanic population, despite a rise in cases among Hispanics, according to a report released on Monday by the Latino Commission on AIDS, the Birmingham News reports.

Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Wednesday urged President-elect Barack Obama to fulfill his pledge to double U.S. foreign assistance to $50 billion by the end of his first term for global health and other issues, the Washington Post reports.

Botswana's President Ian Khama on Monday said that the number of HIV-positive people accessing antiretroviral therapy in the country is expected to nearly double over the next eight years, Mmegi/AllAfrica.com reports. If current HIV/AIDS rates continue, the number of HIV-positive people accessing the drugs could increase to 220,600, up from an estimated 145,000 currently, according to Khama.

An HIV-positive Chinese advocate on Tuesday was forced back to her home in central Henan province after participating in ceremonies in Beijing marking World AIDS Day, Reuters India reports.

"If ever there was a case for unvarnished sex education in public schools, the ongoing AIDS epidemic in black America ought to be it," columnist Courtland Milloy writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.

The Dutch NGO, Text to Change (TTC) and The AIDS Information Centre - Uganda (AIC) have decided to continue their fruitful partnership in fighting HIV/AIDS by using incentive based Mobile Text Messaging. TTC and AIC aim to perform an expansion of the successful and well received Mbarara pilot, executed in February - March 2008, by jointly performing a second program in Arua (Northwest Uganda) targeting an audience of 10,000 mobile subscribers.

Addressing the discrimination against HIV-positive teachers in Africa is a key aim of a new documentary and accompanying book launched in Senegal by the Partnership for Child Development based at Imperial College London. An estimated 122,000 teachers in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV, most of whom have not sought testing and do not know their status.

"If ever there was a case for unvarnished sex education in public schools, the ongoing AIDS epidemic in black America ought to be it," columnist Courtland Milloy writes in a Washington Post opinion piece, adding, "[H]ow can we teach [HIV prevention] if we can't talk frankly?" Milloy writes that he is "focusing on women and AIDS ...

The Los Angeles Times and the Journal of the American Medical Association recently published opinion pieces about male circumcision as a method of HIV prevention. Summaries appear below.

Several hundred African HIV/AIDS advocates on Tuesday marched in Senegal's capital of Dakar to urge U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to fulfill funding commitments for HIV/AIDS efforts, Reuters reports. The advocates demonstrated ahead of the

Early treatment for HIV-positive infants can significantly increase their chances of survival, according to a report released Monday by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and the United Nations Population Fund, the

Thousands of HIV-positive people in Myanmar are dying because not enough funding is being allocated by the government for treatment, Medecins Sans Frontieres said last week, the New York Times reports.

Kentucky's AIDS Drug Assistance Program -- which provides medications to low-income, uninsured and underinsured HIV-positive people -- has lost a significant portion of its federal and state funding over the past three years and may be forced to reinstate a waiting list by April, state health officials said Monday, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

The Washington Post on Tuesday examined the Washington, D.C.-based homeless care center Joseph's House, which provides nursing services and support to homeless people living with HIV/AIDS.

.A new study led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has clarified how two major variants of HIV differ in their ability to cause neurologic complications. The finding, published in Journal of Neuroscience, highlights a new target for drugs that could prevent HIV-associated dementia, an incurable and increasingly common complication in people with AIDS.

The Rwandan government is increasing efforts to provide HIV/AIDS testing and treatment to children who are living with or vulnerable to the disease in the country, Health Minister Richard Sezibera said recently, Rwanda's New Times reports.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Cambodia last week launched the first phase of a program that aims to test 10,000 people in the country for HIV, the Phnom Penh Post reports. The campaign is part of an AHF program to test one million people worldwide for HIV by World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot on Sunday said that an Indian law criminalizing sex between men is a "major obstacle" to the country's efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, News Track India reports. Piot called the law a "violation of human rights" and said that it should have been abolished a long time ago.

The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday examined how China is increasingly promoting condoms as a method of HIV prevention. While HIV "has long thrived quietly on the fringes of Chinese society" among injection drug users and tainted blood recipients, there is now a risk of HIV spreading further into the general population.

For Eric Sawyer, the late 1980s was a "war time situation". "People with AIDS were fighting for their lives and for their friends", says Sawyer, an AIDS activist and co-founder of ACT UP New York. By 1988, seven years after the first case of AIDS was reported, AIDS was causing more deaths in the US then there were in the Vietnam War, and between 5 and 10 million people were estimated to be infected with HIV around the world.

The government of Togo on Monday announced that it has begun distributing no-cost antiretroviral drugs through the network of the Central Supply of Essential and Generic Medicines, Reuters reports.

Eighteen Tanzanian media houses on Sunday launched HIV/AIDS workplace policies in response to news from the Tanzania Health Index Survey that the country could lose 9% of its most economically productive population to the disease by 2020, the Tanzania Daily News reports. According to Fatima Mrisho, chair of the

Tibotec recently announced long-term study results from a phase 3 clinical trial, which compared PREZISTA(R) (darunavir)/ritonavir to lopinavir/ritonavir, as part of HIV combination therapy, in lopinavir/r-naive, treatment-experienced HIV-1 infected adults. A 96-week resistance analysis from the study, known as TITAN, was presented in an oral presentation at the Ninth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection (HIV9) in Glasgow, UK on November 13, 2008.

The risk of non-AIDS cancer is higher for individuals infected with HIV than for the general population, according to a meta-analysis presented here at the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. Compared with the general population, the risk for non-AIDS cancers was 2.3 times higher for men with HIV and 1.5 times greater for women with HIV.

More than 500 representatives from islands in the Indian Ocean -- including Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Reunion Island and Seychelles -- recently expressed concern about the impact of HIV/AIDS on the region during a conference in Mauritius, IRIN/PlusNews reports.

Condom sales in India increased by 85 million in the months following a media campaign featuring a cellular phone ringtone that says "condom, condom," officials at India's National AIDS Control Organization said on Friday,

The International Criminal Police Organization recently confiscated $6.65 million worth of counterfeit HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis drugs in Southeast Asia and made 27 arrests as part of a five-month investigation involving nearly 200 raids, Aline Plancon, an officer involved in the operation, said on Monday,

Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and Age Concern Wirral are inviting members of Wirral's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and people living with HIV aged 50 and over to come forward and take part in a new and exciting project called Hidden Voices. THT and Age Concern Wirral are holding a series of focus groups to learn about people's experiences as an older member of the LGBT community, as well as the experiences of people living with HIV.

Canada's only supervised injection facility is extending lives and saving the health-care system millions of dollars, a new study shows. In analyzing the cost-effectiveness of Vancouver-based Insite, a safe injection facility in a downtown neighbourhood where about 5,000 injection drug users live, researchers found $14 million in savings and health gains of 920 life-years over 10 years.

Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trust, Terrence Higgins Trust and Hastings Voluntary action are working together to offer one hour HIV testing in Hastings on World AIDS Day, December 1. The testing clinic will be based at Hastings Voluntary Action in Priory Street and will be open from 9.30am-1.30pm. Approximately a third of people living with HIV don't know they have it so it's important to increase the uptake of HIV testing. The tests are free and confidential for everyone.

President Bush's "efforts to reduce HIV infection and mortality rates through the

Health officials and public health advocates in Indiana on Friday hosted the Fifth Annual Statewide HIV Awareness Program in an effort to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, the Indianapolis Star reports. According to the Star, approximately 9,170 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Indiana, of whom one-third are black.

The 128 new HIV/AIDS cases recorded between the beginning of 2008 and the end of October in the Czech Republic have broken a record for the highest number of new cases registered in the country, Jana Vandasova of the National Reference Laboratory for AIDS said on Thursday, the CTK/Prague Daily Monitor reports.

According to media reports this week, an American patient living in Germany and suffering with both leukemia and HIV was apparently cured of both conditions following a bone marrow transplant from a unique donor. The donor possessed a very rare genetic variation that makes it difficult for HIV to enter into his healthy cells.

A cost-effectiveness analysis of Insite, Canada's only supervised safe injection site in Vancouver, concludes that it results in $14 million in savings and health gains of 920 life-years over 10 years. The study, published in CMAJ, estimated the number of HIV and Hepatitis C cases that could be prevented with decreased needle sharing, safer injection practices and more referrals to addiction services.

Several newspapers recently profiled the case of an HIV-positive person who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia and who has had undetectable HIV viral loads for almost two years. For the procedure -- performed by German hematologist Gero Hutter of Berlin's

The Treatment Action Campaign of South Africa is calling on pharmaceutical companies to "dramatically lower the prices" of human papillomavirus vaccines to make them more affordable for HIV-positive women, the Cape Times/IOL reports.

Millions of migrant workers in Southeast Asia are vulnerable to HIV because they do not have access to health services and legal or social protection, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, AFP/Yahoo! Singapore News reports. According to the report, more than 1.

In this episode of our bi-weekly podcast, Dr. Judith Auerbach, the Foundation's Deputy Executive Director for Science and Public Policy, discusses how the Obama administration's HIV/AIDS plan will impact the fight against HIV/AIDS. President-elect Obama campaigned on a promise of implementing a National AIDS Strategy and Dr. Auerbach explains the effect this could have on HIV science and policy. Get the Flash Player to listen to our podcast in your browser. Dr. Judith Auerbach is responsible for developing, leading, and...

Chile's new health minister, Alvaro Erazo, on Thursday said that at least 512 people nationwide have not been informed by the public health system that they tested HIV-positive and that an additional 1,364 people have not been told by private sector services that they carry the virus, the New York Times reports.

President Bush on Wednesday received the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award in recognition of his administration's efforts to advance HIV/AIDS, health and development efforts in Africa, the AP/Washington Post reports.

Sexual health and HIV charity, Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and City & Guilds are launching a new Level 2 Award in understanding HIV and Aids. The qualification is designed for people interested in or already working in a role where knowledge of HIV and Aids would be beneficial to their work.

The New York Times recently examined HIV/AIDS among U.S. residents older than age 50. HIV-positive people are living longer as the virus has become more manageable; however, HIV is "more aggressive" in older people because the immune system begins to deteriorate naturally as people age, according to the Times.

HIV prevention efforts in Namibia should "put more emphasis" on changing behavior and reducing HIV-associated stigma and discrimination, Namibian Health Minister Richard Kamwi said recently at a one-day meeting on the National HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategy in the Namibian capital of Windhoek, The Namibian/AllAfrica.com reports.

The Angolan government will carry out an HIV awareness campaign and provide no-cost HIV testing and treatment in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus in the country, which has been largely unaffected by the disease because of a 27-year civil war that prevented travel in and out of the country, Reuters reports.

The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday announced it has approved nearly $3 billion in Round 8 funding to improve access to HIV treatment and prevention and help reduce deaths from TB and malaria by 50% by 2015, AFP/Yahoo! News reports (AFP/Yahoo! News, 11/10).

Hispanics in Los Angeles County are waiting about twice as long to seek HIV testing and treatment as whites, leading to increased HIV prevalence among Hispanics, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports. According to the Tribune, 60% of HIV cases among Hispanics in the county are detected "very late," compared with 33% among whites.

President-elect Barack Obama likely will undo U.S. family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention efforts that long linked funding to antiabortion and abstinence-only policies, Susan Wood -- co-chair of Obama's advisory committee for women's health and a professor at George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services -- said recently,

New data on PREZISTA® (darunavir), a protease inhibitor from Tibotec, will be presented at the Ninth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection (HIV9) in Glasgow, U.K., from 09-13 November 2008. The company also presented new data on PREZISTA® at the 48th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Washington, D.C., from 25-28 October 2008.

"Six months is a long time to wait if you're fighting a disease like HIV/AIDS or if you are an agency that works to help those patients," a New Orleans Times-Picayune editorial says in response to the recent announcement that the distribution of $7 million in

A new therapy that involves engineering an HIV-positive individual's own immune system to fight the virus more effectively has been developed by researchers at Adaptimmune in Oxford, England, London's Guardian reports (Randerson, Guardian, 11/10).

Toronto's Globe and Mail on Monday examined efforts by the advocacy group AIDS-Free World to address politically driven, widespread rapes in Zimbabwe that followed the country's first round of presidential elections in March. In August, AIDS-Free World

Skin and haircare specialist Kiehl's is launching a major fundraising and awareness campaign for Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) in the run up to World AIDS Day - 1 December. Six celebrities have designed Kiehl's canvas shopping bags which will be raising money for the charity during a number of events.

The question of whether or not to continue to pursue the development of T-cell-based HIV-1 vaccines has been a source of controversy following last year's widely publicized failure of the field's most promising candidate, a vaccine developed by Merck known as V520. Now a study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides the proof-of-concept that a T-cell-based strategy remains a viable course to follow.

Scientists in Canada and the US have discovered a method that apparently restores vitality to certain immune system cells that have become "exhausted" from fighting HIV, thus potentially restoring the ability of the infected person's own immune system to wage war against the virus.

Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of California, San Francisco, have revealed new hope for HIV treatment with the discovery of a way to 'rescue' immune cells that are exhausted from fighting off HIV infection. The team lead by Drs.

Like other kinds of cells, immune cells lose the ability to divide as they age because a part of their chromosomes known as a telomere becomes progressively shorter with cell division. As a result, the cell changes in many ways, and its disease fighting ability is compromised.

A recent review of a clinical study funded by NIH comparing antiretroviral treatment regimens that contained either nevirapine or ritonavir-boosted lopinavir found that ritonavir/ lopinavir is more effective than nevirpaine among HIV-positive women who previously took a single-dose of nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, South Africa's

People who are HIV-positive are now living longer, healthier lives, thanks to antiretroviral therapy and other treatment advances, and the number of HIV-positive people seeking LASIK, intraocular lenses following cataract removal, and similar procedures is likely to grow in coming years. Ahmad A. Aref, M.D.

HIV is a master of disguise, able to rapidly change its identity and hide undetected in infected cells. But now, in a long-standing collaborative research effort partially-funded by the Wellcome Trust, scientists from Oxford-based Adaptimmune Limited, in partnership with the Universities of Cardiff and Pennsylvania have engineered immune cells to act as "bionic assassins" that see through HIV's many disguises.

Scottish health officials Tuesday rejected calls to allow men who have sex with men to donate blood, citing concerns about the number of HIV cases in the population, The Scotsman reports. National Director of the

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has returned $7.3 million in misused grant money to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Global Fund Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine said Friday, Reuters reports (Williams, Reuters [1], 11/7).The money, which was part of last year's $12.

Male circumcision will be a primary focus of Botswana's HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, the Sunday Standard reports. The decision to focus on male circumcision as part of a boost in prevention efforts was announced at the annual planning conference of the

The Wall Street Journal on Friday examined the case of an HIV-positive person who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia and who has had undetectable HIV viral loads for almost two years. The procedure -- performed by German hematologist Gero Hutter of Berlin's

While countries worldwide are scaling up their antiretroviral treatment programs, more people living with HIV/AIDS are expected to develop resistance to their drug regimens and lack access to more expensive alternative therapies, IRIN/PlusNews reports.

The following summarize efforts and events that seek to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. Asian Liver Center:

In this episode, we'll hear an excerpt from our recent HIVision forum entitled Abuse and Trauma: Lessons for HIV prevention and care. Moderator Michael Siever asked the panel how gender and sexuality interact with trauma, abuse and HIV. This epsisode includes commentary from three of the panelists, Cheryl Gore-Felton, Ann Brennan and John Williams. Get the Flash Player to listen to our podcast in your browser. HIVision is an ongoing forum series bringing research and evidence to bear on timely...

In this episode, we'll be talking with Dr. Cheryl Gore-Felton about abuse and trauma and how they affect the health of people living with HIV and AIDS. Dr. Gore-Felton is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center, and the director of clinical intervention research with the Center on Stress and Health at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She will be a panelist at our upcoming HIVision forum entitled "Abuse and Trauma: Lessons...

In this episode, Dr. Michael Siever, the Foundation's Director of Behavioral Health Sciences and the founder of the Stonewall Project, discusses the effects of abuse and trauma among gay men. Studies have shown that links exist between abuse and trauma and a greater potential for drug abuse and increased HIV risk behaviors. Get the Flash Player to listen to our podcast in your browser. Dr. Michael Siever is a licensed psychologist with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. He has a...

In this episode, Ernest Hopkins, the Foundation's Director of Federal Affairs, gives an update on the progress of current HIV-related legislation in Washington. With the elections less than two months away, Ernest gives an outline of the key HIV policy differences between the Republican and Democratic party platforms and an update on the progress of the federal needle exchange bill. Get the Flash Player to listen to our podcast in your browser. Ernest Hopkins is responsible for implementing the San...

In this episode, Tim Ryan, a registered nurse and the clinical services manager at Magnet, the Foundation's gay men's sexual health clinic, talks about what Magnet's doing differently to encourage sexual health in San Francisco's gay male community and why RNA testing for HIV may reduce HIV infection rates with early diagnosis of acute HIV infection. Recent studies suggest that acute HIV infection may be responsible for up to 50% of new HIV infections in San Francisco. Get the Flash...

More than 1,500 mostly HIV-positive women on Thursday protested against a foreign shopping trip taken by eight of King Mswati's 13 wives in what appeared to be the first demonstration in the country by HIV-positive people questioning how money should be spent, AFP/Khaleej Times reports.

LinkMed's wholly owned subsidiary Olerup SSP AB has developed a new test that detects genetic variations in the Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA) system that indicate risk for severe adverse reactions to Abacavir in HIV patients. The test is marketed and sold by Qiagen. Experts expect more tests for similar markers in the future.

Scientists from the US and Russia studying the treatment of patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) in Tomsk, Russia, concluded that it was possible to contain the global threat from this highly resistant strain with aggressive treatment that reduces deaths and prevents further transmission.

About 12,000 of the 50,000 HIV-positive children in Uganda who are in need of antiretroviral therapy are receiving the treatment, delegates said on Wednesday during the second annual national pediatric HIV/AIDS conference in Kampala, Uganda, the Monitor reports.

IRIN/PlusNews on Wednesday profiled Bellissima, an Ethiopian cafe located in the capital of Addis Ababa that provides no-cost "Sensation" brand condoms with every order. Hayat Ahmed, 2003 Miss Ethiopia and owner of Bellissima, said that as the brand ambassador for "Sensation" condoms in the country, she "wanted to link business with a message for sexually active people.

Vietnam's General Department of Population and Family Planning under the Ministry of Health on Tuesday launched an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign that promotes safer-sex practices among young people in the country, the VNS/Viet Nam News reports.

A team of researchers is examining how different perceptions of masculinity can influence HIV prevention messages in Central America, the Columbia State reports. The team, which is supported by USAID and

A bill seeking to promote the development of microbicides to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections has been introduced in the Philippines, the Philippines News Agency reports. The legislation was filed by Rep. Narciso Santiago and states that the Department of Health and its components should increase research into the initial mechanism of infection by STIs.

CDC officials on Thursday confirmed that the agency has stopped funding for Georgia to participate in a "cutting-edge" surveillance program aimed at determining trends in HIV/AIDS nationwide, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The first results from the program about annual new HIV infections in the U.S.

Jhpiego has been awarded $16.5 million from the United States Agency for International Development, over five years, to provide support for a program in Tanzania to increase access and use of HIV counseling and testing services. Knowing your HIV status is critical for preventing the spread of the disease and for receiving life-extending treatment. Jhpiego, with its partners Africare and T-MARC Company Ltd.

In the past 10 years, the global campaign to expand treatment for millions of people with AIDS living in resource-limited countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, has gained substantial commitments in public and private financing, and has made major strides in making treatment available to those who need it.

Indevus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDEV) announced the completion of enrollment in Protocol MDP 301, a Phase III clinical trial of PRO 2000, the Company's candidate vaginal microbicide for the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Representatives from Standard Chartered Bank and UNAIDS in Bangladesh recently signed an agreement to create a business coalition on HIV/AIDS in the country, the New Nation reports.

HIV/AIDS prevalence in Cambodia has decreased from its all-time high in the late 1990s and health officials predict further declines in the near future, national media reported on Wednesday, Xinhuanet reports.

In order for Namibia to increase access to male circumcision in an effort to curb the spread of HIV in the country, resources need to be mobilized and health facilities nationwide better prepared, Minister of Health and Social Services Richard Kamwi said recently, the New Era/AllAfrica.com reports. According to the New Era/AllAfrica.

The Boston Globe on Thursday profiled Grassroot Soccer, a not-for-profit organization aimed at educating children in Africa about HIV/AIDS using professional soccer players as teachers.

"HIV Prevention Among Vulnerable Populations: The Pathfinder International Approach" (.pdf), Pathfinder International: The report provides information about the risks faced by populations that are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, including commercial sex workers, injection drug users and men who have sex with men.

The Toronto Star on Wednesday profiled the work of the International Community of Women Living With HIV/AIDS in Namibia, which aims to improve support, information and services available for HIV-positive women in the country. The group also works to increase HIV-positive women's influence and input on policy development in Namibia.

Human rights groups in Uganda recently called on the government to pass a bill aimed at addressing domestic violence against women that often results from issues related to HIV/AIDS, Uganda's New Vision reports.

The BBC World Service Trust has produced a cellular phone ringtone in India that says "condom, condom" to promote safer sex and curb the spread of HIV in the country, AFP/Google.com reports (AFP/Google.com, 8/19).

The fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic is at a "frustrating yet tantalizing turning point," as was "evidenced" at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City earlier this month, a San Francisco Chronicle editorial says.

Although federal funding to support state organizations in Delaware in the fight against HIV/AIDS is helping to address the disease among blacks -- who make up 67% of the state's HIV-positive population -- some advocates say the prevalence of the disease among blacks would be closer to that of whites if more resources were used to target poverty, the

Two not-for-profit groups in South Carolina have launched an initiative to provide sexual assault survivors in three counties with post-exposure prophylaxis medications and follow-up care in an effort to prevent the spread of HIV, the Myrtle Beach Sun-News reports. The partnership is between

The first clinical trial to use an HIV drug as cancer therapy has shown that it can help increase chances of recovery from pancreatic cancer. When given in combination with the usual chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Nelfinavir helped shrink previously inoperable tumours so that they could be surgically removed.

In this episode, Professor Gary Dowsett, deputy director at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, talks about concurrency, a term used to describe sexual relationships with multiple partners, in HIV prevention. Research shows that this practice is a factor in many new HIV infections, but effective interventions may include embracing-not rejecting-some of the structures that surround cultures with multiple sexual partnerships including gay men.

Caribbean nations will establish national HIV/AIDS workplace policies as soon as a regional policy modeled after International Labour Organization guidelines is ready, the Jamaica Observer reports. According to Carl Browne, director of the

The New York Times' Larry Altman on Tuesday analyzed the focus of the XVII International AIDS Conference, which was held earlier this month in Mexico City.

A recent Washington Times opinion piece "highlights important statistics about the AIDS epidemic" in Washington, D.C., as well as the "need for more prevention education," Richard Urban of Urban Life Training and Reality Assessment Teen Choice writes in a

A new online initiative called One Life is targeting sexually active Canadians 18 to 30 years old and urging them to practice safer sex and undergo HIV testing, the Toronto Star reports. Launched Monday, the campaign, which includes the musical group U2 and singer Mary J. Blige, is a collaboration between

The AP/Long Island Newsday on Sunday examined the efforts of a mother-daughter team to reduce HIV/AIDS through community development in Kenya. Rosemell Ong'udi and her daughter, Loyce Mbewa-Ong'udi -- who runs the

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) launched an educational program to raise awareness of the growing problem of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among clinicians and HIV treatment educators. Patients with HIV are at an increased risk of CKD, which may be associated with progression to AIDS and linked to increased mortality.

Vical Incorporated (Nasdaq: VICL) announced a research collaboration with the Karolinska Institute, a leading European medical university, and the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI), a governmental expert agency, to evaluate Vical's Vaxfectin(R) adjuvant with the Biojector(R) 2000 needle-free injection system (Bioject Medical Technologies Inc., OTCBB:BJCT) for a multivalent preventive DNA vaccine against HIV. Professor Eric Sandstrom, M.

The Lancet in its Aug. 16 issue published an article about biomedical interventions to prevent HIV, as well as the U.S. presidential candidates' global health plans. Summaries appear below. "Biomedical Interventions To Prevent HIV Infection: Evidence, Challenges and Way Forward": Nancy Padian of the

When President Bush in 2003 "proposed to take the fight against AIDS to Africa" with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, slowing the "spread of the disease seemed quixotic, particularly on a continent where only about 50,000 of the 30 million" people worldwide living with the disease had treatment access, a

ProPublica on Thursday examined a U.S. investigation into whether Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy engaged in a "pattern of systemic fraudulent conduct" by concealing its drug manufacturing process violated FDA standards, including HIV/AIDS medications used in the

The number of people accessing HIV/AIDS treatment in the northwest region of England increased by 9% in 2007 compared with data from 2006, according to a report released recently by the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University and the North West Protection Agency, the Press Association reports.

About 400,000 no-cost condoms and 250,000 HIV/AIDS prevention pamphlets recently were distributed by Beijing's Health Bureau to 119 hotels that contracted with the Olympic Games, as well as other hotels in the city, Xinhuanet reports.

Conflict in Nigeria's oil-rich delta region is contributing to the spread of HIV in the country, IRIN/PlusNews reports. According to IRIN/PlusNews, rapes being committed by militants fighting for a greater share of the region's oil wealth and the military are contributing to the spread of HIV.

HIV/AIDS advocates in Georgia have become concerned that "[o]ld messages geared to urban, white, gay men simply don't resonate with many" black, rural, women and young people, who now are the "new face" of HIV/AIDS in the state, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

QIAGEN (Nasdaq: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) announced that it has introduced a new molecular diagnostic test to type the HLA-B*5701 allele, a genetic variation in the Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA) system. HIV patients carrying the HLA-B*5701 marker have a 60% higher risk to develop hypersensitivity reaction (HSR) to Abacavir, which is a component of several widely marketed drugs inhibiting the reverse transcriptase of the HI virus.

In up to 20 percent of people infected with HIV, the virus manages to escape from the bloodstream and cross into the brain, resulting in HIV-associated dementia and other cognitive disorders.

The journal Science in its Aug. 15 issue examined the "intense scrutiny" that HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment received during last week's XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Mike Cohen of the

Nongovernmental organizations and a health insurance company on Wednesday launched an insurance program for people living with HIV in the Indian state of Karnataka, The Hindu reports. The program -- the first of its kind in India -- was launched by

The Ugandan pharmaceutical company Quality Chemicals later this year will begin producing antiretroviral drugs aimed at preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission in the country, George Baguma, the company's director of marketing, announced on Tuesday, the Monitor/AllAfrica.com reports.

"In terms of maximizing impact and joining forces to control the epidemic, this merger is an innovative and bold move," said Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director. "This is the sort of consolidation I believe we will see more of in the future across the AIDS sector." Formal merger negotiations were announced between two global leaders on HIV and TB:

Although many injection drug users in Thailand are HIV-positive, the government's campaign to curb drug use makes it difficult for IDUs to access no-cost antiretroviral treatment provided by the government, advocates said recently, VOA News reports. According to VOA News, an estimated half of the country's 100,000 to 250,000 IDUs are HIV-positive.

USAID recently launched a short-film competition, called "You Are No Exception," to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Nepal, the Kathmandu Post reports. According to a report by the agency, many people living in rural parts of Nepal do not use condoms because they associate them with commercial sex work and immoral behavior.

A second Phase I AIDS vaccine clinical trial in India was successfully completed, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the National AIDS Control Organization and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative have announced. The results of the trial of an MVA-based AIDS vaccine candidate (TBC-M4), which was conducted in Chennai, indicated that the vaccine candidate had acceptable levels of safety and was well tolerated.

For a long time, the main obstacle to creating an AIDS vaccine has been the high genetic variability of the HIV virus. Dr. Jean-Pierre Routy and his team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), in collaboration with Dr. Rafick Sekaly from the Universite de Montreal, have overcome this difficulty by designing a personalized immunotherapy for HIV-infected patients. The team's findings were presented at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

NPR's "Tell Me More" on Wednesday profiled two HIV-positive advocates in the black community. According to a recent report from the Black AIDS Institute, nearly 600,000 blacks in the U.S.

Two Canadian mathematicians and a team of 25 Canadian and African graduate students will travel to Botswana next week for a workshop on controlling the spread of infectious diseases -- such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis -- using mathematical equations and formulas, CP/CBC News reports.According to Arvind Gupta -- scientific director of

Population Services International (PSI), a non-governmental organization, in partnership with Star Health and Allied Insurance Company and the Karnataka Network for Positive People (KNP+) introduced India's first ever group health insurance plan today to more than 250 People Living with HIV (PLHIV).

The Commission on AIDS in Asia last week at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City released a report about prevention efforts being made by countries in the region, the Jakarta Post/Asia News Network reports.

Uganda has launched a male circumcision drive in an effort to curb the spread of HIV in the country, Reuters reports. According to Reuters, the campaign -- which aims to circumcise more than 3,000 local young men between ages 12 and 18 -- aligns with a month-long traditional "circumcision season" practiced by some tribes in Uganda.

Married women in India whose husbands physically and sexually abuse them are about four times more likely to contract HIV compared with married women in the country who do not experience abuse, according to a study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Reuters UK reports. Researchers, led by Jay Silverman of the

India is home to the third-largest number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the world and, as in the U.S. and many African nations, the rate of infection among women continues to rise faster than that among men.

Inovio Biomedical Corporation (AMEX:INO), a leader in enabling the development of DNA vaccines using a proprietary electroporation-based DNA delivery platform, announced today it has expanded its research license with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a leading organization dedicated to ensuring the development of safe and effective preventive HIV vaccines.

Although Yemen -- which has recorded 2,431 HIV/AIDS cases -- is considered one of the countries with the lowest number of people living with the disease worldwide, some organizations, including the country's National AIDS Control Program, say that the numbers likely do not accurately reflect the true number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the country, the Yemen Times reports.

Although antiretroviral medications are provided at no cost in Mozambique and access to the drugs is "relatively easy," large numbers of HIV-positive Mozambicans are dropping out of treatment programs because of a lack of food, Medecins Sans Frontieres said recently, IRIN/Plus News reports.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Monday examined efforts by some organizations and pharmacies in the city and surrounding area to improve medication management for HIV-positive people.

A recent CDC report on HIV/AIDS in the U.S. -- which found that about 56,000 new HIV infections occur in the U.S. each year -- "should serve as a wake-up call from the AIDS amnesia surrounding the domestic epidemic in recent years," Susan Blumenthal, senior policy and medical adviser at the

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in September will begin a two-year study to determine whether a lack of trust of the U.S. medical system is a factor behind a higher mortality rate among Hispanics with HIV/AIDS, the Winston-Salem Journal reports.

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a second generation RNA interference company developing novel therapeutics utilizing proprietary Dicer Substrate Technology™, today announced key studies highlighting the therapeutic potential for Dicer-substrate small interfering RNAs (DsiRNAs). The first study, co-authored by Dicerna co-founder John Rossi, Ph.D.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the operator of the largest non-government HIV testing program in California, praised the California Legislature for its passage this week of Assembly Bill 2899 (Portantino, D-Pasadena). "AB 2899 will revolutionize the way we do HIV testing in California, and we strongly urge the Governor to sign this bill," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Researchers form Harvard and India have found that married Indian women who are physically and sexually abused by their husbands have an increased risk of HIV infection compared with women who are not abused by their husbands. The results of the study are published in the August 13 issue of JAMA. Jay G. Silverman, Ph.D. (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston) and colleagues write that, "India is home to approximately 2.

HIV is being detected in Texas Hispanics at later stages than in other ethnic groups in the state, which increases their risk of spreading the virus and delaying treatment, the Dallas Morning News reports. There are more than 8,000 Hispanics living with AIDS in Texas, which has the largest recent influx of new Hispanic immigrants in the nation.

The AP/Google.com on Friday examined new approaches to curbing the spread of HIV among men who have sex with men. A program in North Carolina that showed "promising signs" enlisted local MSM opinion leaders to urge their peers to practice safer sex in an effort to curb the spread of HIV, the AP/Google.com reports.

Poverty and the movement of people displaced by war have contributed to an increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Sudan, United Nations and Sudanese health officials said on Sunday, adding that a lack of data is hindering efforts to get an accurate picture of the disease in the country, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports.

Only 1% of people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide have been screened for tuberculosis, according to a report recently released by the coalition Advocacy To Control TB Internationally, or ACTION, Reuters reports. The report, which is based on

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Wednesday is scheduled to arrive in Cote d'Ivoire, where he will visit projects aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, AFP/Google.com reports. Leavitt will spend two days in the country, which receives funding from the

Asylum applicants, U.S. lawyers and Hispanic advocates say it has become increasingly difficult for men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women from Mexico and other Latin American countries to obtain asylum in the U.S. because of the countries' improved treatment of homosexuality, liberalized laws and expanded HIV/AIDS treatment, according to the

Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX:SPL)(PINK:SPHRY) announced the start of its next clinical trial of VivaGel(R). The study will measure the level of antiviral activity retained by VivaGel(R) after vaginal administration. Assessment will be by laboratory assay of vaginal samples collected up to 24 hours after VivaGel(R) application. The study in 12 women will determine the timescale over which VivaGel(R) retains activity against HIV and HSV-2 (genital herpes).

Researchers examined HIV stigma in a population-based study of 1,268 adults in Botswana in 2004, after the introduction of a national program of universal access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2002. Results showed 38 percent of participants had at least one stigmatizing attitude; 23 percent would not buy food from a shopkeeper with HIV and 5 percent would not care for a relative with HIV.

A cure for the virus that causes AIDS may still be beyond our grasp, but European researchers have developed a predictive software system for HIV that could help extend the lives of victims of the killer disease. Despite significant progress in the management of the HIV virus that causes AIDS, today's best treatments do not totally eradicate the virus.

Delegates at the close of the XVII International AIDS Conference on Friday in Mexico City called for a reversal of laws that criminalize and stigmatize people living with HIV/AIDS, the New York Times reports.

India's National AIDS Control Organisation has said it will increase HIV prevention efforts among men who have sex with men by sixfold by the end of the year, the Times of India reports. The announcement was made following the release of the

The United Nations Development Programme on Thursday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City awarded five organizations from Ghana, India, Iran, Malawi and Mexico with Red Ribbon Awards, recognizing their efforts in fighting HIV/AIDS,

Many children continue to lack access to effective HIV detection programs and antiretroviral drugs, HIV/AIDS experts said Thursday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, AFP/Google.com reports.

HIV-positive patients who receive care from trained nurses fare just as well as those who are treated by physicians, according to two studies released at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Reuters reports.

Studies have repeatedly shown that female condoms are widely accepted and that many women prefer them to male condoms, but the hesitance of policy makers to promote and invest in their use has hindered their ability to protect women from HIV/AIDS, according to an Oxfam report presented Thursday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Toronto's

HIV is being detected in Texas Hispanics at later stages than in other ethnic groups in the state, which increases their risk of spreading the virus and delaying treatment, the Dallas Morning News reports. There are more than 8,000 Hispanics living with AIDS in Texas, which has the largest recent influx of new Hispanic immigrants in the nation.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt and a high-level delegation will visit the African nations of Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Mali next week to review cooperative efforts to reduce the spread of diseases including HIV/AIDS, malaria and highly pathogenic avian influenza. Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Tim Ziemer, the President's malaria coordinator, are also traveling to Africa with the Secretary. The U.S.

AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins say they have compelling evidence that some people with HIV who for years and even decades show extremely low levels of the virus in their blood never progress to full-blown AIDS and remain symptom free even without treatment, probably do so because of the strength of their immune systems, not any defects in the strain of HIV that infected them in the first place.

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Public health authorities, HIV and Maternal and Child Health experts concluded that it is feasible to eliminate the vertical transmission of HIV and syphilis in the Caribbean by 2015. The conclusion was reached after a technical meeting convened by the Pan American Health Organization-World Health Organization (PAHO-WHO) and the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) during the XVII International AIDS Conference.

Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute and Moi University School of Medicine are the first to report that adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) to fight human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in children who live in low income countries is as high as or higher than adherence by children living in high income countries.

At the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Wednesday, more than 30 nongovernmental organizations from Spain and Latin America signed a declaration calling on governments in Latin America to increase efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, Xinhua/People's Daily reports.

HIV/AIDS experts at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Wednesday said they are concerned that former Soviet Union states are facing widespread HIV/AIDS epidemics, AFP/Yahoo! News reports. Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the

Several newspapers have published opinion pieces this week addressing the XVII International AIDS Conference, the reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a CDC

Ninety-seven countries have requested a total of $6.4 billion from the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in its eighth round of funding proposals, the Inter Press Service reports.At the

An analysis of a 2006 national health survey by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only 40.4 per cent of Americans aged between 18 and 64 reported ever having been tested for HIV, which leaves about 60 per cent who have never been tested. The agency said new strategies are needed to ensure more people are tested as part of routine medical care.

The New York Times on Friday examined AIDS-Free World's investigation into the rape of hundreds of girls and women in Zimbabwe during a two-week period of "political terror ... surrounding recent elections." At the

The Economist on Thursday examined promising new HIV/AIDS developments discussed at this week's XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City and reviewed setbacks in the fight against the disease since the XVI International AIDS Conference in 2006.

Dr. Julio Montaner, Director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, part of Providence Health Care, will assume the prestigious position of President of the International AIDS Society (IAS) at the conclusion of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Dr. Julio Montaner, Director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, part of Providence Health Care, has been appointed president of the world's leading independent association of HIV/AIDS professionals.

Experts at the XVII International AIDS Conference discussed the complementary nature of improving health systems in developing countries and broadening access to HIV prevention and treatment. They called for collaboration in expanding primary care as well as HIV/AIDS care. Gregg Gonsalves of the

With the release of its AIDS Vaccine Blueprint 2008 at the International AIDS Conference today in Mexico City, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) sought to reset both expectations and focus in the search for an AIDS vaccine. "The quest to develop an AIDS vaccine is at a pivotal moment. In the wake of the failure of a leading AIDS vaccine candidate nearly a year ago, some have questioned whether we will ever have an AIDS vaccine," said Dr.

About 40% of adults in the U.S. have ever been tested for HIV, according to a study published Friday in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report to coincide with the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the

Many sex and HIV/AIDS education programs around the world focus on the risks of unsafe sex, which can leave young people unprepared to deal with their sexuality or lead sexually fulfilling lives, experts said at a satellite session on comprehensive sex education at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Wednesday,

Isentress® (raltegravir), Merck & Co., Inc.

Antibodies that prevent some HIV-positive people from progressing to AIDS could be used to develop microbicides or a vaccine to prevent HIV-negative people from contracting the virus, according to research presented Thursday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the Washington Post reports.

A report released on Wednesday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City called for more attention to and funding for the role of those participating in home-based care for people with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe's Herald/AllAfrica.com reports.The report was compiled by the

Although antiretroviral drugs have become "so effective" that a 20-year-old HIV-positive person in a wealthy country can now expect to live another 43 years on average -- "close to a normal lifespan" -- the "near-miraculous effects" of the drugs highlight the need to treat as many people as possible worldwide, advocates and researchers said on Wednesday at the

More than 17% of HIV-positive patients in 28 China provinces developed resistance to at least one available HIV/AIDS drug by 2006 and 2007, Chinese government researchers announced at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Reuters reports.

Argos Therapeutics and Université de Montréal announced the presentation of new information on Argos' process for developing dendritic cell-based immunotherapies for HIV. Results from the study demonstrate that loading monocyte-derived dendritic cells with combinations of HIV antigen RNA stimulates the expansion of HIV-specific T cells, which attack and kill HIV-infected cells.

A drug commonly used in the developing world to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child persists in the breast milk and blood of the mothers, putting them and their babies at risk for developing drug-resistant strains of the virus, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The researchers found that the drug, nevirapine, stays in the blood and breast milk of the infected mothers for at least two weeks.

Discussions about how to manage AIDS in the long term and how to improve prevention efforts globally took center stage at this year's International AIDS Conference (IAC) held in Mexico City. Unlike previous IAC conferences, this year's event did not have a plenary session focused on vaccines. But that did not stop luminaries and vaccine advocates alike from calling for continued support for an AIDS vaccine to end the epidemic. "The end of AIDS is nowhere in sight," said Dr.

The links between HIV transmission and the degree to which people are able to adopt realistic plans to achieve future projects, in other words, hope, have been overlooked in policies to tackle HIV/AIDS. New research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) argues that hope is a powerful tool in the battle to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Almost 30 years into the AIDS epidemic a medical vaccine for the disease remains elusive.

Barry R. Bloom, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, today expressed "deep concern regarding the detention by Iranian authorities of Dr. Kamiar Alaei, a 2007 Masters of Science graduate of our School, and of his brother, Dr. Arash Alaei. The brothers are Iranian physicians working on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, an important public health problem in their country.

Abbott presented pivotal data at the XVII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2008) in Mexico City showing that its investigational Norvir® (ritonavir) tablet and the current soft-gelatin capsule provide similar levels of drug in the blood. The heat-stable Norvir tablet will not require refrigeration, making it more convenient for patients to use, particularly in developing countries where the majority of people with HIV live.

In a new report released today, an international panel of AIDS experts calls on global leaders to aggressively expand HIV prevention programs aimed at reducing high-risk behaviors, including unsafe sex and drug use. Citing hundreds of clinical trials and observational studies, the report concludes that behavior-change programs are highly effective for preventing HIV, but do not currently reach enough people to have a decisive impact on the epidemic.

In this episode of the SFAF.org IAC podcast, recorded at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Erik Ireland sits down with Congresswoman Barbara Lee, serving as an active participant in the Conference for the fifth consecutive year. Representative Lee gives her candid appraisal of recent legislative successes like the reauthorized President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and calls out where the new bill falls short. She explains why family planning is a vital part of HIV prevention and offers...

The Miami Herald on Tuesday profiled the efforts of two researchers at hospitals in Atlanta and Miami to break the "grim cycle" in which crack users engage in risky sexual behavior, become HIV-positive and transmit the virus to others. Lisa Metsch of the University of Miami's

In a CNN opinion piece in advance of his talk at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Wednesday, Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's

The standard method for assessing risk of HIV transmission through heterosexual intercourse could be flawed, according to a study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases and presented at the XVII International AIDS Conference on Tuesday, AFP/iAfrica.com reports.

Government and global health agencies have failed to adequately address the HIV/AIDS epidemic among men who have sex with men, according to a report by the American Foundation for AIDS Research released Monday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City,

United Nations officials on Monday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City discussed how rising food prices could affect HIV/AIDS, Reuters reports.

PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on Tuesday reported on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Washington, D.C., area. The segment focuses on HIV cases among blacks in the district. About 12,000 of the 600,000 district residents are HIV-positive, 81% of whom are black, according to the NewsHour. Phill Wilson, CEO of the

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative on Tuesday at the XVII International AIDS Conference released a set of guidelines aimed at developing a safe and effective HIV/AIDS vaccine, Reuters reports.

Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement on Monday at the XVII International AIDS Conference announced that Canada will commit $45 million to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa, the Canadian Press/Victoria Star reports.

Treating children and adolescents living with HIV effectively in resource-limited settings is possible, but adapted medicines, diagnostic tools, and treatment strategies are urgently needed to prevent more deaths, according to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In

A professor at The Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is beginning an intensive program in Ethiopia this August to eradicate intestinal worms which affect as much as 50 percent of the population in Africa.

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial to assess the impact of smoked medical cannabis, or marijuana, on the neuropathic pain associated with HIV, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine found that reported pain relief was greater with cannabis than with a placebo.

A Johns Hopkins expert in HIV and how the AIDS virus hides in the body says antiretroviral drugs have stopped HIV from replicating, the first of three key steps needed to rid people of the virus. In an address to be delivered Aug. 6 at the XVII International Conference on AIDS, taking place in Mexico City, infectious disease specialist Robert Siliciano, M.D., Ph.D.

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been extremely effective at slowing the progression of HIV infection to AIDS as well as extending the lives and improving the quality of life for those with HIV. However, some doctors have been reluctant to prescribe HAART to HIV-infected injection drug users because of concern that these patients may not fully benefit from the therapy.

Medication often recommended to treat HIV in children may increase their risk of developing asthma, according to new research published in July issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI). A study of nearly 2,500 HIV-positive children found that those treated with immune-boosting highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) were three times as likely to develop asthma as children who did not receive HAART treatment.

In one of six papers published in The Lancet Series on HIV prevention, Professor Thomas Coates (University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA) and colleagues report that radical behavioral change is necessary in order for HIV prevention programs to be successful.

Researchers argue that a combination of behavioral, medical, and structural approaches grounded on solid evidence, known as combination prevention, is the best hope for successfully preventing HIV in the future.

In the second of six papers in The Lancet Series on HIV prevention, researchers call for HIV prevention efforts to focus on proven biomedical methods. As we have yet to develop an HIV vaccine, core preventions methods such as male condoms, male circumcision, and prophylactic antiretroviral (ARV) drugs (that prevent mother-to-child transmission) should be emphasized.

The human rights group, International Coalition for Genital Integrity, is continuing to raise concerns about the harms and costs of male circumcision at their booth in the AIDS 2008 conference in Mexico City this week, stating that circumcision programs will be a dangerous distraction in the HIV battle.

American Jewish World Service (AJWS) has announced a commitment of $2.4M in grants for 2009 to support grassroots projects addressing the spread of HIV, the rising death toll of AIDS and the devastating impact the pandemic has made on communities throughout the developing world.

A coalition of AIDS and human rights organizations that includes Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) has launched a campaign to free two Iranian physicians, Drs. Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei. The doctors, who are brothers, are active in HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment in Iran. According to international news reports, Iranian security forces detained the Drs. Alaei in late June, 2008 and are holding them incommunicado.

In the fourth of six papers in The Lancet Series on HIV Prevention, Dr Geeta Rao Gupta and Dr Jessica Ogden (International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Washington, DC, USA) and colleagues call for policy makers to give more attention to structural factors known to affect vulnerability and risk of HIV infections. They maintain that successful prevention of HIV infections requires structural reform and policies that focus on individual level behaviors.

Combination HIV prevention - fully implemented and supported by governments, communities and scientists - is necessary for the international community to achieve its HIV prevention goals. This call comes from Dr Peter Piot and Michael Bartos (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV AIDS, Geneva, Switzerland) and colleagues in the sixth of six papers in The Lancet series on HIV Prevention.

Swiss researchers on Sunday at the opening of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City discussed a report finding that some HIV-positive people who take antiretroviral drugs do not transmit the virus during unprotected sex, AFP/Australian Broadcasting Company reports.

HIV/AIDS researchers and advocates on Monday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City said governments and health communities need to scale up male circumcision efforts to prevent HIV, particularly in at-risk countries in Eastern and sub-Saharan Africa, Reuters reports.

The HIV/AIDS "plague has long been the single biggest health issue in poor black communities" in the U.S., which is "all the more reason" for presumptive presidential nominees Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.

Although results of HIV vaccine research have been "unrelentingly negative" in recent years, scientists still should increase efforts to develop a vaccine, HIV/AIDS experts said Monday during a workshop at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Toronto's

The antiretroviral drug nevirapine is less effective in people with HIV/tuberculosis coinfection who begin taking nevirapine at the same time as the TB treatment rifampicin, according to a study published in Wednesday's HIV/AIDS-themed issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and released at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City,

Former President Clinton at a session during the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Monday said that the fight against HIV/AIDS is far from over and called for improved health systems, prevention and treatment worldwide, the Wall Street Journal reports (Chase, Wall Street Journal, 8/5).

A panel of the International AIDS Society-USA in the Aug. 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association issued new recommendations for when doctors should begin antiretroviral treatment for patients with HIV, AFP/Google.com reports. The recommendations also were presented Sunday at the opening of the

A drug commonly used in the developing world to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child persists in the breast milk and blood of the mothers, putting them and their babies at risk for developing drug-resistant strains of the virus, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The researchers found that the drug, nevirapine, stays in the blood and breast milk of the infected mothers for at least two weeks.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) announced results from a pre-specified subanalysis of the CASTLE study, in which once-daily boosted REYATAZ® (atazanavir sulfate) (REYATAZ 300 mg taken with 100 mg of ritonavir, or REYATAZ/r) and twice-daily co-formulated lopinavir 400 mg and ritonavir 100 mg (lopinavir/r), each as part of HIV combination therapy, showed similar results for undetectable viral load at 48 weeks regardless of gender in treatment-naive HIV-1 infected adults.

New phase IIb data from Tibotec Pharmaceuticals Ltd. show that TMC278, the company's once-daily, investigational non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), provides long-term efficacy and tolerability in treatment-naïve adults with HIV. Ninety-six-week study results showed that more than 70 percent of patients receiving TMC278, plus a background regimen, achieved a confirmed and sustained undetectable viral load (defined as

Initial treatment regimens containing once-daily or twice-daily dosing of Abbott's (NYSE: ABT) protease inhibitor Kaletra(R) (lopinavir/ritonavir) tablet provided similar results for controlling the virus (reducing the amount of HIV-1) and improving the immune system

New phase IIb data from Tibotec Pharmaceuticals Ltd. provides additional information on the safety and efficacy of TMC278, the company's once-daily, investigational non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), as part of HIV combination therapy in treatment-naive adults. These findings were presented today at the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2008) in Mexico City.

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, with support from the "A Day in the Life of Africa" Foundation/Tides Foundation, the U.S. Government, Harvard University and others, unveiled a comprehensive guide to improving and expanding HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment efforts in resource-limited settings. Dr.

Kevin Robert Frost, CEO of amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, expressed deep concern over the reported detention by the Iranian government of two Iranian doctors known for their pioneering work on HIV/AIDS. Frost called the detainment of the two brothers Arash and Kamiar Alaei, "extremely troubling," and called for the release of the two men, who were apparently arrested at the end of June.

A new report released shows that funding for biomedical HIV prevention research and development (R&D), including AIDS vaccines and microbicides, increased dramatically between 2000 and 2006 with only a modest increase in 2007. The report warns that the challenge going forward will be to sustain the necessary financial commitment to maintain an efficient and focused research effort and rapidly capitalize on what researchers have learned thus far.

Health and criminal justice authorities need to provide targeted services to drug users, especially those who inject drugs, to prevent and treat tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. TB is a major cause of death for people living with HIV, but drug users who are HIV-positive face stigma, discrimination and barriers to accessing life-saving treatments.

Argos Therapeutics announced the presentation of positive immune response data from a Phase 1 clinical trial of AGS-004 in HIV-infected adults in combination with antiretroviral therapy (ART). AGS-004 achieved the trial's primary endpoint of induction of T cell response to patient-specific HIV antigens. AGS-004 is a personalized HIV immunotherapy generated by the Company's Arcelis™ technology.

Leaders and experts in the fields of HIV and human resources for health have stressed that reaching universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support will not be possible unless both communities work much closer together, reject notions of 'competition' between the two responses and unless stigma within the health professions is seriously addressed.

Delegates gathering at the International AIDS 2008 conference in Mexico City this week will hear stark news from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance about the hidden HIV crisis among transgender people. New research is revealing shockingly high rates of HIV among the transgender communities of Latin America and Asia. In some communities, it's as high as 42% - one of the highest percentages ever registered in any community group.

Bionor Immuno announced that it has advanced its efforts to develop the first HIV therapeutic immunization with the dosing of patients in a global Phase 2b clinical trial of the company's lead candidate (Vacc-4x). This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is being conducted in HIV infected patients with the potential to offer an important drug free break in their current antiretroviral therapy. The company anticipates that trial results will be available by year end 2009.

By the middle of next year, more people from around the world will be enrolled in trials to test pre-exposure prophylaxis as an HIV prevention method than in trials for HIV vaccine candidates or microbicides, according to a report released Sunday by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition at the opening of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the

Both the number of teenage girls participating in commercial sex work and sexual violence have increased in Kenya following the December 2007 presidential election that resulted in political violence, and experts have said the increase will undermine the country's progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the

In this episode of the SFAF.org IAC podcast, recorded at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Erik Ireland speaks with one of the Foundation's allies in the ongoing battle against abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Bill Smith, Vice President for Public Policy at SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, discusses a model for comprehensive sex education in Mexico and provides an update on the evidence that supports comprehensive sex education in the U.S. and the growing number...

There is a "growing belief" among some men in Swaziland that circumcision provides complete protection against HIV -- a perception that is concerning nongovernmental organizations working to combat the spread of the virus in the country -- IRIN News reports.

"Tens of billions of dollars have been pledged to combat AIDS, yet donor countries have largely overlooked the role of nutrition, somehow ignoring both the scientists and the beneficiaries," Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, a United Nations Messenger of Peace and a founding board member of Kofi Annan's Global Humanitarian Forum, writes in a

"From the Ground Up: Building Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Care Programs in Resource-Limited Settings," Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation: The three-volume publication provides guidance for health care workers, managers and policymakers on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment in resource-limited settings, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

At the conclusion of a four-nation tour of Africa on Sunday, former President Clinton discussed progress in HIV treatment access and costs, the role of nutrition among HIV-positive children and other issues, the AP/Google.com reports. According to the AP/Google.com, the

Many people with HIV/AIDS in Hartford, Conn., are "frustrated" that programs serving blacks in the city appear to be "rapidly drying up," the Hartford Courant reports. Thirty-eight percent of Hartford residents living with AIDS are black and 40% are Hispanic.

Doctors who treat HIV-infected crack users refer to them as "the forgotten population." A study being presented at this week's International AIDS Conference in Mexico City reveals that these patients frequently lack outpatient health care, do not receive life-saving antiretroviral therapy and continue to engage in risky sexual behavior that likely contributes to HIV transmission.

In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that all persons aged 13 to 64 be offered HIV screening in healthcare settings. Rapid HIV tests provide results before a patient leaves the healthcare setting and hold great appeal for screening in settings such as emergency departments.

Thousands of AIDS advocates crowded the streets of Mexico City in a multinational march and rally, spearheaded by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, to demand "Universal AIDS Action Now." In a spirited march that began at Plaza de la Revolucion and progressed to the Zocalo Plaza advocates called for increased access to HIV testing and lifesaving antiretroviral AIDS drugs.

Antiretroviral drugs for HIV do not increase the risk for coronary atherosclerosis, a central risk factor for heart disease, according to a study led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to be published in the Aug. 8 issue of the journal AIDS and available online today.

AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc. (AAC) commends state lawmakers for passing legislation that includes privacy and data security protections within a statewide electronic medical records system, including notice of unauthorized disclosures of health information, providing patients an audit trail of who has accessed their records, and requiring that participation in an electronic medical record system be based on patient permission.

A day after leaders from the United Nations and the World Health Organization called attention to the need to combat AIDS among men who have sex with men, amfAR released the world's first comprehensive report exposing the failure of governments and global health institutions to address this exploding epidemic.

Monogram Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: MGRM) announced the launch of its PhenoSense(R) Integrase assay, built on Monogram's proprietary technology platform, PhenoSense(R). The assay directly measures the susceptibility of HIV to a new and potent class of integrase inhibitor drugs that blocks viral replication by preventing viral genes from integrating into the DNA of newly infected cells.

In an apparent reversal of CDC's January 2008 decision to revise the number of new Hispanic HIV/AIDS diagnoses based on the inclusion of Puerto Ricans as Hispanics, the latest CDC report released in August 2008, entitled "Estimation of HIV Incidence in the United States", again failed to include Puerto Ricans in the AIDS incidence among Hispanics, thereby grossly undercounting the diagnosis rates among Hispanics.

When applied as part of a rectal gel, the drug tenofovir may prevent HIV transmission, according to an study performed in macaque monkeys. These results were released on August 4, 2008 in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. In both heterosexuals and homosexuals, rectal intercourse carries a very risk of HIV transmission.

Boehringer Ingelheim presented new 100 week data at the International AIDS Conference demonstrating Aptivus® (tipranavir) long-term efficacy and safety in treatment-experienced children. Results from this two-year study show that Aptivus® enabled the children to achieve sustained virologic and immunologic responses and was a well-tolerated antiretroviral therapy.

On the day of the opening ceremonies of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, President Felipe Calderon announced his plans to lift a Mexican Ministry of Economy requirement that pharmaceutical companies operating in Mexico must have a manufacturing plant in that country in order to use or sell generic versions of their lifesaving AIDS and other drugs in Mexico.

New data from studies presented at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City have provided unprecedented insight into the toxicity of an impurity called ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS). The formation of the EMS impurity is a potential by-product of the manufacturing of mesylate salts, which are contained in over 40 drugs currently available worldwide.

President Bush on Wednesday signed into law legislation (HR 5501) that reauthorizes the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief at $48 billion through 2013. Two newspapers have published editorials in response to the bill. Summaries appear below.

The call to eliminate all funding for HIV/AIDS vaccine research and prevention programs and "shifting" those funds to the expansion of HIV/AIDS treatment is a "dangerous sentiment" that is "sweeping over the AIDS establishment," Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in an

The following summarizes articles related to efforts that seek to address racial and ethnic health disparities.Farmington, N.M.: CDC has chosen the Central Consolidated School District to participate in a new curriculum program designed to reduce children's risk for diabetes, the

Reuters on Thursday examined how some laws and widespread conservative attitudes are hindering efforts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country where high-risk groups are driven "deeper underground" because of the situation.

Medicare and federal health care plans that provide coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan do not offer payment for routine HIV screening of people ages 13 to 64 -- a practice that was recommended by CDC in 2006 --

Abbott Laboratories on Wednesday agreed to pay between $10 million and $27.5 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by HIV/AIDS advocates and other drug companies over an increase in the price of the company's antiretroviral drug Norvir, the

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected soon to increase the estimate of new HIV infections in the United States by 40 percent. This highlights the need to make HIV testing a routine part of medical care and provide better funding to care for those who test positive, according to the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA).

The Washington Post on Friday examined the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the border town of Tijuana, Mexico, where HIV prevalence is about three times that of the national average, with about one in 125 adults living with HIV. Mexico has one of the lowest HIV prevalences in the Americas, and according to

On the opening day of the XVII International Aids Conference, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned of the deadly impact that the lack of health care workers is having on AIDS treatment and care in southern Africa. In a satellite meeting called "

Calling attention to the disproportionate effect that HIV/AIDS has on minority women in the US, particularly blacks and Hispanics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued a new Committee Opinion, Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and Women of Color. While all women should be screened for HIV, physicians and their patients must be aware that women of color are disproportionately affected by the disease.

Ob-gyns should routinely screen all women between the ages of 19 and 64 for HIV, regardless of their risk factors, according to a Committee Opinion, Routine Human Immunodeficiency Virus Screening, issued by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

As more than 20,000 people from around the world gather this weekend for the start of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) the US-based NGO which provides HIV/AIDS medical care and/or services to more than 79,000 individuals in 20 countrie

"These numbers are a scathing indictment of how profoundly U.S. and CDC HIV prevention efforts have failed," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the U.S. largest AIDS organization, in a statement from Mexico City. "Despite the way the CDC is spinning these new numbers - which AHF has been calling for the public release of since last October-there is absolutely no good news here.

The Centers for Disease Control released its long-awaited revision of HIV incidence in the United States as the XVII International AIDS Conference got underway in Mexico City. In this special Conference edition of the SFAF.org podcast, Foundation CEO Mark Cloutier explains the new data and the ways in which San Francisco may be bucking the national trend.

In this episode, Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, discusses the recent cancellation of the next round of HIV vaccine trials by the NIH and the relationship between behavioral HIV interventions and continued vaccine research. Mitchell will be co-chairing a satellite session at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City with the Foundation's Dr. Judith Auerbach entitled "Confronting the 'Evidence' in Evidence-based HIV Prevention." For the latest information on evidence-based HIV prevention, be sure to read...

Dr. Judith Auerbach, Deputy Executive Director for Science and Public Policy at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, discusses behavioral interventions for reducing HIV risk and transmission and the Foundation's newest publication, the HIV Evidence Report. The first issue of this report outlines ten effective behavioral HIV interventions, but many questions about the future of behavioral HIV interventions still remain.

As 3,000 riders and volunteer "roadies" made their way to Los Angeles, AIDS/LifeCycle 7 increased awareness about HIV and AIDS. Peter Lavoie, one of the Co-Chairs of the Positive Pedalers, talks about how AIDS/LifeCycle builds knowledge about HIV and improves health for both HIV-positive and HIV-negative participants. The Positive Pedalers are a group of HIV-positive AIDS/LifeCycle participants, volunteers and staff committed to eliminating stigma through their positive public example.

In this episode, Tom Kennedy, a public health educator who has been working in HIV prevention in San Francisco since 1992, discusses the current state of HIV vaccine trials. Last autumn, the STEP HIV vaccine trial was halted due to safety concerns. With delays now affecting the launch of new vaccine trials, Tom answers questions about the state of HIV vaccine research and what is being done to ensure the safety of trial participants.

In this episode you'll hear an excerpt from our May 15th HIVision forum, What's Going On: HIV and Black Gay Men. Panelist Dr. David Malebranche answers a question about HIV testing among Black men with an illuminating portrait of the racism and homophobia Black gay men may encounter when seeking medical attention.

In this episode, Ernest Hopkins, the Foundation's Director of Federal Affairs, discusses the local and federal response to rising HIV transmission rates among Black men who have sex with men. Ernest Hopkins will be a panelist at our May 15th HIVision Forum entitled What's Going On: HIV and Black Gay Men.

Dr. David Malebranche, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University's School of Medicine and a member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, discusses HIV and Black gay men. Though it has been demonstrated that HIV risk behaviors in the Black men who have sex with men (MSM) community are often less risky than those of the MSM community in general, the HIV transmission rate in Black gay men continues to rise. Dr. Malebranche will be a panelist at...

Dr. Judith Auerbach, Deputy Executive Director for Science and Public Policy at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, discusses findings revealed at the recent International Microbicides Conference in New Delhi, India. After a few disappointing setbacks, current microbicide research and trials are beginning to yield results that may lead to another effective HIV prevention tool.

Dr. Kyle Bernstein, Chief of Epidemiology, Surveillance and Research for STD Prevention and Control Services at the San Francisco Department of Health, discusses a recent preliminary report showing a decline in the rate of syphilis transmission among men who have sex with men in San Francisco. As syphilis rates continue to climb in many other US cities, find out what San Francisco is doing to achieve these declining rates.

In this episode we'll hear from Steve Gibson, the Director of Magnet, a health and community center for gay men in the Castro. Magnet was created in 2003 by members of the Castro's gay community as a response to rising rates of HIV and STD transmission. Find out how this San Francisco AIDS Foundation program helps fight HIV with a holistic approach to health and community building.

In this episode Tony Bradford, Program Manager for Black Brothers Esteem, discusses the Foundation's community-based program to empower gay and bisexual African-American men who live in the Tenderloin/Polk Gulch and Sixth Street Corridor neighborhoods of San Francisco. In addition to providing HIV prevention and support to a community disproportionately vulnerable to HIV infection, Black Brothers Esteem addresses issues affecting program participants' overall health such as racism, addiction, poverty, homophobia, violence, and marginal housing conditions.

In this episode, Courtney Mulhern-Pearson, Policy Analyst for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, outlines the possible effects of proposed California state budget cuts and pending state HIV legislation. Faced with a structural deficit of more than 14 billion dollars, Governor Schwarzenegger has presented a state budget with ten percent cuts across the board.

In this episode, Dr. Lisa Sterman discusses MRSA staph infection in the San Francisco gay community. Though MRSA has been around for years, a recent study in the journal The Annals of Internal Medicine has framed it in a new light. What should everyone know about MRSA? Are gay men more susceptible to infection? What's sex got to do with it?

In this episode, Dr. Steven Tierney, Deputy Executive Director for Programs and Services at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, discusses rising HIV infection rates in New York City, how they compare to infection rates here in San Francisco and what the next steps are toward reducing these numbers. The New York Times recently reported that in New York City, HIV infections in men under 30 who have sex with men have risen by 32 percent over the past five years.

In this episode, Mark Cloutier, Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and President of Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, discusses a year of lessons learned in the fight against HIV and opportunities that lie ahead in 2008 to review and revise approaches to prevention and care, and improve popular understanding of HIV and AIDS.

In this episode Dr. Judith Auerbach, Deputy Executive Director for Science and Public Policy at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation talks defining the meaning of evidence in relation to evidence-based HIV prevention.

In this episode Dr. Nancy Padian, Director of the UCSF Women's Global Health Imperative and Senior Director for Prevention at Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation shares some of what she's learned from conducting HIV prevention research around the world. She'll be a panelist on our upcoming November 29th World AIDS Day forum entitled HIVision: From Local Knowledge to Global Solutions.

In this episode, Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, Vice President of Global Affairs and Global Projects Specialist at Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation outlines the role of technology in the global fight against HIV. Dr. Rudasingwa will be the moderator for our upcoming November 29th World AIDS Day forum entitled HIV Vision, From Local Knowledge to Global Solutions.

In this episode you'll hear an excerpt from our October 11th forum, HIVision: Preventing HIV in Prisons and Jails. Panelists answer an audience question about what must be done to stop an explosion of HIV in U.S. prisons and jails. Today, only 6 jurisdictions provide HIV prevention information or materials to inmates.