'Mental HIV' Stumps Chinese

Andre Davis didn't tell sex partners about disease

(NEWSER) - A professional wrestler has been sentenced in Ohio to 32 years or having sex with at least 11 women without telling them he has HIV—or lying that he was healthy. Andre Davis, 29—who has wrestled under the stage names "Gangsta of Love" and "Sweet Sexy Sensation"—was convicted of felonious assault, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer. Davis argued in court that he's a "sex addict" who was too "scared" to tell anyone he had HIV, and that he didn't intend to hurt anyone. "I am a loving and compassionate man. I'm not a monster," he said. But a prosecutor called him a "manipulative man and a liar." More»

Safe sex measure passes preliminary vote

(NEWSER) - No condom might equal no sex for the nation's biggest porn industry. The Los Angeles City Council has given preliminary approval to a law requiring porn actors to practice safe sex during filming, the Los Angeles Times reports. The measure, which passed 11-1, will return for final approval next week. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation had collected enough signatures to make the measure a ballot initiative. More»

Successful simian vaccine marks major advance

(NEWSER) - "There's more hope than ever before that an AIDS vaccine might be possible," says the lead author of a study that marks a major advance in the search. The study found that experimental vaccines used on monkeys reduced their susceptibility to the monkey version of HIV by 80%, the Wall Street Journal reports. Vaccinated monkeys that did get infected had less of the virus in their bloodstream than unvaccinated ones, indicating that the vaccination had left them with a more robust immune system. More»

Michigan's David Dean Smith says he exposed hundreds

(NEWSER) - Awful story out of Michigan: Authorities say a 51-year-old man who is HIV-positive confessed to intentionally exposing hundreds of people to the disease through unprotected sex, report MSNBC and the Grand Rapids Press . Court documents say that David Dean Smith harbored a "desire to harm women" and tried to infect as many people as he could. More»

CDC also says 3 in 4 aren't getting appropriate treatment

(NEWSER) - The CDC has a new study out on HIV treatment across the nation with some disturbing numbers, reports the Wall Street Journal :

• Unaware: About 20% of the 1.2 million people in the US with HIV don't know they're infected. That's 240,000 people.
• Treatment: All told, about three-quarters of those infected are not getting adequate treatment to keep the virus in check, thus raising the risk that it gets passed along.
• New infections: About 50,000 are newly diagnosed with HIV each year, and the lifetime cost of care is currently pegged at $367,000.