STDs

(Newser) - Researchers are hopeful they can develop an AIDS vaccine despite the recent, high-profile failures of two clinical trials, Health Day reports. But progress must be built on solid science and convincing preliminary results in animals. “There have been a lot of calls for a return to basic science,” one advocate said on World AIDS Day, “rather than testing candidates in people.” More »

(Newser) - An African policy group is accusing the UK of deporting immigrants who were being treated for HIV to almost certain death in places where they will be unable to acquire drugs needed to survive. Advocates call the move hypocritical since Britain is a vocal backer of an international declaration calling for universal access to AIDS drugs, the Guardian reports. More »

(Newser) - Planned Parenthood of Indiana is making gift certificates available for the holiday season, infuriating right-to-life groups, WISH-TV reports. Though the certificates can be used for abortion, a Planned Parenthood representative said “they really are intended for preventative health care,” like breast exams and STD tests. The hope is that philanthropists will buy the certificates and donate them to patients in need. More »

(Newser) - South Africa's failure to provide antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients has cost 365,000 lives,  a new Harvard study finds. The report places the blame for the deaths with ousted president Thabo Mbeki, whose denial of AIDS' viral cause led Africa's richest country to ignore its sick citizens while other southern African nations provided medicine, the New York Times reports. More »

(Newser) - A promising new treatment for AIDS may be in the works, with the discovery that genetically engineered immune cells can detect and destroy HIV even when the virus tries to hide by mutating. The so-called “assassin” cells, created from the T-cells of an HIV patient, have worked their magic in a lab dish but have yet to be tested in humans, Reuters reports. More »

(Newser) - A German doctor has inspired hope for a new approach to AIDS treatment with his handling of a leukemia case, the Wall Street Journal reports. Because the patient also had AIDS, Gero Hütter looked for a bone marrow donor with a specific mutation that seems to stymie the HIV virus. Nearly 2 years later, the American patient remains AIDS-free. More »

(Newser) - New research challenges one of the basic assumptions about treating HIV—that patients should begin treatment only when levels of a type of white blood cell fall below a certain mark. New studies show that patients treated under current guidelines are 70% more likely to die than those treated sooner. Early treatment, however, is dependent on early diagnosis, and fewer than 4 of 10 US adults have been tested for HIV. More »

(Newser) - Health officials in a small town near St. Louis have set up an HIV testing clinic in a high school gym after an infected person said up to 50 students may have been exposed, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . School officials won't say whether that person is a student or how the virus may have been spread. They are scrambling to stop the spread of infection, and panic, in the community. More »

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