Researchers have identified a molecule inside the gut flora that can help block the replication of HIV and prevent chronic illnesses associated with the virus. Existing antiretroviral (ART) therapies can significantly decrease viral loads, which is effective in preventing evolution of the infection towards Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). But HIV is more difficult to target, […]
Tag: HIV
New research on the arrival of HIV/AIDS to the United States 
Much research has been done to determine the source of North American HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1970s and 1980s. One of the most widely known studies supposedly identifies a single individual, ‘Patient Zero’, as the first known HIV-1 carrier in the United States. But recent research found that Patient Zero is unlikely to have been […]
Tracing the family history of HIV
Lentiviruses, a group of retroviruses including HIV and SIV, the simian version of HIV, have been infecting primates as far back as 16 million years ago according to DNA sequencing. Researchers studied an antiviral gene called TRIM5 in 22 species of African primates. They found that a cluster of changes unique to the TRIM5 proteins […]
Community based HIV prevention programs save $5 in treatment costs for every $1 spent
Community based HIV prevention programs helped stop 16,672 HIV infections between 1987 and 2011, saving the health care system approximately $6.5 billion. Researchers found that every dollar invested into community based HIV prevention programs saved approximately five dollars in provincial healthcare costs. The researchers used Ontario HIV surveillance reports to estimate the number of HIV […]
How railways helped AIDS spread in Africa
The HIV pandemic with us today may have begun its global spread from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) around 1920, according to a new study. A team of researchers have reconstructed the genetic history of the HIV virus by analyzing gene sequences found in a major HIV database. The authors […]
Bacteria present in semen linked to HIV transmission
A new study has found that the diversity and number of bacteria in semen are connected with the level of HIV virus and thus the risk of transmission. While bacteria are common in semen, the study found that HIV-infected men who have sex with men have lower bacterial diversity than uninfected controls. They also found […]
