VOA News - Obama Choice of PEPFAR HIV/AIDS Coordinator Draws Praise from Advocacy Groups

"President Obama's nomination of Dr. Eric Goosby to serve as Global Coordinator for US AIDS policy has won high marks from AIDS funding advocates for his wide experience at home and overseas. David Bryden of the Center for Global Health Policy notes that time spent in Africa has given Dr. Goosby a strong grasp of the big policy picture needed to guide controversial AIDS prevention issues, lower infection rates, and save millions of lives."

Medical News: HIV No Barrier to Liver Transplant - in Gastroenterology, Liver Transplantation from MedPage Today

"People with HIV do just as well as others after a liver transplant -- as long as they don't have hepatitis C as well, researchers said in Copenhagen.

In one of the few studies with data on long-term outcomes, those with HIV had one- and five-year survival rates of 86.5% and 74% respectively, according to John O'Grady, M.D., of Kings College Hospital in London.

By comparison, HIV-negative liver transplant patients in the prospective UK Transplant Database had rates of 87.1% and 78%, which were not significantly different, Dr. O'Grady reported at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver."

Why Anti-HIV Antibodies Are Ineffective At Blocking Infection

"Some 25 years after the AIDS epidemic spawned a worldwide search for an effective vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), progress in the field seems to have effectively become stalled. The reason? According to new findings from a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), it's at least partly due to the fact that our body's natural HIV antibodies simply don't have a long enough reach to effectively neutralize the viruses they are meant to target."

HIV may be increasing in virulence | Health | Reuters

From 1985 to 2007, the CD4+ cell counts seen at diagnosis in HIV-infected patients in the US have fallen, suggesting that the virus may be adapting to the host and becoming more virulent, according to a report in Clinical Infectious Diseases."

HIV/AIDS: South struggles against rising problem -- chicagotribune.com

"Not enough funding, doctors, education to fight growing problem

Sheila Holt moved to this small town from New Jersey two years ago to take care of her ailing mother. But as a former heroin addict with HIV, she found that rebuilding her life in the South was harder than she had imagined.

She was shocked that the wealth of services, such as housing, transportation and medications, available to her as an HIV patient in Newark were lacking in Henderson. In the North, she said, people talked openly about the disease without fear of reprisal. In the South, she could not sit at the dinner table with her family or talk to her neighbors about the disease without the risk of being shunned."

HIV and AIDS patients find exercise improves their health -- baltimoresun.com

April is Sexually Transmitted Diseases Awareness Month. In the U.S. alone there are 19 million new cases of STDs each year, according to the American Social Health Association. Half of the new cases are among those between the ages of 15-24.

Never an athlete - simply from lack of interest, not lack of innate ability - Travis Tanner at first did not realize the magnitude of the challenge that lay ahead."

'Pedro' explores the real world of HIV through MTV star - USATODAY.com

"Pedro Zamora's 1994 appearance on MTV reality show The Real World was a landmark media event: the first openly HIV-positive gay man on a nationwide TV series.

Fifteen years later, Zamora's reality TV appearance and short life are now the basis for a scripted MTV biopic, Pedro, airing Wednesday (8 ET/PT)."

U of L researcher publishes study indicating drug for HIV prevention - Business First of Louisville:

"Dr. Kenneth Palmer, a University of Louisville faculty member with the Owensboro Cancer Research Program, has published a new study indicating that a plant related to tobacco could be used as a preventive measure for HIV.

The Owensboro Cancer Research Program is a partnership between the Owensboro Medical Health System and U of L’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center. HIV research is a focus of the program because HIV patients have a higher risk of getting cancer."

Study details strategy for boosting ranks of black HIV/AIDS researchers / UCLA Newsroom

"African Americans, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, are disproportionately affected by AIDS, accounting for nearly 49 percent of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases nationwide. About 500,000 African Americans are now living with HIV/AIDS.

Yet there are very few African American HIV/AIDS researchers, due to historical, social and other factors that prevent them from training in the biomedical, behavioral and social aspects of HIV/AIDS research."