Battle against AIDS sees success

There’s a saying in sports: The game’s not over until the final buzzer sounds. We ought to have a similar attitude in the fight against HIV andAIDS.

Those of us in the trenches have had some success. You might even say we’re winning the game.

Just last week, for instance, Gov. David Paterson, in a speech to the Annual New York Statewide Meeting of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA), reported that the number of AIDSdiagnoses in New York State dropped from 14,000 in 1993 to 6,000 last year.

HIV spread among men traced

Scientists have made a key discovery in pinpointing how HIV is transmitted in men who have sex with men.

The researchers hope that by better understanding how HIV spreads during human sex, that they'll be better able to stop the epidemic.

"By knowing the origin of the transmitted virus, scientists may be able to develop new vaccines, vaginal microbicides and drugs to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted HIV," study author Dr. Davey Smith, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego, said in a release.

Semen is made up of sperm, white blood cells and the fluid around these cells, known as seminal plasma.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/02/11/hiv-transmission-semen.html#ixzz0fQMQF0nP