Did Marrow Transplant Cure AIDS?

That’s the question abuzz in the medical community as doctors around the globe discuss a bone marrow transplant, performed in Berlin, that is said to have cured the patient of AIDS. Twenty months after the transplant, some critics suggest the outcome is merely a fluke but even they do not deny the possibilities suggested by the case. Read more

Quality-of-Care Gap Extreme in US Hospitals

Residents of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin can rest easy when admitted to the region’s hospitals.  According to the HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study, the hospitals in this, the East North Central region, are the best in the nation.  More than just a pleasant stay is at stake, however.  The chances of dying in a hospital are 70% lower in the best hospitals than in those ranked lowest. Read more

AIDS, Cancer Researchers Share Nobel Prize

Recent announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine marks, for some, the end of a long-running controversy surrounding which team of researchers are to be credited with discovering the AIDS virus. Two French researchers were named, along with a German scientist who discovered the link between human papilloma virus (HPV) and cervical cancer. Read more

HIV/AIDS May Have Originated in 19th Century

Painstaking research using modern genetic technologies has placed the origin of the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping the world today at somewhere between 1884 and 1924, much earlier than the 1930 point of origin previously estimated.  The same period of time saw rapid urbanization of Colonial Africa, a very opportune moment for a virus to jump from the wild into the human population. Read more

Breast (Milk) Is Best, Says PETA to Ben & Jerry’s

Getting their inspiration from a Swiss restaurant that will begin using human breast milk for 75% of their milk needs, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wrote a September 23 letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., manufacturer of premium ice creams favored nationwide, urging them to follow suit.  PETA says a switch to human breast milk would benefit people and cows, too. Read more

Will Botox Land You More Dates?

Botulinum toxin A, marketed as Botox, is a very popular means of cosmetic enhancement, perhaps because we think we look better after getting a treatment. But recent research went a step further and evaluated the effects of one’s Botox treatment based on the opinions of others. Read more

CDC: US AIDS Epidemic Far From Over

Statisticians for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had predicted that about 40,000 new cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), would be diagnosed each year in the US alone but the grim reality is that as many as 56,300 Americans became infected in 2006. Read more

CDC Wants More HIV Testing Done in US

The diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a life-altering moment that comes with some really big decisions to make.  One of the most important of those decisions is the course of medical treatment to take. Read more

High Risk of HIV Linked to Common Vaginal Infection

Women with bacterial vaginosis are at 60% higher risk of contracting the human immunosuppressant virus (HIV) than women without the infection, according to the findings of a study just released from the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health.  Research hasn’t yet revealed which infection came first but, since both infections are sexually transmitted, the findings of the UNC study may lead to improved treatments, perhaps a means of prevention, for either of the two life-changing infections. Read more

HIV Vaccine Study Halted as Too Logistically Complex

A vaccine that will prevent infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is thought to be the best hope for ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping the globe and the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) has developed one said to be scientifically intriguing and different enough from vaccines that have been previously explored that further testing is highly desired.  Plans for a widespread test of the vaccine have been halted now for a second time, however, due to concerns stemming from a previous trial of another vaccine that failed to reduce viral load as expected. Read more

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