Facts About STD's

Doctors alarmed by HIV risk for European gays

2010-09-08T16:20:23Z

Homosexual men in Europe are increasingly failing to adhere to safe sex, according to two new studies. In France, transmission of the AIDS virus "seems to be out of control" among men who have sex with men, said a paper published on Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Overall incidence of HIV in France ...

HIV spread "out of control" among French gay men

2010-09-08T16:10:14Z

LONDON (Reuters) - Transmission of the AIDS virus seems to be "out of control" among gay men in France despite an overall fall in the number of new HIV cases in the country, according to a study published on Thursday. Scientists from the French National Institute for Public Health Surveillance found that nearly half of the 7,000...

Israeli researchers develop promising new HIV treatment

2010-09-03T03:20:25Z

Israeli researchers have developed a new treatment for HIV that kills human cells infected with the virus and could lead to a breakthrough in treating AIDS, the Haaretz newspaper said on Friday. Whereas current treatments focus on inhibiting the replication of the HIV virus, the new treatment destroys infected cells without damaging healthy ones, the newspaper said. The process makes use ...

Global cash support to fight AIDS is falling: UN

2010-09-02T03:20:22Z

The chief of the UNAIDS agency said Thursday that global contributions to fighting the disease are dropping off for the first time in 15 years amid tough economic times. "The world economic recession is pushing countries... to enforce austerity," UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe said in Tokyo, calling on Japan to kee...

Air Force: Sergeant may have exposed others to HIV

2010-08-31T14:30:28Z

Air Force says it's investigating whether sergeant exposed others to HIV at 'swinger' parties

The military has arrested an Air Force sergeant and accused him of having unprotected sex with partners he met at "swinger" parties in central Kansas even though he knew he was HIV positive, according to a military affidavit. The Air For...

Foursquare, MTV to reward STD checkups with badge

2010-08-31T11:00:13Z

Testing: Foursquare, MTV to reward STD check-ups with special badge

You can "check in" to restaurants and bars, so how about health clinics while you get tested for sexually transmitted diseases? Foursquare, the phone application for telling friends and strangers where you are, is offering a special virtual "badge" through...

China court accepts first HIV discrimination suit

2010-08-30T21:15:33Z

A Chinese man has filed a lawsuit alleging he was denied a job because he is HIV-positive, in what state media on Tuesday called the nation's first such discrimination case. The plaintiff, whose identity was not revealed, filed the suit against the education department of Anqing city in the eastern province of Anhui, the China Daily reported. The lawsuit al...

Father seeks China AIDS activist's release

2010-08-30T03:30:11Z

Father seeks release of China AIDS activist who was jailed while petitioning for compensation

A Chinese AIDS activist jailed after a run-in with a hospital administrator is in poor health but has vowed to keep fighting for compensation after being infected by tainted blood during a childhood transfusion, his father said Monday. Tian Xi was taken into custody earlier this month after he lost his temper and smas...

Singer Nadja Benaissa Guilty Of Exposing Ex-Boyfriend To HIV

2010-08-27T09:15:17Z

A German court on Thursday found pop singer Nadja Benaissa guilty of exposing an ex-boyfriend to HIV

A German court on Thursday found pop singer Nadja Benaissa guilty of exposing an ex-boyfriend to HIV, Reuters reported.

The court said Benaissa was guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to her former partner, with w...

AIDS activists file complaint against Larry Flynt

2010-08-26T16:00:34Z

AIDS activists file complaint against Larry Flynt, demand condoms be used in sex films

An AIDS activist group is bringing a complaint against Larry Flynt, accusing the porn king of compromising the safety of his adult film stars by not having them use condoms. The AIDS Health Foundation said Thursday it delivered a complaint and 100 DVD...

Tearful German HIV pop star escapes jail term

2010-08-26T12:15:44Z

An HIV-positive pop star broke down in tears on Thursday after a German court handed her a two-year suspended sentence for infecting a former sex partner with the virus. The court in Darmstadt, western Germany, convicted 28-year-old Nadja Benaissa, a member of Darmstadt, western Germany, convicted 28-year-old Nadja Benaissa, a member of DARMSTADT, Germany (Reuters) - A German pop singer who confessed to knowingly exposing two men to the risk of HIV after finding out she had the virus herself was convicted by a court on Thursday of grievous bodily harm. Nadja Benaissa, 28, from German girl-Darmstadt, western Germany, convicted 28-year-old Nadja Benaissa, a member of girl gr...

Prosecutor seeks suspended sentence in German HIV trial

2010-08-25T09:16:09Z

A prosecutor called Wednesday for a suspended jail term for a German pop star accused of hiding her HIV status from sexual partners and infecting one of them with the virus. Prosecutor Peter Liesenfeld called for a two-year suspended sentence for grievous bodily harm during closing arguments in the trial of 28-year-old singer Nadja Benaissa, a high-profile case that...

AIDS patients hurt by South African strike

2010-08-25T08:30:23Z

In South Africa, doctors and activists worry about impact of strike on AIDS patients

Doctors and activists say AIDS patients aren't getting treated because of a nationwide civil service strike in South Africa, the country with the most people infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Dr. Ashraf Coovadia said Wednesday his HIV and AIDS clinic at a <...

Young adults at risk as STIs rise

2010-08-25T03:15:18Z

Almost half a million new cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were diagnosed in the UK last year, with young people the most affected, new figures released Wednesday show. Infections were most prevalent among 15- to 24-year-olds -- particularly women -- the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said. Women aged 19 and men aged between 20 and 23 ...

Bono, Medvedev talk charity over tea by the sea

2010-08-24T08:30:19Z

Medvedev hosts Bono at his Black Sea residence, praises the rocker for his charity work

Russia's rock music-loving president is hosting Bono at his resplendent residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Dmitry M...

Merck foundation adds to Botswana partnership

2010-08-24T05:30:12Z

Merck, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commit $60M to Botswana HIV/AIDS partnerships

Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. said Tuesday its foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will commit an additional $60 million to Botswana's African Compre...

China AIDS campaigner detained: activists

2010-08-21T09:15:08Z

A 23-year-old Chinese man who contracted the AIDS virus as a boy through a blood transfusion and who has since campaigned for the rights of AIDS sufferers has been detained, activists said Saturday. Tian Xi, who told fellow activists that his repeated protests had angered authorities, was detained on Tuesday at a hospital in Henan province's Xincai county before being taken to an unknown location, the campaigners said. Tian was ...

AIDS activists: Chinese colleague detained

2010-08-20T22:30:20Z

Chinese AIDS activist who caught the virus as a boy is detained by police, colleagues say

Police in central China have detained an AIDS activist who contracted the virus as a boy and whose tireless campaigning for the rights of those with the disease angered local authorities, his fellow activists said Saturday. Under pressure to end Tian Xi's campaigning, police from his home ...

Jeremy Walters Unsure If AIDS Is A Punishment For Being Gay

2010-08-19T05:45:29Z

After apologizing for saying he believes AIDS is a punishment from God for being gay, Jeremy Walters backpedals a bit to say he's not sure

After apologizing for saying he believes AIDS is a punishment from God for being gay, Iowa GOP candidate Jeremy Walters backpedals a bit to say he's not sure.

Walters is hoping ...

Girl band singer confesses to unprotected HIV sex

2010-08-16T05:45:22Z

DARMSTADT, Germany (Reuters Life!) - A German pop singer accused of knowingly exposing three men to the risk of HIV has confessed to having unprotected sex after finding out she had the virus, authorities said Monday. Nadja Benaissa from German girl German singer goes on trial for allegedly infecting partner with HIV

A German singer has gone on trial accused of causing bodily harm by having unprotected sex despite knowing she was HIV-positive. Nadja Benaissa, a member of German girl band No Angels, is alleged to have infected a man with the virus in 2004. The German news agency DAPD repo...

Older adults get HIV diagnosis later, die sooner

2010-08-05T20:15:09Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People over 50 with HIV are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage disease than younger adults, according to a British study. They are also more than twice as likely to die within a year of their HIV test as are younger people, even if they are diagnosed late. "We have a group of people who don't get tested because they don't think they are at risk," said Reuters) - People infected with hepatitis B virus are around twice as likely to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, researchers reported on Tuesday. Hepatitis B was already known to cause liver cancer and some scientists had suspected it might cause lymphoma, too. The study, published in Lancet Oncology, confirms this. Hepatitis C is also linked to lymphoma. The blood cancer is not common and widespread vaccination a...

New fronts in AIDS war, but funding foe is back

2010-07-23T14:15:41Z

The 18th council of war on AIDS has opened up new fronts in a nearly three-decade-old campaign but in the grim awareness that a battle-hardened enemy -- the money crunch -- is back. The 20,000 clinicians, policymakers and grassroots workers who attended the International AIDS Conference, which ended here Friday, were strengthened by the most encouraging news in years. Tests among volunteers in South Africa showed that a vaginal gel ...

World AIDS conference closes

2010-07-23T09:15:56Z

The 18th International AIDS Conference closed in Vienna on Friday after six days of seminars, workshops and networking on fighting AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes it. Closing ceremonies heard video messages of support from South Africa's Nobel-winning anti-apartheid campaigner, China, India and other fast-growing economies should start to contribute to the world's war chest to fight AIDS, the head of the Global Fund said on Friday as the 18th world AIDS conference wound down. Speaking amid deepening concern about donations from western countries, Michel Kazatchkine said a looming funding gap could be bridged by ...

Obama pledges to up AIDS fight despite tough times

2010-07-23T08:45:11Z

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on Friday to redouble efforts to fight HIV and AIDS through his global health initiative, despite dealing with economic hard times in the wake of a global recession. In a video-link address to the closing session of a week-long international conference on AIDS, Obama and his Reuters Life!) - At AIDS 2010, the PLWHA and the PLHIV have come together with MSMs, IDUs and other MARPs to see if they can bring about GIPA. In other words, this week's international AIDS conference in Vienna has plunged journalists seeking to make sense of the global epidemic into a thick alphabet soup. Once you've figured out the basics, like HIV -...

Gilead AIDS drug safe for HIV prevention in study

2010-07-23T02:15:52Z

VIENNA (Reuters) - Gilead's HIV drug tenofovir is safe to be given to men at high risk of contracting the virus as a preventative measure, scientists said on Friday, but further trials are needed to test its efficacy. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the UN expert warns that overcrowded prisons are breeding grounds for AIDS

The U.N.'s top investigator on torture and punishment is warning that overcrowded prisons are breeding grounds for AIDS. Manfred Nowak, who has visited detention facilities around the world, says inmates are often held in inhumane conditions in which the HIV virus is spread thro...

Prisons emerge as hotspots for AIDS pandemic

2010-07-22T12:15:54Z

Prisons are excellent breeding grounds for HIV, enabling the AIDS virus to propagate swiftly and stealthily, yet many options exist for tackling the problem, the world AIDS conference heard. Incidence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) runs far higher among the 30 million people in the world's penitentiaries than in the general population, according to the UN Office on Drugs...

Early, rural-based HIV care offers hope in Africa

2010-07-22T11:45:20Z

VIENNA (Reuters) - Treating HIV patients in remote areas of Africa soon after they are infected and using community care teams instead of doctors can cut costs and help people live longer than those treated later, a charity said Thursday. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said...

Health watchdogs sound alarm over TB/HIV deaths

2010-07-22T09:16:16Z

Two global health agencies joined forces on Thursday in a campaign aimed at averting 200,000 deaths each year by co-infection from tuberculosis and the AIDS virus. "Every three minutes a person living with HIV has his or her life cut off prematurely by TB," said Jorge Sampaio, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy on stopping tuberculosis. "This is completely unaccep...

Lethal mixture drives AIDS pandemic in ex-Soviet bloc

2010-07-22T09:16:20Z

Official indifference, stigma and a blinkered reflex to criminalise drug addicts have turned Eastern Europe and Central Asia into the region where HIV is spreading fastest, the world AIDS forum heard. The six-day forum staged a series of workshops and seminars where policymakers and grassroots workers portrayed a regional pandemic growing at murderous pace. Authoritarian po...

AIDS charity Life Ball raises 1.5 mln euros

2010-07-22T09:16:08Z

Vienna's glitzy AIDS charity Life Ball last weekend raised 1.5 million euros (1.9 million dollars) for international and national HIV and AIDS projects, organisers said Thursday. This year's event on the square in front of the Austrian capital's neo-Gothic Town Hall and attended by former US president Bill Clinton and Hollywood actress Reuters) - Two pivotal trials of a Johnson & Johnson experimental HIV drug found it worked as well as an existing drug, with fewer side effects but also with nearly twice as many patients failing to respond to treatment. The drug, rilpivirine or TMC278, is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) being developed for use in combination therapy for treating the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) t...

South Africa Strike AIDS

2010-08-25T08:30:51Z

A woman leaves the almost deserted Hillbrow Community Health Center in Johannesburg, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010. Doctors and activists say AIDS patients aren't getting treated because of a nationwide strike in the country, which has the highest incidence of the virus that causes AIDS. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

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Austria AIDS Conference

2010-07-23T10:16:37Z

Two protestors hold a poster during the closing session at the International AIDS Conference Austria, on Friday, July 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

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Vietnam ASEAN

2010-07-22T11:00:32Z

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton greets two of the monks that work at Ngoc Lam Pagoda, a daycare facility for children affected by AIDS, after signing a framework agreement for the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Thursday, July 22, 2010, in Hanoi, Vietnam. (AP Photo/Paul J. Richards, Pool)

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Austria AIDS Protest

2010-07-20T15:16:12Z

Protesters demand more support for AIDS victims at a protest in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday, July 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

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Austria Life Ball

2010-09-08T13:16:33Z

Guests in extravagant costumes arrive for the opening ceremony of the 18th Life Ball in front of Vienna's city hall, in Austria, on Saturday, July 17, 2010. Life Ball is a charity gala, which organizers hope will raise more than 1 million euros (US$ 1.28 million) for people living with HIV and AIDS. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

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