HIV/AIDS News

Infants who do not have HIV but are born to mothers with the disease may be at a higher risk for developing group B streptococcal infections, according to study data published online.

The introduction of antiretroviral therapy has lowered overall medical costs for children with HIV compared with eras in which only older forms of treatment were available, according to recent study data.

A tenofovir-based microbicide gel may have reduced the incidence of new HIV infection by nearly 40% and cut herpes incidence in half in a cohort of women in South Africa, according to results presented at the 18th International AIDS Conference.

The number of individuals with HIV who initiated antiretroviral therapy in 2009 was 1.2 million, bringing the total to 5.2 million individuals in low- and middle-income countries worldwide who are receiving care, according to WHO estimates reported Monday at the 18th International AIDS Conference.

Several speakers at the 19th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, including chairman Julio Montaner, MD,president of the International AIDS Society and director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada, called on global leaders to commit at least $20 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Only 51% percent of infants treated at HIV prevention centers in four African countries received the recommended nevirapine-based antenatal care, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Most adolescents with HIV-1 infection had good immunologic profiles and grew at the same rate and performed on the same level academically as those without the disease, according to recent study data.

The quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine appeared safe for use and effective at preventing disease in adolescents with HIV, although response rates still remained lower than in healthy children, according to recent study results.

Many pediatricians’ annual preventive care visits for adolescents fell short of addressing important sexual and reproductive health issues — such as routine HIV testing, proper condom use and homosexuality — that could preclude high-risk behaviors in this population, according to survey results.

The number of hospitalizations among Thai children with HIV decreased dramatically in the era after antiretroviral therapy was introduced, according to findings presented at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco.