News tagged with aids
Gamers succeed where scientists fail: Molecular structure of retrovirus enzyme solved
Gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate ...
Sep 18, 2011 |
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Report: Transplant may have cured man of AIDS
A very unusual blood transplant appears to have cured an American man living in Berlin of infection with the AIDS virus, but doctors say the approach is not practical for wide use. The man, who is in his 40s, had a blood ...
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Dec 15, 2010 |
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New study finds titan cells protect Cryptococcus
Giant cells called "titan cells" protect the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans during infection, according to two University of Minnesota researchers. Kirsten Nielsen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of microb ...
14 hours ago |
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'Guide vests' -- robotic navigation aids for the visually impaired
For the visually impaired, navigating city streets or neighborhoods has constant challenges. And most such people still must rely on a very rudimentary technology -- a simple cane -- to help them make their ...
May 25, 2011 |
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Some monkeys born with gene that protects against AIDS
A certain gene in some monkeys can help boost vaccine protection against simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a trait that could help researchers develop better AIDS vaccines for humans, suggested a study ...
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
May 04, 2011 |
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HIV protein unveils vaccine target
(PhysOrg.com) -- An international study headed by a UC Davis scientist describes how a component of a potential HIV vaccine opens like a flower, undergoing one of the most dramatic protein rearrangements yet ...
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Mar 31, 2011 |
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Chimpanzee study sheds light on natural history of HIV
(PhysOrg.com) -- A University at Albany scientist's research in African chimpanzee populations may provide new insights into the natural history of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVcpz), and the origins of ...
Mar 29, 2011 |
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For first time, scientists show an HIV vaccine impacts the genetic makeup of the virus
An AIDS vaccine tested in people, but found to be ineffective, influenced the genetic makeup of the virus that slipped past. The findings suggest new ideas for developing HIV vaccines.
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Mar 01, 2011 |
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Gene therapy raises hope for a future AIDS cure
In a bold new approach ultimately aimed at trying to cure AIDS, scientists used genetic engineering in six patients to develop blood cells that are resistant to HIV, the virus that causes the disease.
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Feb 28, 2011 |
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Research suggests HIV causes rapid aging in key infection-fighting cells
In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, being infected with the virus that causes the disease was considered a virtual death sentence. But with the development of antiretroviral therapy, many with HIV are now living much ...
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Jan 27, 2011 |
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New discoveries make it harder for HIV to hide from drugs
The virus that causes AIDS is chameleon-like in its replication. As HIV copies itself in humans, it constantly mutates into forms that can evade even the best cocktail of current therapies. Understanding exactly how HIV cells ...
Dec 15, 2010 |
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Daily dose of HIV drug reduces risk of HIV infection
A daily dose of an oral antiretroviral drug, currently approved to treat HIV infection, reduced the risk of acquiring HIV infection by 43.8 percent among men who have sex with men. The findings, a major advance in HIV prevention ...
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 23, 2010 |
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Dollars and sense: Why are some people morally against tax?
As the U.S. presidential election campaigns heat up, the economic debate is dominated by bailouts, austerity and, inevitably, taxation. Now a new study published in Symbolic Interaction asks why tax is such an important issue ...
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
May 23, 2012 |
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A new optical microscopy approach opens the door to better observations in molecular biology
Researchers from the Institut Pasteur and CNRS have set up a new optical microscopy approach that combines two recent imaging techniques in order to visualize molecular assemblies without affecting their biological ...
May 17, 2012 |
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More and more children have no parents and grandparents
(PhysOrg.com) -- While the number of cases of HIV infection in Zimbabwe has been decreasing for some time, the circumstances of children who have lost both parents to the AIDS epidemic could worsen in the ...
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Mar 28, 2012 |
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AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk.
This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.
AIDS is now a pandemic. In 2007, it was estimated that 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and that AIDS had killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children. Over three-quarters of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, retarding economic growth and destroying human capital.
Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. AIDS was first recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981 and its cause, HIV, identified in the early 1980s.
Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is currently no vaccine or cure. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries. Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programmes in attempts to slow the spread of the virus.
For more information about AIDS, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
