News by Subject Medicine & Health

A study of the victimization of women who were living in areas of high poverty and HIV prevalence in multiple cities across the US has shown that high-risk-sex, characterized by one or more HIV risk factors, was associated with a significantly greater likelihood of physical violence against the female participant within the subsequent six months.

A combination of elevated fasting glucose and HbA1c levels from a single blood sample was found to be accurate for diagnosing diabetes. This is significant because current guidelines state that a second blood test, conducted a separate point in time, is requited to confirm a diagnosis of diabetes. Findings from a prospective cohort study are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

A study by researchers investigating the 2015 HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana, found that a syringe services program is an important tool to control and prevent HIV outbreaks among people who inject drugs in a nonurban area.

Multiple barriers may stop high-risk individuals from accessing an HIV drug that can reduce the subsequent risk of infection, according to a new University of Michigan study.

Early, sustained antiretroviral therapy (ART), which results in long-term viral suppression, helps to prevent AIDS-defining cancers and also non-AIDS-defining cancers, to a lesser degree. However, patients with long-term viral suppression still had excess cancer risk compared to uninfected patients. The study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, is the first to examine the effects of prolonged periods of viral suppression and potential cancer prevention benefits for the aging population of persons living with HIV.

Scientists now report that Treg cells, a type of regulatory lymphocyte, may be protecting babies in the womb from getting infected with the HIV virus when the mother is infected. The research, from the Emory Vaccine Center, is presented at ASM Microbe, the American Society for Microbiology's annual meeting, held from June 7-11 in Atlanta, Ga.

Results from a pivotal trial of PRO 140, a new HIV therapy, show that PRO 140 is an effective, long-acting therapeutic in combination with antiretroviral treatment (ART) for previously treated HIV-1 infected patients. This is an ongoing randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The research is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, held from June 7-11 in Atlanta, Ga.

African-Americans are still much more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white Americans. A new paper on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African-American community shows that despite recent drops in HIV diagnoses across every population in the US, there are still great disparities between ethnic groups. The paper was led by Cato T. Laurencin of the University of Connecticut in the US and is published in Springer's Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.