Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day, and in commemoration of the occasion, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, headquartered at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, debunks the top 10 myths about HIV vaccine research.

Myth No. 1: HIV vaccines can give people HIV. HIV vaccines do not contain HIV and therefore a person cannot get HIV from the HIV vaccine. Some vaccines, like those for typhoid or polio, may contain a weak form of the virus they are protecting against, but this is not the case for HIV vaccines. Scientists make HIV vaccines so that they look like the real virus, but they do not contain any HIV. Think of it like a photocopy: It might look similar, but it isn't the original. In the past 25 years more than 30,000 volunteers have taken part in HIV vaccine studies worldwide, and no one has been infected with HIV by any of the vaccines tested because they do not contain HIV.

Myth No. 2: An HIV vaccine already exists. There is no licensed vaccine against HIV or AIDS, but scientists are getting closer than ever before to developing an effective vaccine against HIV. In 2009, a large-scale vaccine study conducted in Thailand called RV144 showed that a vaccine combination could prevent about 32 percent of new infections. Researchers are starting to understand why this vaccine combination worked and how to improve upon it.

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The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia announced today that it will receive funding through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.

Terri Finkel, M.D., Ph.D., chief of Rheumatology at Children's Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will pursue an innovative global health research project, titled "Use of a BET Antagonist to Control and Cure HIV Infection." Click here to read the full story...

Sunday marks 30 years since the first AIDS cases were reported in the United States. And this anniversary brings fresh hope for something many had come to think was impossible: finding a cure.

The example is Timothy Ray Brown of San Francisco, the first person in the world apparently cured of AIDS. His treatment isn't practical for wide use, but there are encouraging signs that other approaches might someday lead to a cure, or at least allow some people to control HIV without needing medication every day. Click here to read the full story...

Bill Rydwels is 78, but he hasn’t celebrated his birthday since 1985.

On that day all those years ago, his partner of 17 years, Franco Prieto, died of AIDS. Now, every Oct. 9 calls into sharp contrast all that Rydwels lost — and all that remains as he turns another year older.

He has lived to be a senior citizen, something that seemed unimaginable to him back when he tested positive for HIV in 1985 — the first year the test was available. Then, the Chicago man only expected to live another year or so.

Now, his doctor jokes that he’ll live to be 100. But sometimes, on his down days, he says, “The older I get, the more I wonder, why am I still here when everyone is gone?” Click here to read the full story...

In the nearly 30 years the AIDS epidemic has raged, there has never been a more hopeful day than this. Three striking developments took place Tuesday: U.N. officials said new HIV cases are dropping dramatically worldwide. A study showed that a daily pill already on pharmacy shelves could help prevent new infections in gay men. And the pope opened the way for the use of condoms to prevent AIDS.

"I don't know of a day where so many pieces are beginning to align for HIV prevention and treatment, and frankly with a view to ending the epidemic," said Mitchell Warren, head of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit group that works on HIV prevention research. "This is an incredibly opportune moment and we have to be sure we seize it."

President Barack Obama said the groundbreaking research on the AIDS drug "could mark the beginning of a new era in HIV prevention."

The U.N. report said that new cases dropped nearly 20 percent over the last decade and that 33.3 million people are living with HIV now. Click here to read the full story...

VATICAN CITY – In a seismic shift on one of the most profound — and profoundly contentious — Roman Catholic teachings, the Vatican said Tuesday that condoms are the lesser of two evils when used to curb the spread of AIDS, even if their use prevents a pregnancy.

The position was an acknowledgment that the church's long-held anti-birth control stance against condoms doesn't justify putting lives at risk.

"This is a game-changer," declared the Rev. James Martin, a prominent Jesuit writer and editor.

The new stance was staked out as the Vatican explained Pope Benedict XVI's comments on condoms and HIV in a book that came out Tuesday based on his interview with a German journalist.

The Vatican still holds that condom use is immoral and that church doctrine forbidding artificial birth control remains unchanged. Still, the reassessment on condom use to help prevent disease carries profound significance, particularly in Africa where AIDS is rampant. Click to read the full story...

DNA Interactive - How do you cure a man of both leukemia and AIDS with just one procedure? No, it’s not a trick question: an American leukemia patient living in Berlin received a bone marrow transplant that also resolved his AIDS.

In a bone marrow transplant, a patient’s own marrow is destroyed and replaced with tissue from a donor. The donor marrow contains healthy hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs, adult stem cells in the blood) which repopulate the patient’s body with healthy red and white blood cells for oxygen transport and immune defense. Just as with other varieties of organ donation, tissue-type matches are critical. In the case of the AIDS patient, another screen was also applied: his doctors searched for donors whose cells were also resistant to HIV infection. Click to read the full story.

Wall Street Journal/Health More on the same subject in November 2008.

The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.

The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days. Click here to read the whole story.

WASHINGTON - Try after try to make vaginal creams that could repel the AIDS virus have failed. Now researchers are testing if a drug used to treat HIV infection finally might give women a tool to prevent it — by infusing the medicine into vaginal gels and contraceptive-style rings.

Even quick-dissolving anti-HIV films are being created, the same style now used for breath-fresheners or allergy medicines but made for fingertip application in the vagina.

Called microbicides, this kind of woman-controlled protection is considered key to battling the HIV epidemic — especially in developing countries where the virus is at its worst and women too often can't get their partners to use a condom. Click to read the full story.

March 3rd, 2010 Associated Press
AIDS virus hides in bone marrow
Explains how HIV hides from drugs; finding could lead to new treatment

WASHINGTON - The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to new research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease.

Finding that hide-out is a first step, but years of research lie ahead.

Dr. Kathleen Collins of the University of Michigan and her colleagues report in this week's edition of the journal Nature Medicine that the HIV virus can infect long-lived bone marrow cells that eventually convert into blood cells.

The virus is dormant in the bone marrow cells, she said, but when those progenitor cells develop into blood cells, it can be reactivated and cause renewed infection. Collins says the virus kills the new blood cells and then moves on to infect other cells.

Foreign nationals who are determined to have a “communicable disease of public health significance” are inadmissible to the United States, according to U.S. federal regulation. Those applying for adjustment to lawful permanent resident status or for an immigrant visa abroad must receive a medical examination to demonstrate they are not inadmissible on public health grounds. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines the list of communicable diseases of public health significance, which can change when a new disease emerges or when more is known about a disease that is already on the list. Such communicable diseases are those that can be spread easily between persons. Click to read the full story.

Nine years ago, we established the Monterey County Weekly Community Fund to raise money and awareness for local nonprofits. Thanks to your contributions, monies from foundations and matching grants from the Packard Foundation, we’ve raised and contributed over $350,000 since 2000. Click to read full story.

Donation Form (Note: CCHAS is listed as John XXIII HIV/AIDS Ministry)

Brush aside all those stodgy notions about curling.

The curlers are selling condoms!

USA Curling and longtime sponsor Kodiak Technology Group have teamed up to sell Hurry Hard condoms, hoping the increased interest in Olympic sports before the Vancouver Games will help raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. Proceeds will be split between USA Curling and Central Coast HIV/AIDS Services.

The United Nations Secretary General on Monday called for efforts to fight discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.

Speaking at the "Light for Rights" on World AIDS Day held at the Washington Square Park Memorial Arch in New York, Ban Ki-Moon said: "We are here tonight to denounce the discrimination they (people living with HIV/AIDS) face -- the fear and stigma, the shame and rejection, the threat of losing their jobs." Click to read full story.

The One Test. Two Lives. campaign from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) focuses on ensuring that all women are tested for HIV early in their pregnancy.

Perinatal transmission  accounts for 91% of all AIDS cases among children in the United States.  Antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy can reduce the transmission rate to 2% or less.  The transmission rate is 25% without treatment.

One Test. Two Lives. provides quick access to a variety of resources for providers, and materials for their patients, to help encourage universal voluntary prenatal testing for HIV.
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WASHINGTON - Men with larger foreskins are more likely to become infected with the AIDS virus, researchers said in a finding that helps explain why circumcision can protect men.

The study, released Wednesday, of 965 men in Uganda, all without AIDS at the start, showed those with larger foreskins were more likely to become infected.

Infection rates correlated with the size of the foreskin, Dr. Godfrey Kigozi of Johns Hopkins University's Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda and colleagues found.

Persons between the ages of 25 and 64 years old with health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza, including HIV infection, are an initial target group for the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine and should be vaccinated for the 2009 H1N1 flu.
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Rocker Travis McCoy teams up with MTV for education campaign
MIAMI — When Travis McCoy, lead singer of hip-hop/rock band Gym Class Heroes, lost someone he loved to AIDS more than 15 years ago, he wasn't only saddened by his loss — he was afraid that he could have been infected, too.

"You think 'Oh no, we've shared kitchen utensils,'" says McCoy, who was 11 or 12 at the time. "You think, 'Will the kids at school know?'"
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Heterosexual black men with multiple sex partners -- not bisexual men who secretly have sex with men -- are responsible for high rates of HIV among black women, according to a senior CDC official.

"We have looked to see what proportion of infections is coming from male partners who are bisexual and found there are actually relatively few," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. "More are male partners who are having female partners and are injecting drugs or using drugs or have some other risks that may put those female partners at risk of acquiring HIV."
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Federal health advisers said Thursday that Pfizer's HIV drug Selzentry should be approved for use by patients who have not already taken other drugs to combat the virus.

The Food and Drug Administration's panel of virus experts voted 10-4 in favor of the new use, despite some inconsistency in company studies of the drug. Selzentry is approved as a secondary option for HIV patients who are not responding to other antiviral drugs. New York-based Pfizer is asking the FDA to approve the drug as an initial treatment.
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The discovery of immune system particles that attack the AIDS virus may finally open a way to make a vaccine that could protect people against the deadly and incurable infection, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They used new technology to troll through the blood of 1,800 people infected with the AIDS virus and identified two immune system compounds called antibodies that could neutralize the virus.