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Online players solve a tough problem that had scientists stumped for a decade. For more than 10 years, health researchers have been stumped by an enzyme that helps retroviral infections like AIDS reproduce. Biologists studying the enzyme were unable to model its shape, a crucial first step in figuring out how to beat it. Recently scientists turned the problem over to an unusual team of collaborators: video gamers. Using Foldit, a free online protein folding game developed at the University of Washington in 2008, those gamers competed to see who could produce the most accurate virtual model of the real-life...

The Greening of AIDS PreventionDon't bet the house and farm on drugs and condoms. Broken Promises: How the AIDS Establishment Has Betrayed the Developing World is the recent book by Edward C. Green, the former director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard School of Health. He has been conducting research in Africa, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world for upwards of three decades, in the fields of applied anthropology and international health. In an interview with National Review Online, Green, current director of the New Paradigm Fund, talks about clarifying recent AIDS research and how...

Page 19 - In a bathouse in New York City, Demetre Daskalakis, MD hopes to solve the mysteries of long-term resistance to HIV infection. In this unusual setting he established an HIV testing site in 2007.

Doctors have treated only three leukemia patients, but the sensational results from a single shot could be one of the most significant advances in cancer research in decades. And it almost never happened. In the research published Wednesday, doctors at the University of Pennsylvania say the treatment made the most common type of leukemia completely disappear in two of the patients and reduced it by 70 percent in the third. In each of the patients as much as five pounds of cancerous tissue completely melted away in a few weeks, and a year later it is still gone

The design and construction of pharmaceutical warehouses are in the planning stages for Ethiopia, courtesy of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The agency today issued a presolicitation notice alerting potential vendors to the release of an upcoming Request for Proposals (RFP), which USAID expects to release around July 28. The RFP will provide greater detail about the project, which aims to build ten "super structures" on substructures that the Government of Ethiopia already has put in place. The facilities are located in the regions of Addis Ababa, Adama, Arbaminch, Awassa, Bahirdar, Dessie, Diredawa, Jimma, Mekelle, and Nekemte. The...

Not only does Dominique Strauss-Kahn have to worry about a possible prison sentence, but now he also has reason to be concerned about coming into contact with the HIV/AIDs virus. The alleged victim of the IMF chief's sexual assault lives in a Bronx apartment rented exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS. The hotel maid is a West African immigrant, and has occupied the fourth floor of the building with her 15-year-old daughter since January. Before that, she had lived in another apartment since 2008 that was set aside by Harlem Community AIDS United for adults with the virus and...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have more to worry about than a possible prison sentence. The IMF chief's alleged sex-assault victim lives in a Bronx apartment rented exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS, The Post has learned. The hotel maid, a West African immigrant, has occupied the fourth-floor High Bridge pad with her 15-year-old daughter since January -- and before that, lived in another Bronx apartment set aside by Harlem Community AIDS United strictly for adults with the virus and their families. The Post has not been able to ascertain whether the maid, 32, has HIV/AIDS because of medical confidentiality laws.

Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog have some new friends, but they're a long way from "Sesame Street." One of America's best-loved children's shows, which began life on a fictional New York street over 40 years ago, is about to land in Nigeria under the title of "Sesame Square" -- bringing with it some distinctly West African twists. The show stars Kami, a girl Muppet who is HIV-positive, has golden hair and a zest for adventure; and Kobi, an energetic, furry, blue Muppet whose troublesome escapades help others learn from his mistakes.

Starting Tuesday, getting tested for HIV in the District will be as easy as renewing a driver's license.

CHICAGO, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Nearly one in five gay and bisexual men in 21 major U.S. cities are infected with HIV, and nearly half of them do not know it, U.S. health officials said on Thursday. Young men, and especially young black men, are least likely to know if they are infected with HIV, according to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We need to reinvigorate our response to preventing HIV among gay and bisexual men," Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said in a telephone interview. "We can't allow...

The idea that the pope is responsible for spreading AIDS in Africa has acquired the moral force of a chattering-class commandment. Say it in polite company and you will be greeted by vigorously nodding heads. The pope’s criticism of condom-use ‘sabotages the fight against AIDS’, says a Guardian columnist (leading an online commenter to say: ‘the genocidal freak should be tried for crimes against humanity.’) The New Statesman reckons the Vatican has done more to spread AIDS around Africa than ‘prostitution and the trucking industry combined’. Stephen Fry, that unofficial High Representative of the chattering classes, says the pope has...

The Washington Post reported yesterday on the frustration and anger among international AIDS charities with the White House. The groups argue that President Obama’s administration has reneged on pledges to fund antiretroviral therapy programs. The programs have been big successes in Africa, which faces epidemic levels of infection. “In sub-Saharan Africa, antiretroviral therapy, much of it paid for by the U.S. government, is resurrecting whole communities,” the Post reports. That progress is endangered, the charities say, by a shortage of funds. They now long for the good old days of ... the previous administration.

... Maybe you fooled around with a guy 30 years ago and have spent the rest of your life as a celibate priest. Maybe you've been in a faithful same-sex marriage for 40 years. Maybe you've passed an HIV test. It doesn't matter. You can't give blood, because you're in the wrong "group." On the other hand, if you're in the right group—heterosexuals—you can give blood despite dangerous behavior. If you had sex with a prostitute, an IV drug user, and an HIV-positive opposite-sex partner 13 months ago, you're good to go. This kind of group-based screening is a long-standing...

I thought, "We should do a program" like this! The "we" I thought of is us Christians. Americans are the most generous people in the world and American Christians are the most generous of all. I wonder how much we could raise for good causes? Of course, I know of a ministry that is already in many of the same places that these other organizations are in- Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and twenty more! That's the ministry of He Intends Victory (HIV). I started HIV in 1990 from 2 guys in the church I was pastor at who both shared with...

When Zoe Lehman talks about the newest version of the female condom, she's equal parts women's health care advocate (“It's an incredible prevention tool that empowers women”) and sex therapist (“we tell women the double rings are amazingly pleasurable”). ...Lehman, 23, is the support services coordinator at the Chicago Women's AIDS Project and a “sexpert.” ...“We see the introduction of this new female condom as a way to inform women about taking their health into their own hands,” said Lehman, a University of Chicago graduate who has worked with HIV/AIDS infected women in Africa. “We've been letting everyone know how...

Prosecutors decided to cite HIV as a deadly weapon in charging a Houston man with aggravated sexual assault of a child last week — a first for Harris County. ...Prosecutors accusing Kevin Lee Sellars of having sex with a 15-year-old boy used Sellars' HIV-positive status to upgrade the sexual assault of a child charge to an aggravated offense, making it a first-degree felony. ...Everett, 26, is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy he met on the Internet last year. Castillo said he believes Everett has HIV and plans to prosecute him, regardless of whether the boy contracted it. “You...

Powerful anti-HIV drugs have come tantalizingly close to eradicating the virus from people, driving the blood level of HIV so low that standard tests cannot detect it. But no one has been cured: the virus comes roaring back in everyone who stops taking the drugs. A new study has identified one of HIV's main hideaways, raising intriguing possibilities about how to remove it. The work addresses a mystery first reported in 2006 by the lab of Robert Siliciano, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who has developed the most sensitive test to find HIV. Siliciano's group first...

Last March, Harry Knox, who serves on the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, criticized Pope Benedict XVI for his comment that the African AIDS epidemic will not be overcome by promoting condoms. Knox wrote that Pope Benedict was “hurting people in the name of Jesus,” adding that “on a continent where millions of people are infected with HIV, it is morally reprehensible to spread such blatant falsehoods.” Recently a CNSNews.com reporter asked Knox if he stood by his statement – he indicated that he emphatically does – even in light of the strong defense of Pope Benedict...

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT, SOME OF THE INFORMATION BELOW MAY NOT BE CONSIDERED SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN Editor's Note: This column was first posted July 28, 2008. If there were not enough reasons homosexuals should not be allowed to openly serve in the U.S. Armed Forces, the following column by Donna Garner will provide more food for thought. Garner, an activist and researcher, accumulated reams of information regarding the added risk homosexuality presents to those who practice this behavior. Vets Against Repeal of DADT: "Do Ask, Do Tell" points to the fact these medical issues would be a factor which would play...

* Study solves puzzle that eluded scientists for 20 years * Finding should help development of new HIV/AIDS medicines * Allows scientists to see how Merck and Gilead drugs work LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Scientists say they have solved a crucial puzzle about the AIDS virus after 20 years of research and that their findings could lead to better treatments for HIV. British and U.S. researchers said they had grown a crystal that enabled them to see the structure of an enzyme called integrase, which is found in retroviruses like HIV and is a target for some of the...