UCLA's Infectious Diseases Chief Discusses the State of HIV/AIDS in America

Dr. Judith Currier, chief of the UCLA Division of Infectious Diseases and associate director of the UCLA CARE Center, was featured Oct. 9 on a Larry King Now panel discussion on the current state of HIV/AIDS in the United States.

In 1987, 68% of Americans named HIV/AIDS as the most urgent health problem facing the nation. In 2012, it was 10%. Larry welcomes an expert panel to discuss the state of HIV/AIDS in America: how close we are to a cure, the prevailing stigma, and why – when 1.2 million Americans live with HIV – the fight to end the epidemic has lost its steam.

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Urine Screening Alone Misses Most Chlamydia and Gonorrhea in HIV+ MSM

Screening for Chlamydia (CT) and Gonorrhea (GC) is recommended at least annually for sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM). Although most cases of pharyngeal and rectal GC and CT in MSM are asymptomatic, extragenital sites are not frequently screened. The study aim was to determine asymptomatic rates of GC and CT infection at 3 anatomical sites in HIV-infected MSM and compare rates when urine only vs. extragenital sites were tested.

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New Study: Genital Inflammation & HIV Acquisition Associated in Women..STIs also associated with Inflammation & HIV Acquisition

Elevated genital concentrations of HIV target cell-recruiting chemokines and a genital inflammatory profile contributes to the high risk of HIV acquisition in these African women…….In conclusion, susceptibility to HIV infection was associated with elevations in genital inflammatory cytokines, as a marker of genital inflammation. The increased frequency of 4 inflammatory cytokines in younger women may be an important driver of the high HIV incidence rates in young women in Africa.

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Science Won't Stop Until It Beats AIDS, Says HIV Pioneer Francoise Barre Sinoussi

More than 30 years after she identified one of the most pernicious viruses to infect humankind, Francoise Barre Sinoussi, who shared a Nobel prize for discovering HIV, is hanging up her lab coat and retiring.

She’s disappointed not to have been able to claim ultimate victory in the battle against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the killer disease AIDS, but also proud that in three decades, the virus has been beaten into check.

While a cure for AIDS may or may not be found in her lifetime, the 68-year-old says, achieving “remission” – where infected patients control HIV in their bodies and, crucially, can come off treatment for years – is definitely within reach.

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