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People who start HIV meds with a very low CD4 count can get a quick
immune boost by taking interleukin-2 (IL-2), a new Italian study has
found. Experts have long known that IL-2 (which is not an approved HIV
therapy) acts as an immune booster, but side effects and other issues
have prevented it from going into widespread use. This new study found
that people who took three courses of IL-2 within the first three
months of starting HIV meds had a faster, greater increase in CD4
count and developed… Continue

A South African official is begging his countrymen to adopt children
who have been orphaned by HIV. About 1.5 million South African
children have lost their parents to the virus, Social Development
Minister Zola Skweyiya says, but in 2007 the number of AIDS orphans
adopted in South Africa fell by 13 percent to 1,900. "South Africa
is facing a challenge of increasing numbers of orphaned children,
abandoned babies, worrying levels of abuse, neglect and exploitation
of children," Skweyiya said. "We… Continue

Surgeons in South Africa have successfully transplanted a kidney
from an HIV-positive donor to an HIV-positive recipient, the first
time such a procedure has been done. The move was somewhat
controversial, due to fears that the recipient would be put at risk
for superinfection with the donor's strain of HIV. However, the
operation was a step forward not only for HIV medicine, but also for
organ transplants among HIVers in South Africa, where there had been
a long-standing ban on organ donations… Continue

As anybody who's been diagnosed with HIV knows, life with the virus
has its ups and downs. But often it's how we deal with the downs that
really matters. For instance, people who have never truly been able
to cope with the trauma of their HIV diagnosis may start to miss
their doctor's appointments or skip their HIV meds. Research has
also shown conflicting evidence about the possible impact of trauma
on a person's immune system and CD4 count. Although the exact link
between HIV and trauma is not… Continue

A Nigerian state governed by Islamic law has arranged marriages for
140 HIV-positive men and women. The government's argument is that
it's pairing up people with HIV in order to battle the "isolation
and stigma" of HIV and prevent the spread of the virus. At least one
HIV-positive groom appeared to agree, at least on record: "If we
should fear God, we should stop spreading the HIV virus through
indiscriminate marriage, thereby infecting innocent people," he
said. "Marrying someone with the same… Continue