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Certain States Will Lose HIV Prevention Funds Due To CDC Formula Change – Due to a change in the way the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disburse funds toward HIV prevention, states will receive different levels of federal funding for HIV prevention beginning in 2012. States with lower rates of HIV transmission, such as Massachusetts and Michigan, will receive less funding while states with higher HIV rates, primarily in the Southern U.S., will receive more. Activists in states that stand to lose funding fear that the cuts could cause an increase in HIV cases in their states. For more information, please see the articles in the Boston Globe and the Washington Independent.

AIDS.gov Blog Features Highlights From Atlanta HIV Prevention Conference – The AIDS.gov blog, run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), featured highlights from each day of the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta last week. The posts included discussion of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, important studies presented at the conference on preventing HIV transmission, and progress in implementing prevention strategies and campaigns. The posts were written by Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, the HHS Deputy Secretary for Health, Infectious Diseases and Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. For more information, please see the AIDS.gov blog.

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Finds Promising HIV Vaccine Antibodies – Last week, researchers reported the discovery of 17 promising new anti-HIV antibodies, proteins manufactured by the body’s immune system to mark and neutralize pathogens in the body for destruction. According to the researchers, the antibodies are 10 to 100 times more effective at blocking HIV than previous anti-HIV antibodies that have been isolated. The researchers also noted that the proteins present a promising avenue for creating a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. The next step will be for researchers to begin trying to design a vaccine based on the new antibodies. For more information, please see the study in Nature (abstract) or the press release from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

CDC Adds Information Page About HIV In Transgendered Individuals – The CDC has added a new information page to its HIV/AIDS website on HIV in transgendered adults. The page has information on rates of HIV infection in this population, challenges with regard to HIV prevention, and steps the CDC is taking to better understand and monitor HIV infections in transgendered individuals. According to the CDC, transgendered individuals are three times more likely than men and nearly nine times more likely than women to become infected with HIV. For more information, please see the CDC website.

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Results of a new study suggest that people with HIV who begin antiretroviral therapy soon after infection may better retain the ability to fight off other infectious diseases than people who begin treatment later.

“Our work…suggest[s] that more clinical trials should be aimed at comparing early-treated and chronic-treated patients by a variety of different immunologic parameters,” said Dr. Susan Moir, lead author of the study, in correspondence with The AIDS Beacon.

The findings shed light on a group of immune cells called B cells and how early initiation of antiretroviral…

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Because of a defective immune response, HIV-positive individuals are at an increased risk of Salmonella infection.  Although scientists have known for years that Salmonella poses greater risks in HIV-positive individuals, a recent study published in Science is the first to provide a scientific explanation.

The researchers studied the type of Salmonella bacteria commonly passed through food, such as uncooked meat and eggs. In most healthy individuals, Salmonella food poisoning causes vomiting and diarrhea; however, in HIV-positive individuals, it can be fatal.

In particular, HIV-infected individuals living in underdeveloped countries are…

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A recent study in Public Library of Science Pathogens finds that HIV employs various methods in order to mutate and escape from the body’s natural immune response. The study is of great importance in the development of potential vaccines that will work to help the immune system fight HIV infection.

Most HIV infected individuals develop neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) within the first few weeks of infection. NAbs are proteins manufactured by the body’s immune system, which create an immune response to fight infection of such a virus.

NAbs may…