A recent fact sheet published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examines whether HIV-infected individuals with undetectable viral load, or amount of virus in the blood, are less infectious and are thus less likely to spread infection through sexual transmission.

Antiretroviral treatment (ART) includes medications that are able to decrease the replication of virus, thereby decreasing the amount of virus in the body. HIV-infected individuals undergoing ART can often suppress viral load to undetectable levels.

Studies in Uganda, Spain and San Francisco of heterosexual populations, or…

A new study finds that hepatitis C infection, liver cirrhosis, and high viral load are risk factors for thrombocytopenia in HIV-positive individuals, even if they are receiving Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART).

Thrombocytopenia is a condition in which the number of platelets in a person’s blood drops to abnormally low levels. Platelets are cells that are involved in blood clotting, and low platelet levels can lead to excessive bruising or bleeding. When left untreated, HIV infections can cause thrombocytopenia. Before modern HAART treatment regimens were developed, the condition was often…

A recent clinical trial, known as the SETPOINT study, by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that the immune system of untreated HIV-infected individuals weakened earlier than previously proposed.

Tia Fraizer, M.D., and Larry Fox, M.D., medical officers in the Division of AIDS at NIAID, said, “It is possible that the finding that the immune systems of untreated HIV-infected individuals appear to deteriorate faster than previously thought may lead some clinicians to monitor the immune health of…

Researchers of a recently published study verified that early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces the progression of AIDS in individuals with mild opportunistic infections (OIs), infections that take advantage of weaknesses in immune defenses. Antiretroviral therapy involves the use of at least three antiretroviral drugs that slow down the progression of the HIV virus and prevent further damage to the immune system.

In the Phase 4 study, researchers separated subjects into two groups – one group received “early ART”, while another group received “deferred ART”. The early ART group…