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Results from a recent study indicate that hormonal contraceptives double women’s risk of HIV acquisition and the risk of HIV transmission from women to men.

Based on their results, the authors emphasized the need to counsel women about the possible increase in HIV risk with hormonal contraceptive use, especially the shot Depo-Provera, and the importance of condom use to decrease risk of HIV.

“Women should be counseled about potentially increased risk of HIV acquisition and transmission with hormonal contraception, particularly injectable methods, and about the importance of dual protection with…

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Results from a recent study indicate that HIV-positive men who have depression and anxiety or who are less knowledgeable about HIV or have negative beliefs about safe sex practices are at increased risk for transmitting HIV via unprotected sex.

The authors of the study recommended that further studies be conducted to assess the influence of socioeconomic and other factors on HIV transmission. They also suggested that more effort is put into the development of more effective HIV prevention and intervention strategies.

According to the study authors, previous studies have suggested…

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New York State Updates HIV Primary Care Guidelines – The New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have updated their guidelines on primary care of patients with HIV. Updates primarily affect the section of the guidelines about “Comprehensive Baseline History.” The most significant change is a revision of a table detailing the essential elements of a patient history, which now includes a column on which assessments should be performed on an ongoing basis. The guidelines also recommend that health care providers use language that patients can understand and provide an interpreter or sign language services when needed. For more information, please see the AIDS Institute website.

AIDS Patients May Have A Higher Risk Of Developing Stomach And Esophageal Cancers – Results of a recent study suggest that AIDS patients have a higher risk of developing stomach and esophageal cancers. Scientists at the National Cancer Institute analyzed data from nearly 600,000 AIDS patients. Of those, 1,666 developed stomach cancers, while 240 developed esophageal cancers. Patients with AIDS had a nearly seven-fold greater chance of developing stomach cancer and an almost three-fold greater chance of developing esophageal cancer when compared to the general population. The results were presented last week at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 102nd Annual Meeting. For more information please see the AACR News website or abstract 3744 from the conference.

Risk Of HIV Transmission Can Be Predicted By Virus Levels In Genital Secretions – A study published last week indicates that the levels of HIV in genital secretions,  independently of those in the blood, indicate the risk of transmitting HIV between heterosexual partners. Participants with higher levels of virus in their genital secretions were more likely to transmit HIV, regardless of their viral load (amount of HIV in the blood). The authors stated that the results help scientists better understand when transmission risk is greatest, which could help with HIV prevention technologies and methods. For more information, please see the news article at U.S. News and World Report or the study in Science Translational Medicine (abstract).

GlaxoSmithKline Is Recruiting Participants For Clinical Trial For New Therapeutic HIV Vaccine – GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is currently recruiting participants for a new Phase 2 clinical trial to study whether its investigational therapeutic HIV vaccine, GSK Biologicals HIV Vaccine 732462, can lower viral loads and delay the need for treatment in treatment-naïve HIV-positive adults. Therapeutic HIV vaccines are meant to help the immune system fight HIV in people who are already HIV positive. Eligible participants must have a viral load between 2,000 and 80,000 copies per milliliter of blood. The study will compare the safety and efficacy of the vaccine to a placebo. For more information, please see the U.S. Clinical Trials Registry.

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In a recent article in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, experts warned that a forensics technique called HIV phylogenetic analysis, sometimes called HIV fingerprinting, cannot definitively establish whether a specific individual transmitted HIV to another person. The authors also stressed the need for scientists to recognize the limitations of the technique as a basis for proving HIV criminal transmission.

“Phylogenetic analysis is more powerful in its ability to exclude certain scenarios,” said Professor Anne-Meike Vandamme of the Rega Institute for Medical Research at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and coauthor of the Lancet…

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Results of a recent study indicate that significantly more African-American men who have sex with men are HIV-positive than their Caucasian counterparts. However, the study also found that African-American men report lower levels of high-risk sexual behaviors.

The authors speculated that access to health care and health insurance, stigma, and reluctance to get HIV testing may play a role in higher HIV rates in African-American men.

The study took place in Washington, D.C., which has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the United States. An estimated 3 percent…