TAG HIV Basic Science, Vaccines, and Cure Project Blog

By Richard Jefferys, Project Director at Treatment Action Group (TAG).

recent posts

Category: Transmission

  • Workshop Report: Understanding HIV Exposed but Seronegative (HESN) Individuals

    As mentioned in a recent post, a scientific workshop was held in July of this year to discuss research into HIV exposed but seronegative (HESN) individuals. The event was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and followed up on a November 2009 conference on the same topic held in Manitoba,…

  • Open Access Journal Supplement: Recent Trends in Microbicide Formulations

    The journal Antiviral Research has just published an open access supplement entitled "Recent Trends in Microbicide Formulations." The articles represent summaries of presentations given at a workshop that took place in Arlington, Virginia, January 25-26, 2010, sponsored by CONRAD. 

  • Natural Immunity to HIV Infection

    The November 1, 2010 supplement to the Journal of Infectious Diseases features a suite of articles about individuals who remain HIV negative despite repeated exposure to the virus. The articles represent summaries of oral presentations given at the International Symposium on Natural Immunity to HIV that was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in November 2009.…

  • Frequent Detection of Natural Human Adenovirus Infections

    Adenoviruses are common in nature and are a major cause of severe colds. During the past decade, attenuated forms of adenovirus have become increasingly utilized as experimental vaccine vectors due to their targeting of dendritic cells and ability to induce CD8 T cell responses in the majority of recipients (no other vector to date has…

  • CAPRISA 004 Tenofovir Gel Microbicide Trial: Webcast of Presentations Now Online

    The Kaiser Family Foundation has now posted a webcast of the CAPRISA 004 presentations that took place today at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna. 

  • Microbicide Hope in Tenofovir Gel

    The stubborn persistence and commitment of microbicide researchers, advocates and trial participants has finally seen some reward with positive results from a South African trial of the gel form of the antretroviral drug tenofovir. Originally due to be released on July 20th, the results were disclosed tonight after the UK Financial Times and two unnamed…

  • Genital Tract Immune Activation in Healthy Women from Kisumu, Kenya and San Francisco, USA

    Over the years, an array of theories have been offered to explain the increased risk of heterosexual HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa compared to the US and Europe.  But these theories have almost exclusively focused on behavior, not biology. An example is the claim that concurrent sexual relationships are more common and account for higher…

  • Community Viral Load Decline Associated with a Reduction in HIV Incidence

    A study linking declines in the average viral load in San Francisco communities with reduced HIV incidence was published in PLoS One last month.  The lead author, Moupali Das-Douglas, presented the paper at CROI in February where it attracted some coverage, but the publication in PLoS appears to have flown beneath the media radar. The…

  • Antiretroviral Therapy Dramatically Reduces HIV Transmission

    A recent posting linked to the abstract of a study evaluating the impact of ART on HIV transmission that was presented at CROI earlier this year. The full results have now been published in the Lancet. The paper is generating considerable press coverage because the effect of ART was dramatic, equating to a 92% reduction…

  • The Impact of Antiretroviral Treatment on HIV Transmission Risk

    A study published in the British Medical Journal reports that receipt of antiretroviral treatment (ART) was associated with an absence of HIV transmission among discordant couples in Spain. The authors acknowledge that their findings should be interpreted with caution due to several limitations, particularly a high rate of loss to follow-up during the prospective part…