Johannesburg - The world's first organ transplants from an HIV-positive donor to HIV-positive recipients took place in Cape Town recently, South Africa's Mail & Guardian weekly newspaper reported Friday.

Two kidney transplants were carried out at Cape Town's Groote Schuur hospital in September, the paper reported.

Phnom Penh - Cambodia faces a fresh HIV/AIDS epidemic because of a sharp rise in intravenous drug use driven by an influx of cheap methamphetamines, a senior government official said Monday.

Lou Ramin, director general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, told a conference that statistics showed overall drug use had decreased but intravenous use was growing and spreading.

Washington, Oct 8: There is insufficient evidence that circumcision reduces the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection or other sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men, according to an analysis of previous research.

Less is known about whether circumcision offers protection against HIV infection among men who have sex with men
(MSM).

Washington - A decades-old paraffin wax-encased block of tissue has added a curious chapter to the history of HIV, suggesting the virus that causes AIDS has been infecting people for at least 100 years.

Washington, Oct 2 : Maraviroc, the first of a new class of HIV drugs called CCR5 receptor antagonists, can provide major benefits for certain patients who have become immune to existing medications, according to a new study.

Since it is from a new class of HIV medications known as HIV entry inhibitors, people living with HIV generally will not have resistance to maraviroc because they have not been exposed to any drugs from the class previously.

Sydney - Circumcision can help protect gay men from contracting the virus that causes HIV/AIDS, researchers in Australia have found.

"We've shown for the first time that men who predominantly take on the insertive role in sex are less likely to contract HIV if they've been circumcised," David Templeton, from the University of New South Wales, told an international gathering in Perth.

Nairobi - In the small rural village of Eshisiru in Western Kenya, hundreds of women in colourful dresses, many of them surrounded by a gaggle of children, queue patiently in the midday sun.

These women are not waiting to draw water from a borehole or to buy food.

Instead, they are waiting to be tested for HIV - something that campaigners say is virtually unheard of in Africa.

New York/New Delhi, Sept. 24:ZMQ Software Systems, an Indian software solution provider, was honoured today for raising awareness about HIV/AIDS across India using mobile technology.

Kampala  - The Ugandan government plans to set out measures combatting prostitution, including publishing names of offenders in newspapers, on the internet and on television, Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo confirmed Thursday.

Maputo  - While Mozambique has made some advances in providing life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to HIV/AIDS patients the World Bank said Wednesday the southern African country lagged in its response to the pandemic.

Washington, Sept 16: A simple antiviral drug developed decades ago suppresses HIV in patients who are also infected with herpes, according to researchers at the U. S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), McGill University and other institutions.

Johannesburg  - Subsistence farmers in the impoverished southern African kingdom of Swaziland will get help from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to buy seeds as rising prices put agricultural inputs beyond the reach of many.

Washington, September 6: The Netherlands-based scientists have for the first time described a way whereby having a sexually transmitted disease — such as genital herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia — increases an individual’s risk of becoming infected with HIV through sexual contact.

Manila - Bhutan Health Minister Lyonpo Zangley Dukpa did not hide his grave concern over an increasing number of HIV cases in his tiny kingdom in the bosom of the Himalayan Mountains.

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 25 : Kiranjit Kaur, a 35-year-old Sikh woman of Indian origin and an AIDS victim, has become the poster girl for people living with HIV/AIDS in Malaysia, after she became one of the first persons and one of the few with the condition to go public about it.

Her emotional and mental strength is considered amazing by many, but Kiranjit feels that despite her condition “it is not the end of the road”.

Kampala  - Uganda on Thursday said it had begun a programme to more than double the number of people receiving AIDS drugs to 300,000.

The total number of patients currently receiving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) stands at 125,000, including 13,000 children below the age of 12.

Washington, Aug 16 : A research team from Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), along with researchers from Universite de Montreal have developed a personalized immunotherapy to fight HIV/AIDS.

Scientists have long been finding it difficult to create an AIDS vaccine due to high genetic variability of the HIV virus.

Washington, August 13: AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins say that it is probably because of the strength of the immune system, and not any defects an HIV strain, that some people infected with the virus can remain symptom free for years even without treatment.

Washington, Aug 13: Indian women who face physical and sexual violence from their husbands have an increased risk of HIV infection, compared with women who are not abused by their better halves, says a new study published in the August 13 issue of JAMA.

Maputo  - Three people missing for two weeks were found to have drowned themselves in Mozambique's Limpopo River out of fear of discrimination after being diagnosed HIV positive, local media reported Friday.

Washington/Mexico City  - Male circumcision can prevent 65 per cent of new HIV infections in adult heterosexual men, but AIDS- hit countries are lagging in their efforts to promote it, researchers said Tuesday.

Washington, Aug 5: A new study led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health has suggested that long-term antiretroviral drugs for HIV decrease the risk for coronary atherosclerosis - a central risk factor for heart disease.

Washington, August 5: Experts at the AIDS 2008 Conference held in Mexico City on Monday called on the global health community to ramp up male circumcision to significantly reduce risk of HIV infection in Africa.

Mexico City  - Homophobia and disappointments in the search for a vaccine were expected to dominate the 17th International AIDS Conference as an estimated
25,000 scientists, politicians, physicians and activists gathered in Mexico City.