virus

New Hope in the Fight Against AIDS

Dec 1, 2008
World AIDS Day turns 20 today, and while we still don't have a vaccine, researchers continue to make lifesaving breakthroughs. A team at the World Health Organization in Geneva recently came up with a "thought experiment" that, according to a mathematical model, could end the AIDS epidemic in Africa in only a decade.

AIDS Theory Runs Amok

Nov 26, 2008
In a glaring example of the importance of theory in practice, U.S. researchers have accused former South African President Thabo Mbeki of being responsible for more than 300,000 AIDS-related "avoidable deaths," pointing to Mbeki's siding with a theoretical camp that argues AIDS is caused by a collapsed immune system, not a viral infection. As a result, offers of free drugs and grant money for AIDS treatment were rejected.
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Scientist: HIV Vaccine at Square One

Feb 15, 2008
Nobel Prize-winning biologist David Baltimore has told his peers that researchers are no closer to discovering an HIV vaccine after decades of study. He called for new approaches and said the challenge was difficult because "to control HIV immunologically the scientific community has to beat out nature, do something that nature, with its advantage of four billion years of evolution, has not been able to do."

U.N. Downsizes AIDS Estimate

Nov 20, 2007
Finally, some good news in the world (relatively speaking): AIDS scientists at the United Nations are ready to announce that they have been overestimating the scale of the viral epidemic for quite some time now, and that the spread of AIDS has actually been decelerating over the last decade.

Is Obesity Contagious?: Round Two

Aug 21, 2007
It's beginning to look like there's nowhere to hide from the often-referenced "obesity epidemic." First came the news this month that friends may cause each others' waistlines to expand, and now there's a new study out that links excess weight, in certain cases, to a common cold-inducing virus, adenovirus-36.