Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

Three new studies indicate that it may be possible to avoid many of the fat-distribution problems associated with HIV drug therapy, giving patients a better quality of life and minimizing risk to their hearts, researchers said Monday. The introduction of powerful drug cocktails in the 1990s was a major breakthrough in HIV therapy, permitting patients to survive indefinitely.

In what some are hailing as the most important development in HIV therapy in a decade, two new classes of drugs have been found to block virus replication in patients resistant to existing drugs, researchers said Tuesday.

Two experimental AIDS drugs designed to fight resistant HIV strains are showing promising preliminary results, researchers said Wednesday. One, called elvitegravir, is part of a new class of drugs known as integrase inhibitors and has shown evidence of being more potent than currently used drugs.

A majority of Los Angeles County primary care practitioners are failing to advise their Latino patients -- who are at high risk for HIV infection -- to get tested, according to a UCLA study released Thursday. Only 41% of the 85 surveyed primary care providers -- including doctors, nurses and physician assistants -- had regularly offered advice about sexually transmitted diseases during the six-month period covered in the study, which was conducted in 2004 by the UCLA AIDS Institute.

Trainer Ma Guohui has just introduced a roomful of young hairstylists to the chemistry of hair. Next up: HIV/AIDS. Ma is on the front line of an international business campaign aimed at helping stop the spread of the deadly disease. In addition to promoting L'Oreal products, the immaculately coiffed Ma hopes to turn her Chinese students into scissor-wielding ambassadors for safe sex and tolerance.

The state Department of Health Services inadvertently revealed the names and addresses of up to 53 Californians enrolled in an AIDS drug assistance program to other enrollees by putting benefit notification letters in the wrong envelopes, officials said Friday. The letters went out Tuesday to recipients in 16 counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego.

The World Health Organization recommended Wednesday that circumcision immediately become part of the frontline strategy to combat AIDS -- a move that the group said could save millions of lives. The benefit would be greatest in countries with widespread epidemics and low rates of circumcision, such as those in southern and eastern Africa, the WHO said. "The recommendations represent a significant step forward in HIV prevention," said Dr. Kevin De Cock, director of the WHO's HIV/AIDS Department.

A new AIDS drug that received accelerated federal approval last summer is significantly better at attacking highly resistant HIV than existing drugs, according to a study of 230 patients published Wednesday. Darunavir, part of the decade-old class of drugs known as protease inhibitors, lowered virus levels to the undetectable range in 45% of patients after 48 weeks. By comparison, 10% of patients on other drug regimens showed similar declines.

An experimental Pfizer Inc. AIDS pill was effective at suppressing the HIV virus when added to the best available drug regimens, U.S. drug reviewers said in an analysis released Friday. The Food and Drug Administration staff, however, said they would ask an advisory panel that meets Tuesday for advice "regarding the possible need for special labeling as well as whether additional clinical trials should be performed to address particular safety issues."

German researchers have found a peptide in human blood that blocks HIV and have identified a synthetic variant that is 100 times more potent, they reported Friday in the journal Cell. The synthetic version has been shown to be safe in animals and the team hopes to begin trials in humans this year, they said.