Advances against AIDS
The International AIDS Conference is being held in the U.S. for the first time since 1990. What progress have we made in battling this global disease since then?
Yes, a Child Has Been Pronounced Cured of HIV—but Can It Be Duplicated?
A baby born exposed to the AIDS-causing virus received aggressive treatment that appears to have cured the child, and promises to spark new avenues for future research as well
Blocking HIV's Attack
Scientists have rid one man of HIV by preventing the virus from entering certain immune cells. But the treatment was dangerous and likely unrepeatable. Can they figure out a safer, more broadly achievable way to help millions more?...

Giving HIV a Poor Reception: New AIDS Treatment Tinkers with Immune Cell Genes
Researchers have found new ways to interfere with a co-receptor important to HIV infection, and the outcomes so far are encouraging

Early HIV Treatment Might Save Livelihoods as Well as Lives
People who manage their HIV infections from an early stage are able to work more and keep their kids in school

UNICEF Aims to Eliminate HIV Infections in Infants by 2015 [Slide Show]
Is it possible? The United Nations agency thinks so. To see why, follow an HIV-positive mom and her baby as they go through an 18-month HIV-transmission prevention program

Timeline: A Few Landmarks in the Effort to Treat AIDS
Thirty years of struggle and research have led to dozens of treatments for HIV/AIDS--although both a cure and an effective vaccine remain elusive

Syringe Design Change Could Cut HIV Transmission
HIV transmission due to needle sharing could be greatly reduced by changing syringe design to ensure less trapped blood. Gretchen Cuda Kroen reports

How Computers Could Reduce the Spread of HIV
Condom use, earlier treatment and increased education have gone a long way to reducing HIV spread in the U.S. Nonetheless, some 4,000 inhabitants of New York City still became infected with HIV in 2009.Injection drug users make up a small portion of the new infections (just over 4 percent in NYC, and about 9 percent nationally), but they represent a finite and targetable population that can benefit from low-cost and well-vetted programs, such as needle exchanges.Establishing even better needle exchange programs or more widespread substance-abuse treatment opportunities might help to limit these new infections among drug users...

Staying Negative: How an Unexpected Antiretroviral Result Is Reshaping the Battle Against AIDS
Success of a vaginal microbicide gel reveals how HIV-prevention strategies can emerge from progress in treatment

Closeted Calamity: The Hidden HIV Epidemic of Men Who Have Sex with Men
A paucity of research on men who have sex with other men has done a disservice to efforts to prevent the spread of HIV

Antiretroviral regimens drastically reduce breast milk HIV transmission between mothers and babies
HIV infects an estimated 430,000 infants and children worldwide each year. Although many of those cases are contracted from an HIV-positive mother during pregnancy or birth, some 40 percent of infected children get the disease through breast-feeding...

Researchers Try to Solve the Mystery of HIV Carriers Who Don't Contract AIDS
Are "elite controllers" the key to understanding HIV infection—and do their immune systems offer a new approach to developing an AIDS vaccine?

Renewed Hope for an AIDS Vaccine
Despite questions, the Thailand trial spreads optimism

HIV Drugs Taken Preemptively Cut Rate of Infection Almost in Half
HIV-negative gay and bisexual men who took prophylactic antiretrovirals regularly were less likely to become infected

Ten Years Later, AIDS Vaccine Search Continues
Science gets closer, but a fully effective vaccine remains elusive

A "Molecular Condom" against HIV
Vaginal gel liquefies to release an antiviral drug in response to semen

Hope in a Vial
Will there be an AIDS vaccine anytime soon?

PREVENTED PREVENTION
Treating sexually transmitted diseases may not restrain the spread of HIV

Treating HIV
At the 12th World AIDS Conference, scientists issue a warning about seemingly successful drugs

Cracking Open AIDS's Shell

AIDS: Genetic Clues from HIV Elite Controllers Could Lead to Better Vaccines, Cancer Treatments
A rare group of HIV-positive individuals need no medicine to keep the virus in check. Their good fortune could point the way to more powerful treatments--and perhaps a vaccine

Obama lifts U.S. ban on foreign HIV-positive travelers
People with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) will no longer be prohibited from visiting or immigrating to the U.S., the White House announced Friday.

The U.S.'s $18.8-Billion Global AIDS Initiative--5 Years Later
The Bush administration's international AIDS program has been hailed as a success story, but will President-elect Obama follow through with a higher quality, fewer-strings-attached plan?...

AIDS in 1988
In their first collaborative article 20 years ago, 2008 Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier, along with Robert Gallo, co-investigators who discovered HIV, introduced a Scientific American single-topic issue on AIDS...

AIDS Moonshot?
Under President Clinton's command, researchers step up the search for an HIV vaccine