ATLANTA - Could the AIDS virus be stopped with gift cards? Desperate for a way to stop the escalating spread of HIV among young gay men, public health officials are looking to novel strategies, such as enlisting local gay opinion leaders to urge their peers to practice safe sex.
Promising signs from such a project in [...]

A group of women shout slogans as they take part in the Women's World March in Mexico City on August 5, 2008 in the sidelines of the XVII International AIDS/HIV Conference. The world AIDS conference ended here Friday with appeals for further funds to care for people infected by HIV and a scaleup of efforts [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
A patch that delivers estrogen
through the skin may prove useful in treating advanced cases of
prostate cancer, preliminary research suggests.

In a study of 13 prostate cancer patients who were given
the Fem7 estrogen patch, UK researchers found that the therapy
substantially lowered the men's testosterone levels.

Because testosterone helps fuel the growth and [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Children who are accidentally
stuck with an improperly discarded needle or syringe appear to
be at low risk for acquiring hepatitis or HIV, new research
suggests.

In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, Canadian
researchers found that of 274 children with needlestick
injuries, none became infected with HIV or the hepatitis B or C
viruses.

Nevertheless, [...]

MEXICO CITY (Reuters Health) -
A new report suggests that
only 1 percent of HIV-positive patients worldwide have been
screened for tuberculosis, a curable infection that frequently
kills those living with the AIDS virus.

The low TB screening rate is “unacceptable,” researchers
from the Advocacy to Control TB Internationally (ACTION)
coalition said during a press conference at the International
AIDS Conference underway [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
An Internet-based blood-sugar
monitoring program appears to help people with type 1 diabetes
better manage their condition, researchers report.

Type 1 diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes,
usually strikes people in their teens and twenties, and
requires regular insulin injections and close monitoring of
blood sugar, or glucose.

For the new study, researchers looked at whether [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Some doctors are not making the
grade when it comes to helping their patients ward off heart
disease, a new survey suggests.

The survey, of nearly 900 U.S. primary care doctors, found
that many do not follow practice guidelines on managing
patients who are at elevated risk of heart and blood vessel
disease.

“Despite the benefits [...]

A Los Angeles Police Department helicopter surveys the Hollywood sign in Hollywood, California October 22, 2006. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
Los Angeles residents are notorious
for worrying about their waistlines and if two Los Angeles
County Supervisors have it their way, calorie counting while
dining out in the city may get easier.

Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Michael Antonovich [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Chronic protein deficiency may
cause delays in a child's brain development that improve little
over time, a new study shows.

The research was conducted in India, a country with a high
rate of child malnutrition despite its current economic boom.

The World Health Organization estimates that for the years
1990 to 1997, more than half [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Obesity may be contagious
because most people feel good about themselves if they are
about as heavy as the people around them, according to new
research from an international team of economists.

This could explain the rapid rise in the prevalence of
overweight around the world, the researchers say. That is, the
norm that most people [...]