Infectious Disease

SYDNEY -- Making circumcision widely available to adult men in regions of the world where HIV infection is highly prevalent will save millions of lives and should be undertaken immediately, researchers urged here.

SYDNEY -- Starting antiretroviral therapy in the first 12 weeks of life markedly reduces mortality for infants born with HIV infection.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Corticosteroids appear to be ineffective against first episode bronchiolitis in infants, despite frequent emergency room use, researchers said.

SYDNEY -- An investigational HIV drug that blocks the virus from entering its target cells "isn't ready for prime time" in the treatment of newly diagnosed patients, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- A combination of two new HIV drugs can reduce the virus to undetectable levels even in patients with a highly resistant strain, according to two studies presented here.

SYDNEY -- Malignancies still plague a major study of the investigational HIV drug vicriviroc, which blocks one of the pathways the virus uses to enter target cells, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- As the long-term prognosis for patients with HIV improves, it becomes more important to assess the patient's risk for cardiovascular disease and other health issues, researchers suggested here.

SYDNEY -- The novel integrase inhibitor raltegravir was as effective initial therapy as the standard treatment, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- New compounds that seek ways to disrupt mechanisms of the HIV life cycle were outlined here, reflecting an expanding investigative antiviral pipeline

CHICAGO -- Medicare patients who couldn't read a physician's instructions, or who didn't understand what they read had a higher mortality rate than patients with adequate reading skills.

SYDNEY -- A novel HIV drug aimed at barring entry of the virus into the cell was safe and had a long half-life in an early trial, lowering viral load for up to two weeks after treatment stopped, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- HIV vaccine research is poised to take a step into the unknown -- the use of live but attenuated viruses to create immunity.

SYDNEY -- Doctors and patients should not be content with keeping human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at low levels, but should seek to optimize treatment to suppress virus to undetectable levels.

SYDNEY -- Tuberculosis and HIV therapy can take place at the same time without the risk of long-term HIV treatment failure, researchers said here.

SYDNEY -- The pendulum of HIV treatment is starting to swing -- once again -- toward the "hit early, hit hard" theory.

GENEVA, Switzerland -- The risk of late-onset ventilator-associated pneumonia in ICU patients rises as the nurse-to-patient ratio declines, reported investigators here.

DENVER -- Andrew Speaker's much-documented battle with drug-resistant tuberculosis took another a turn today, with the sudden announcement that he would have surgery this morning to remove diseased and damaged lung tissue.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Occurrence rates for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma more than tripled from 1973 to 2002, with the rise varying by race, sex, and geographic area, researchers found.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Diabetes complicates hospital trauma care much as it does for in-patient acute care, researchers here reported.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The frequency and severity of Clostridium difficile colitis in hospitalized patients have increased dramatically since the early 1990s, leading to greater morbidity and mortality, investigators here reported.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Longer is better when it comes to treatment for hepatitis C, researchers here said.

BOSTON -- Incretin-based therapies offer an alternative to hypoglycemic agents for type 2 diabetes with little if any weight gain, a meta-analysis showed.

PHILADELPHIA -- Not only did prophylactic antibiotic therapy fail to reduce recurrence of urinary tract infections in young children, it was linked to an increase in resistant infections.

PARIS, July 9 -- Episodic impaired memory, not dementia, is the crucial clinical symptom required for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, according to a proposal for revised diagnostic criteria.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Calcium and ceftriaxone (Rocephin) are a dangerous combination that can increase the risk of lethal precipitates forming in the lungs and kidneys of infants, according to the FDA.