Still

HIV Infection Still On The Rise

Preventive measures are failing to stem the rising rate of HIV infection, warn two senior doctors in an editorial in this week's BMJ. The underlying reason for this continuing increase is socioeconomic, but the increase also repr...

South Africa still debating how to tackle HIV/AIDS when 5 million are infected

A national conference in South Africa was dominated this week by the continuing debate over HIV/AIDS drugs. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang repeated yet again that drugs were not the only way to fight HIV/AIDS, and that eating habits were also important. After previously denying links between HIV and AIDS, the South African government began providing AIDS drugs in clinics last ye...

Human brain is still evolving

Researchers who have analyzed sequence variations in two genes that regulate brain size in human populations have found evidence that the human brain is still evolving. They speculate that if the human species continues to survive, the human brain may continue to evolve, driven by the pressures of natural selection. Their data suggest that major variants in these genes arose at roughly the...

Genetic testing still smart choice, despite uncertainties

Screening embryos for genetic diseases during in vitro fertilization offers couples the best chance for a healthy child, but a genetic glitch could potentially cause doctors to misdiagnose a small fraction of them, University of Florida researchers say. Citing concerns about the accuracy of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, the method many practitioners use to pick the healthiest embryos...

Tuberculosis still a risk for patients receiving HIV drugs

People taking highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV infection remain susceptible to tuberculosis, though the risk is lower than for HIV-infected patients not on HAART, according to an article in the Dec. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online. Opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis (TB) can be fatal for immunocompromised patients. HAART not on...

DNA conclusive yet still controversial, Carnegie Mellon professor says

Although the odds that DNA evidence found at a crime scene will match by chance the DNA of a person who was not there are infinitesimal, controversy continues about DNA identification and its use in criminal investigations, says Carnegie Mellon University Statistics Professor Kathryn Roeder. Roeder will present a historical overview of the use of DNA identification on Tuesday, April 25, during th...

One-third of adults with diabetes still don't know they have it

The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in U.S. adults age 20 and older has risen from about 5.1 percent to 6.5 percent, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who analyzed national survey data from two periods--1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2002. However, the percentage of adults with undiagnosed diabetes did not cha...

Mice lacking key immune component still control chronic viral infections

Despite lack of a key component of the immune system, a line of genetically engineered mice can control chronic herpes virus infections, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. Scientists can't prove it yet, but they suspect the missing immune system component, a group of molecules known as the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class Ia, has a...

Despite acidity, orange juice could still be a source of foodborne disease

Orange juice and other foods traditionally not associated with foodborne disease outbreaks can still be a source of disease, although rare. Public health officials should be aware of this possibility and on guard, say scientists presenting today at the 106th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in Orlando, Florida. "The more we find out about the behavior of microorgani...

Ten years later, Dolly is still making headlines

The lead researcher for the team who - 10 years ago - created the cloned sheep "Dolly," will kick off the 2006 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' (AAPS) National Biotechnology Conference in Boston, June 18-21. At the meeting, nearly two-thousand of the world's leading scientists will discuss a variety of critical issues affecting pharmaceutical biotechnology including Biogenerics...

History-hunting geneticists can still follow familiar trail

As the world's first explorers branched away from humanity's birthplace in east Africa some 65,000 years ago, distinct mutations accumulated in the DNA of each population, essentially providing a genetic trail for modern researchers to follow. Recently some scientists have raised doubts about this classic genetic system to study ancient migrations of people and to estimate the populations...

Experimental vaccine given during pregnancy reduces stillbirths from common virus

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental vaccine that reduces stillbirths among rodents born to mothers infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV)—a common virus that can also cause mental retardation and hearing loss in newborn children who were infected in early fetal life. Estimates place the number of U.S. children born with CMV each year at about...

Amur leopard still on the brink of extinction, scientists say

A new census of the world's most endangered cat, the Amur or Far Eastern leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), shows that as few as 25 to 34 are left in the wild, renewing fears for the future of the species. In February and March, World Wildlife Fund along with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Science, conducted a routine s...

Massive herds of animals found to still exist in Southern Sudan

Aerial surveys by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society confirm the existence of more than 1.2 million white-eared kob, tiang antelope and Mongalla gazelle in Southern Sudan, where wildlife was thought to have vanished as a result of decades-long conflict. Despite the war, some species of wildlife in Southern Sudan, last surveyed more than 25 years ago, have not only survived but ha...