World AIDS day.

[ABSTRUSE]

I am very sorry to say I completely forgot this day.
I think it's something we need to not forget. I've lost mentors to this terrible disease and I hate to think that people tend to sweep this under the rug.


UN urges "exceptional response" to AIDS crisis By Andrew Quinn




JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The United Nations used World AIDS Day on Thursday to call for an "exceptional response" to the global crisis as African patients criticized politicians for failing to tackle a disease that kills millions each year.



The United Nations said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in sexual behavior, the epidemic continued to grow.

The number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, had reached its highest level ever in 2005 at an estimated 40.3 million people, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said. Nearly half of them are women.

AIDS has killed more than 3 million people in 2005.

"The lessons of nearly 25 years into the AIDS epidemic are clear. Investments made in HIV prevention break the cycle of new infections. By making these investments, each and every country can reverse the spread of AIDS," Piot said.

A number of Asian countries marked the day by handing out free condoms, offering mobile phone games and holding flag-festooned rallies to promote awareness of the disease.

The mood was more somber in Africa, where rage and remorse combined as the continent worst hit by the global crisis remembered its dead.

"Money that has been earmarked for HIV/AIDS has gone into everything else but AIDS," fumed Meris Kafusi, a 64-year-old AIDS patient in Tanzania who only recently began receiving life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.

"Organizations that say they are dealing with AIDS are always in seminars or workshops. They should be buying food for widows and orphans ... but instead of that, you find them earning daily allowances of $50 for sitting in a room discussing us. Is this fair?"

Sub-Saharan Africa remains ground zero for worldwide HIV/AIDS deaths as well as for new infections -- cutting life expectancy in many countries, leaving millions of children orphaned and reducing agricultural output in hungry countries.

The latest U.N. estimates say 26 million of the 40 million people infected with HIV worldwide live in Africa.

TALKING ABOUT SAFE SEX

Political leaders say taboos need to be broken to tackle

AIDS.

In France, President Jacques Chirac said schools should be equipped with condom vending machines and youths should be able to buy a condom for 20 euro cents.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on his people to shed their inhibitions and start talking openly about safe sex.

"This, quite obviously, has to change if we are to succeed in creating awareness of the hazards of unsafe sexual practices," he told a gathering of young political leaders.

India says it has 5.13 million people living with HIV/AIDS, the second largest number after South Africa.

China's government, worried that the spread of AIDS could damage the country's economic development, was due to launch an AIDS awareness campaign to educate millions of migrant workers -- farmers who flock to cities in search of higher-paying jobs.

Health Minister Gao Qiang said on Wednesday that China aimed to keep the number of people infected by HIV virus to below 1.5 million by 2010, a forecast sharply lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate of 10 million if nothing is done.

The WHO's chief China representative, Henk Bekedam, said China had made some making progress in slowing the rise in infection rates.

"What we have seen over the past three years is that China has taken action, and we do believe that this is now an old figure," he said, referring to the 10 million figure.

Estimates of AIDS' extent in China, which was long secretive about the disease, are clouded by uncertainty and controversy.

WORK TO BE DONE

But the anti-AIDS message is still falling on deaf ears in some parts of the world.

Health workers in red caps and blue jackets with the words "Stop AIDS" on the back stood in front of Tokyo's Shibuya station handing out packages containing condoms, information about AIDS testing and red plastic bracelets.

But when a health worker approached one group of high school boys, they laughed in an embarrassed way and waved her away. Japan is worried that increased sexual activity among teenagers could spark a rise in AIDS cases.

In southern Africa, Swaziland's King Mswati, criticized for his lavish lifestyle and frequent marriages in a country with one of the world's highest HIV rates, scrapped AIDS Day events on Thursday to attend to other royal functions.


This from the Independent online:

Bianca Jagger: This persistent prejudice against Aids sufferers
Many feel pressured to maintain silence for fear of dismissal
Published: 05 December 2005

A recent survey showed that most people say they wouldn't discriminate against someone because they were HIV positive. Others believe HIV prejudice went out with the eighties, and that we live in an Aids aware era. The reality is different.

True, images of HIV positive children from Africa often appear on our TV, but silence surrounds the rising numbers of people becoming infected with HIV in this country. And that same silence allows the persistence of prejudice towards people living with HIV, and ignorance about how it is passed on.

It is almost inconceivable that after 20 years of campaigning, HIV charities such as the National Aids Trust still hear from people who have been harassed at work, unfairly dismissed from jobs and rejected by friends and relatives -all as a result of being diagnosed with a long-term medical condition.

Recent figures show that HIV rates are on the increase, and in the UK the number of new cases have more than doubled in the past four years. With rising numbers of people affected, the need to challenge prejudice is more important than ever.

There is however, cause for hope. Today a loophole in disability discrimination law is being closed so that people living with HIV are protected from discrimination as soon as they are diagnosed. Importantly, this includes protection at work.

I have met and worked with many HIV-positive people and what unites them is the desire to be treated like anyone else. Yet, since the emergence of HIV, the virus has become inextricably linked with fear and blame, preventing many people from being open about their HIV status. Not only do they fear rejection and gossip from relatives and friends, but risk losing their job if they reveal their HIV status to their employer.

In developed countries, the majority of people living with HIV are of working age and have access to life-saving anti-retroviral treatment that enables them to lead active healthy lives. Yet, some 20 years into the epidemic, HIV remains a stigmatised condition, where many people living with HIV feel pressured to maintain silence about their condition for fear of exclusion and dismissal at work.

In the early days of the epidemic, grand gestures were made against HIV discrimination and films such as Philadelphia were lauded as landmarks, exposing ignorance and prejudice about HIV at work. But over 20 years later, are we any nearer the goal of treating people living with HIV as ordinary people with a long-term medical condition, or are we continuing to propagate a culture of fear and blame?

Some employers may mistakenly believe that this is not an issue for them because they have no HIV-positive employees. The reality is that many employers are already employing people living with HIV, they simply don't know it.

From 5 December 2005, the moment a person is diagnosed with HIV, discrimination based on their HIV status is illegal. Any employer who still thinks they can ignore their statutory obligations may be in for a rude awakening. They have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect their HIV positive employees from discrimination and prevent harassment.

They are also required not to discriminate against someone living with HIV in recruitment practices. Ignoring their responsibilities brings not only the risk of employment tribunals, but the danger of wasting the skills and talents of people living with HIV.

We live in a paradoxical culture where we are taking great strides towards tolerance and diversity through the law, yet irrational prejudice and discrimination against people living with HIV continues. The Governments' Equalities Review, whose aim is the modernisation and streamlining of equality legislation into a single equality Act, and the establishment of a single Commission for Equality and Human Rights, offers real hope for effective action against discrimination on the grounds of HIV status, which is often linked to homophobia and racism.

All this is tangible evidence of the Government's commitment to equality and justice. However, campaigners will want to see evidence that this commitment will be carried forward into the conclusions of the Equalities Review.

Ultimately, it is not just the law that needs to change, but the attitudes and behaviour of every individual, if we are to ensure that the unacceptable treatment of people living with HIV is eradicated. The extension of disability discrimination legislation is to be celebrated as a signal that we, as a society, recognise that HIV discrimination has no place at work.

The writer supports the National AIDS Trust (NAT)

 

[ABSTRUSE]

How Much Do HIV Medicines Cost?


It's no secret, HIV medicines are very expensive. For most, insurances, drug assistance programs, or community resources pay most of the cost. But what about those who are not so fortunate. What about the millions of people in Africa, Asia, and countries like them that need medications but have no means to purchase them? Unfortunately, the answers are not easy ones. Somehow the prices have to come down. Somehow the resources have to be found. But what are we up against? The following table will give you an idea just how pricey HIV medications are.

Please note: The prices below are retail price quotes from a national pharmacy chain. Prices will vary somewhat from retail to wholesale, from chain to chain, and from online and offline purchase. The prices given here are for estimates and comparisons only. Check with your local pharmacy and your drug insurance to get prices and copays that apply to you.


COST PER MONTH (estimates)
Agenerase $772
Combivir $717
Crixivan $569
Emtriva $301
Epivir 300mg $366
Epzicom $765
Fortovase $$262
Fuzeon $1667
Hivid $255
Kaletra $739
Lexiva $621
Norvir $257
Rescriptor $469
Retrovir $384
Reyataz $868
Sustiva 600mg $486
Trizivir $1142
Truvada $801
Videx EC 400mg $337
Viramune $246
Zerit $374
Ziagen $446

 

[ABSTRUSE]

AIDS / HIV Facts
The facts about AIDS and HIV was prepared by the research staff of American International AIDS Foundation. We hope you’ll find this information useful and will pass along what you learn here to your friends and loved ones in the hope that you too can "Provide Knowledge and Share Hope" to help end this horrible disease.

Here are some of the alarming facts of this tragedy:

3.1 million people lost their lives in 2005.

4.9 million people were newly infected with HIV 2005.

40.3 million people around the world are living with AIDS/HIV in 2005.

Approximately 11 of every 1,000 adults (ages 15 to 49) are HIV infected.

25 million children will be orphans by 2010 because of AIDS.

Over 27 million people have died since the first AIDS case was identified in 1980.

AIDS and HIV do not discriminate. It is devastating to people of all ages, genders, races, religions and nationalities irregardless if you're gay, straight, a drug user or not. It can reach you in the most innocent of ways and that's what makes it so dangerous. While there is no cure at this time (only treatment) for the AIDS virus, it can be prevented through education, awareness and precautionary methods, including HIV home testing kits offered through www.aids.com.

 

[woodnymph_O]

It's only through some blind luck we don't all have it. Who among us has never breathed a sigh of relief at the results of an std test? especially in the dumb teenage years. It's horrible how most of us have risked our life so many times. AIDS took some of the people I loved as a child, but I didn't understand what it was, and no one told me. Now I have an uncle with it. It's too close to home to be ignored. I used to worry about a cheating spouse in terms of emotional damage, now I worry if I'll die. It changes you. My heart goes out to so many who had to hear the bad news , and those of us who didn't get it are no better , in some cases I know people who were alot more promiscous then the ones who got HIV.
I'm sorry I forgot too, thanks Abs

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Thanks Nymphy

Here's some Demographics.

Check your state.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Really good article about the results of an online sex survey.

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

I lost one dear friend, as close as a brother, to AIDS back in 90. Another now is infected and maintaining as best he can.


Here's to ya Brian............

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I lost one dear friend, as close as a brother, to AIDS back in 90. Another now is infected and maintaining as best he can.


Here's to ya Brian............

So very sorry to hear that Sal.

Thank you for posting.

 

[Blackie Malone]

bump so it's easier to bury.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

bump...

 

[Green_Gem]

Abs, I've been away for a while and missed this thread. Thought I'd add another statistic that we've heard here. Six people are contracting HIV every minute in Africa. That's obviously the whole of Africa, but even here in South Africa, the disease shows no sign of slowing. Plus, sorry to be a cynic, but the minister of Health in SA ( should be called the Minister of Death) is still adamant that good diet, garlic and the African Potato are what's needed instead of anti retrovirals. God knows, there has been money galore pumped into the fight against AIDS by America and European countries but the really sick, poor, uneducated and afflicted are not seeing any sign of it.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Abs, I've been away for a while and missed this thread. Thought I'd add another statistic that we've heard here. Six people are contracting HIV every minute in Africa. That's obviously the whole of Africa, but even here in South Africa, the disease shows no sign of slowing. Plus, sorry to be a cynic, but the minister of Health in SA ( should be called the Minister of Death) is still adamant that good diet, garlic and the African Potato are what's needed instead of anti retrovirals. God knows, there has been money galore pumped into the fight against AIDS by America and European countries but the really sick, poor, uneducated and afflicted are not seeing any sign of it.

Thank you Gem.

I have read how the money isn't reaching the people who need it so badly. It's very sad indeed.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

In South Africa alone, it is estimated that 2 000 new people are infected with HIV every day.

Based on the latest antenatal data, the study estimates that 5.6 million South Africans were HIV positive at the end of 2003, of whom 55% were female and 96 228 were babies. In producing these figures, it is assumed that pregnant women accurately represented all women aged 15 to 49 years, that men were 85% as likely to be infected as women, and that 30% of babies born to infected mothers would themselves be HIV-positive (ignoring any reductions due to preventative action). According to these figures, around 22.8% of all South Africans over 15 years old were HIV-positive in 2003.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

States Spar Over Federal HIV/AIDS Funds By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 22, 10:56 AM ET



WASHINGTON - AIDS started as a big-city epidemic infecting mostly gay white men, and now it's prevalent in the South and among minorities. Yet the federal law that helps the neediest patients has not kept up with that evolution.

By some measures, AIDS patients in California and the Northeast get more money per capita than those in the South, where activists are lobbying for a bigger share.

With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, Congress is attempting for the first time since 2000 to amend the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990. It is named for the Indiana teenager who died that year after contracting AIDS from treatments for hemophilia.

"We haven't seen the money shifting with the epidemic. I don't believe a person should be punished because of where they live geographically, and that's what's happening," said Kathie Hiers, head of AIDS Alabama, a nonprofit group that provides housing and other services to HIV/AIDS patients.

Dollar disparities between cities and rural areas have been exaggerated, counters Phil Curtis of AIDS Project Los Angeles. To Curtis, "This remains largely an urban epidemic."

The federal law sends about $2 billion a year to local and state programs that give health care, drugs and other aid to the uninsured or those needing help on top of Medicaid or private insurance. Theses services reach more than 500,000 people per year, making it the largest federal program specifically for people with HIV.

"It's served as a lifeline to so many people with HIV who would not have gotten services elsewhere," said Jennifer Kates, HIV policy director at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The law gives money to states as well as to 51 "eligible metropolitan areas" with concentrations of AIDS patients.

A study by congressional investigators last year found that states with eligible metropolitan areas get the most money because some patients essentially are double-counted — once to calculate the eligible metropolitan area and again in statewide totals.

Congress is seeking a way to distribute money more fairly without suddenly depriving any one area of dollars. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health issues, plans a hearing Thursday on reauthorizing the Ryan White act.

Depending on how the law is changed, California and New York stand to lose about $20 million each; Southern states could gain millions. Activists from the big states are hoping lawmakers will find a way to add money for all parts of the country.

"I think the issue is how do we get those areas of the country up to a level that they can offer the same resources, without diminishing the resources available in the most impacted areas of the United States," said Michael Montgomery, chief of California's Office of AIDS.

There are more than 1 million people in the U.S. with HIV/AIDS, and they are living longer because of improved drug regimens. New York and California are home to the most AIDS patients.

When the disease is measured by cases per 100,000 residents, California is no longer in the top 10. Several Southern states move into the top rank, including Louisiana and Georgia.

Also, minorities account for a growing proportion of AIDS cases. Nearly 50 percent of new AIDS patients are black, compared with 30 percent who are white and 20 percent who are Hispanic, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Congressional investigators found that the way money is distributed has led to great disparities in per-patient spending. For example, in 2004 a patient in California got $5,264, compared with $3,657 for a patient in Alabama.

"New York and San Francisco get all the funding," said Richard Williams, 32, an HIV-positive resident of Birmingham, Ala., who uses Ryan White funds to help pay for his medications. "Birmingham's a little city and we hardly get anything. That's not fair."

Activists and lawmakers in California and the Northeast say that analysis ignores factors such as quality of care and cost of living, and it does not measure all the grants made under the law.

"Big cities have more cases," said Richard Eastman, 52, of Los Angeles, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1994. "Sure, maybe some little town in Biloxi, Miss., or something might have 50 or 100 cases, but Los Angeles has 57,000 people in the system that we know about."

___

 

[Just-Legal]

*bump*

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Yay!!

Gates funds a revolution in health care

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - At field offices in the African bush and at medical schools and research labs worldwide, doctors and scientists funded by Bill Gates are starting to make a difference on a continent all too familiar with poverty, disease and early death.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is considered a leader in international public health, spending billions of dollars combating HIV/ AIDS and malaria, the two biggest killers in Africa, as well as acute diarrheal illnesses, tuberculosis and poor nutrition.

The foundation spends money on programs, otherwise underfunded, which deal with the cause of widespread illness and death in developing countries.

It already was the best-endowed private charitable foundation when billionaire Warren Buffett announced June 26 he was giving it 80 percent of his fortune. That doubled its endowment to about $60 billion.

"We can't be very specific at the moment about where the (new) funds will go," Gates Foundation spokeswoman Jacquelline Fuller said from Seattle. "What is clear is that the foundation will have more resources available."

Buffet made sure his money will be available soon, stipulating that his donations were to be spent in the same year they were received. In his letter to the Gates Foundation, Buffett said he admired the foundation and wanted to extend its "future capabilities."

Since its inception in 2000, the foundation has donated about $6 billion to finance programs and research projects to improve access to health care and the quality of that care in developing countries. Africa has been a prime beneficiary.

Botswana has the world's highest HIV/AIDS infection rate, and a child born today can expect to live less than 30 years. The foundation gave $50 million to a national HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment initiative, helping it to increase the number of patients getting life-prolonging anti-retroviral treatment from 3,000 at the end of 2002 to more than 48,000 today.

"Botswana was the first country in the world to meet the World Health Organization goal of having half of the identified and eligible patients in the country on anti-retroviral treatment. We could have never have done this without the help of the Gates and the Merck Foundations," said program spokesman Pierre Pelletier in Gaborone.

Malaria also plagues the continent, infecting 350 million-500 million people a year and killing about 1 million, the vast majority of them African children. The mosquito-borne disease kills about 2,000 children every day.

The foundation is funding a special project in Zambia assessing the success of fighting the disease with drugs, insecticide-treated nets and spraying. The goal is to reach 80 percent of the population, reduce malaria infections by 75 percent and use the program as a model for other countries. No target date has been set.

Julian Lob-Levyt, head of the Geneva-based Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, said the Zambian project shows how the foundation tries to think creatively and to use its enormous intellectual capacity to solve problems.

The foundation has donated $1.5 billion to GAVI, which has helped immunize tens of millions of children, and has just guaranteed its funding for the next 10 years, Lob-Levyt said.

"They have developed their own staff that is hard to match. They have the best global health organization outside of the World Health Organization or perhaps the World Bank," Lob-Levyt said.

Dr. Melinda Moree, head of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, said the foundation is involved in every aspect of the programs it funds. The initiative is working on a vaccine for children with help from the Gates Foundation.

"When there is a problem, they have access to some of the smartest people in the world," Moree said.

GAVI spokesman Jean Pierre Le Calvez said its program to provide vaccines for hepatitis B, yellow fever, tetanus and diphtheria has saved an estimated 1.7 million lives, about two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa, since it began in 2000.

Lob-Levyt and others involved in global health projects believe that the foundation, bolstered with Buffet's massive donation, will broaden and deepen its commitment to improving health care in the developing world and improving its already astonishing success.

"What this will allow is Africa to make a generational leap. In the next 20 years it will make health gains it took Europe 150 years to achieve," Lob-Levyt said.

___

On the Net:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, http://www.gatesfoundation.org

Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, http://www.gavialliance.org

 

[Nirvanadragones]

Only for the courageous

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Only for the courageous

That was incredibly moving.
We take so much for granted here.
Our problems are small.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Bush twin to publish book for teens


WASHINGTON (AFP) - Jenna Bush, the daughter of US President George W. Bush, is entering the publishing world with a book for teens that focuses on a teenage single mother in Panama living with HIV.

The 25-year-old, who along with her twin sister Barbara once provided fodder for tabloids because of her collegiate partying and underage drinking, told the daily USA Today that she hoped the book would get "kids thinking and involved".

The president's daughter said "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope", which is due out this fall, was inspired by her work as an unpaid intern since September for UNICEF in Central America.

"I'm aware that not all kids can pick up and fly to Panama, I'm very lucky," she was quoted as saying.

She said the book is not political and would end with a "call to action".

Bush who quit her job as a public school teacher in Washington DC last year to work for UNICEF said she was willing to return to the spotlight to promote the book and "start a dialogue with kids."

She said she planned to donate her earnings from the book to UNICEF and hoped her writings will have some of the same impact as two books about girls caught up in the Holocaust -- "The Diary of Anne Frank" and Lois Lowry's "Number of Stars."

 

[ABSTRUSE]

A very interesting and hopeful read....

Scientists Discover 'Natural Barrier' to HIV
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Mon Mar 5,


MONDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have discovered that cells in the mucosal lining of human genitalia produce a protein that "eats up" invading HIV -- possibly keeping the spread of the AIDS more contained than it might otherwise be.

Even more important, enhancing the activity of this protein, called Langerin, could be a potent new way to curtail the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS, the Dutch scientists added.


Langerin is produced by Langerhans cells, which form a web-like network in skin and mucosa. This network is one of the first structures HIV confronts as it attempts to infect its host.


However, "we observed that Langerin is able to scavenge viruses from the surrounding environment, thereby preventing infection," said lead researcher Teunis Geijtenbeek, an immunologist researcher at Vrije University Medical Center in Amsterdam.


"And since generally all tissues on the outside of our bodies have Langerhans cells, we think that the human body is equipped with an antiviral defense mechanism, destroying incoming viruses," Geijtenbeek said.


The finding, reported in the March 4 online issue of Nature Medicine, "is very interesting and unexpected," said Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, director of the Laboratory for AIDS Virus Research at the Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York City. "It may explain part of the relative inefficiency of HIV in being transmitted."


Even though HIV has killed an estimated 22 million people since it was first recognized more than 25 years ago, it is actually not very good at infecting humans, relatively speaking.


For example, the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, is nearly 100 percent infectious, Laurence noted. That means that every encounter with the sexually transmitted virus will end in infection.


"On the other hand, during one episode of penile-vaginal intercourse with an HIV-infected partner, the chance that you are going to get HIV is somewhere between one in 100 and one in 200," Laurence said.


Experts have long puzzled why HIV is relatively tough to contract, compared to other pathogens. The Dutch study, conducted in the laboratory using Langerhans cells from 13 human donors, may explain why.


When HIV comes in contact with genital mucosa, its ultimate target -- the cells it seeks to hijack and destroy -- are immune system T-cells. But T-cells are relatively far away (in lymph tissues), so HIV uses nearby Langerhans cells as "vehicles" to migrate to T-cells.


For decades, the common wisdom was that HIV easily enters and infects Langerhans cells. Geijtenbeek's team has now cast doubt on that notion.


Looking closely at the interaction of HIV and Langerhans cells, they found that the cells "do not become infected by HIV-1, because the cells have the protein Langerin on their cell surface," Geijtenbeek said. "Langerin captures HIV-1 very efficiently, and this Langerin-bound HIV-1 is taken up (a bit like eating) by the Langerhans cells and destroyed."


In essence, Geijtenbeek said, "Langerhans cells act more like a virus vacuum cleaner."


Only in certain circumstances -- such as when levels of invading HIV are very high, or if Langerin activity is particularly weak -- are Langerhans cells overwhelmed by the virus and infected.


The finding is exciting for many reasons, not the least of which is its potential for HIV prevention, Geijtenbeek said.


"We are currently investigating whether we can enhance Langerin function by increasing the amount of Langerin on the cell surface of Langerhans cells," he said. "This might be a real possibility, but it will take time. I am also confident that other researchers will now also start exploring this possibility."


The discovery might also help explain differences in vulnerability to HIV infection among people.

"It is known that the Langerin gene is different in some individuals," Geijtenbeek noted. "These differences could affect the function of Langerin. Thus, Langerhans cells with a less functional Langerin might be more susceptible to HIV-1, and these individuals are more prone to infection. We are currently investigating this."

The finding should also impact the race to find topical microbicides that might protect women against HIV infection. Choosing compounds that allow Langerin to continue to work its magic will enhance any candidate microbicide's effectiveness, the Dutch researcher said.

Laurence did offer one note of caution, however.

"In the test tube, this is a very important finding," he said. "But there are many things in the test tube that don't occur when you get into an animal or a human. Having said that, though, this is a very intriguing finding."