On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Truvada, the first drug to be used for pre-exposure to HIV. On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Truvada, the first drug to reduce the risk of HIV infection in uninfected individuals who are at high risk of HIV infection. Truvada was previously approved by the FDA to be used in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-positive adults and children 12 years or older. ?Today's approval marks an important milestone in our fight against HIV,? said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg. ?Every year, about 50,000 U.S. adults and adolescents are diagnosed with HIV infection, despite the availability of prevention methods and strategies to educate, test, and care for people living with the disease. New treatments as well as prevention methods are needed to fight the HIV epidemic in this country.? Truvada was found to lower the risk of infection by 42 percent compared with place

Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, a cure remains elusive but a growing arsenal of drugs could someday help end new infections, the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS chief says.

A cure for AIDS remains a distant prospect but a host of drug treatments and other advances have fueled fresh hope that new human immunodeficiency virus infections may some day be halted for good.

Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, a cure remains elusive but a growing arsenal of drugs could someday help end new infections, the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS chief says.

Douglas Michels, the CEO of OraSure Technologies, has called his company's rapid at-home HIV test a 'game-changer'. Douglas Michels, the CEO of OraSure Technologies, has called his company's rapid at-home HIV test a ?game-changer.? Appearing on Fox Business, Michels said OraQuick, which won FDA approval earlier this month, would reach brick-and-mortar and virtual shelves by October 1. The cost, he added, has not been set yet, but it would be higher than the $17.50 health care professionals currently pay. The OraQuick test detects the presence of the HIV virus by using a mouth swab. ?It's truly a game-changer, we believe,? Michels said. ?Unfortunately today there's still 1.2 million people infected with HIV here in the United States. Up to 20 to 25 percent of those individuals are unaware of their infection. And it's that population ? infected but unaware ? that's responsible for 50 to 75 percent of the forward transmission.? ?So now we have a product that they can buy at retail. They c

The Cuban government broke 11 days of silence Saturday on the country's first cholera outbreak in 130 years, noting the number of cases has risen to 158, though no new deaths were reported.

Singer Sir Elton John has said coming out gay did not negatively affect his career. Singer Sir Elton John has said coming out gay did not negatively affect his career. The 65-year-old Sir Elton makes the revelation in a two-part interview with TODAY host Matt Lauer to be aired Tuesday and Wednesday, July 17 and 18. The conversation revolves around Sir Elton's upcoming memoir, Love is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS, sales of which will benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation. ?I wasted such a big part of my life, when this [AIDS] epidemic was beginning to happen in the early 1980s. And I was a drug addict and self-absorbed,? he told Lauer at his home outside London. ?You know, I was having people die right, left and center around me, friends. And yet, I didn't stop the life that I had, which is the terrible thing about addiction. It's that ? you know, it's that bad of a disease.? ?I'm making up for it,? he added. ?There is so much more to be done.? On coming out, he said: ?I

A Taliban ban on polio vaccinations will put 240,000 children at risk in troubled northwest Pakistan if an inoculation campaign cannot start next week, officials warned Friday.

Five cases of West Nile virus have been reported since early July in a seaside suburb of Athens, the Greek centre for disease control and prevention (Keelpno) said Friday.

Cholera is rising in the last major town held by Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shehab, with most of those stricken by the disease children, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Friday.

The United States is committed to helping ordinary Cambodians rather than funding vanity projects, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday, in a subtle dig at China-backed schemes in the country.

Various trials examining the use of anti-retroviral drugs in healthy heterosexuals as a way to prevent HIV have shown drastically different results, research showed Wednesday.

Officials have slain 2.5 million birds at poultry farms in western Mexico over the past three weeks in an attempt to contain a bird flu outbreak, the agriculture ministry said.

Up to eight percent of malaria drugs approved by the World Health Organization or other regulators do not contain the right dose and may fuel resistance, researchers said Tuesday.

The West Nile Virus has been detected in New York City, officials said Tuesday as they urged residents to take precautions against the mosquito-borne disease.

The conflict in Mali could turn a cholera outbreak that has already killed 60 people in the Sahel this year into a serious regional epidemic, the UN children's agency said Tuesday.

Brazil said it will breed huge numbers of genetically modified mosquitoes to help stop the spread of dengue fever, an illness that has already struck nearly 500,000 people this year nationwide.

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association (AFA) claims gay activists are leading the charge to criminalize gay sex. ?Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association (AFA) claims gay activists are leading the charge to criminalize gay sex. The social conservative recently attracted headlines when he attacked presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney for hiring an openly gay spokesperson. In a op-ed appearing on the AFA's Rightly Concerned website, Fischer said an effort to outlaw unsafe sex in adult films was tantamount to an acknowledgment that gay sex was a ?menace to public health.? ?Gay sex should be contrary to public policy, and it looks like the first steps in that direction are being taken gay activists themselves. Who could have seen that coming,? Fischer wrote. ?So the next logical step is obvious: for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to propose an ordinance that promotes a fine for any act of unprotected gay sex, whether money changes hands or not, and proposes c

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Monday 78 patients and staff at an elderly care center had contracted tuberculosis (TB), including three people who died, a report said.

Laws that criminalize gay behavior create a a host of legal tangles that waste resources and hinder an effective response to HIV/AIDS worldwide, an independent commission reported on Monday.