Health Buzz: AIDS Vaccine Hope Gets a Boost and Other Health News

Researchers Find Antibodies That May Help in AIDS Fight

Scientists have isolated two antibodies that they hope could lead to a vaccine against AIDS. They found the antibodies—proteins made by the immune system to fight infection—in the blood of one HIV-infected person in Africa after collecting more than 1,800 blood samples from people worldwide living with HIV. The donors had all been infected with HIV for at least three years without showing symptoms of the disease, making it likely they had developed some form of natural resistance to the virus. The antibodies, called PG9 and PG16, are said to be active against a range of HIV strains and target a region of the virus that it uses to infect healthy human cells. HealthDay reports this target region is not likely to change much as the virus mutates. But, experts told HealthDay that even if a vaccine can be developed using the antibodies, it's years away. The new findings appear today in the journal Science.

In July, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz wrote about a Lancet study that found that circumcision of HIV-infected men does not reduce the rate of HIV transmission to their female partners. Read how scientists decoded the HIV genome.

4 Steps to Take Now to Lower Your Breast Cancer Risk

Research out this week from the American Institute for Cancer Research adds to the growing body of knowledge about actions women can take to lower their breast cancer risk, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz reports. The report is an update of previous research, adding results of 81 new studies to the findings of more than 800 that have followed women in the United States and around the world to see who develops breast cancer and who doesn't. The study's authors contend that some 70,000 cases of breast cancer—representing 40 percent of new U.S. cases—could be prevented every year if women took four lifestyle measures, including watching their weight, exercising, and limiting their alcohol consumption.

The fourth preventative cited is breast-feeding, Kotz writes. New mothers should breast-feed exclusively for up to six months. According to the AICR, "Evidence is convincing that mothers who breast-feed reduce their risk for breast cancer." Read more.

Here are 7 things to consider if breast cancer runs in your family. Find out how to keep breast cancer from coming back.

New Ways to Track Swine Flu Outbreaks on Campuses

Swine flu has hit college campuses, with 165 schools reporting 1,640 new cases of flulike illnesses last week, according to a new system that will help parents stay up to speed on the situation at their children's schools. It's just one of a growing number of tools designed to keep civilians in the know on the pandemic flu outbreak, which public health officials expect to hit children and young adults hardest, U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute writes.

Click on the American College Health Association's new Pandemic Influenza Surveillance Report and you'll find that Georgia and Washington state reported the most flulike illnesses on campus, with 283 reported at Georgia schools and 233 in Washington. The association also provides a helpful chart of attack rates, which tracks what percentage of students have become ill. Read more.

Shute has blogged extensively in the last few weeks on the H1N1 virus, including how college kids can protect themselves from swine flu. Here's how parents can prepare for swine flu once school starts and what parents should know about swine flu shots.

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