Health Buzz: HIV Vaccine Prediction and Other Health News

Expert Predicts AIDS Vaccine's Benefit Is Years Away

The success of an experimental vaccine for the AIDS virus has left scientists with questions that, according to one expert, could take 10 years to resolve, Bloomberg reports. Data reported last week from a study covering 16,402 people showed that the vaccine had a 31 percent lower infection rate than a placebo. The study, conducted in Thailand, is the first in which a vaccine appeared to prevent HIV infection. But researchers who ran the study do not know how the vaccine, which was made by combining two failed vaccines, works to prevent infection. Before an AIDS vaccine is widely available it must be rigorously tested; according to Josh Ruxin, director of Rwanda's Access Project program. And it must prove to be at least 50 percent effective, Bloomberg reports. Despite the vaccine's initial success, Ruxin told Bloomberg, a vaccine for AIDS still feels at least a decade away.

[In July, a study published in Lancet said 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.]

The Mediterranean Diet: Too Bad It Costs More to Eat Well

Spanish researchers recently published a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that showed that the more closely people adhered to a Mediterranean diet (associated with better health), the more money they spent on food, U.S. News's Katherine Hobson reports. Those who adhered to the typical Western diet (associated with poorer measures of health) had "significantly lower daily costs," the researchers said.

Hobson conducted her own admittedly extremely unscientific experiment to see if the results seen in Spain also held true in her corner of Brooklyn, N.Y. Without looking at prices, she made two meal plans, each amounting to about 2,000 calories for the day. One drew from the list of foods that the researchers used to define the typical Western diet: red meat, processed meat, eggs, sauces, precooked foods, fast food, and the like. The other plan, matched to include about the same number of calories per meal, was based on the foods that define the Mediterranean eating pattern: olive oil, poultry, fish, low-fat dairy, legumes, fruits, and veggies. Find out how Hobson's meals stacked up, calorie- and cost-wise.

[Check out "diets" that promote health (and always have) and find out why the Mediterranean diet aids the aging brain.]

How to Keep Kids from Smoking

Last week the federal ban on flavored cigarettes took effect as part of a broader effort to prevent kids from smoking, HealthDay reported. According to Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, nearly 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking in their teens. "These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers," she said in a news release.

In April, U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute offered tips for parents to keep kids from smoking. Public-health advocates have been trying for years to figure out how best to keep children and teens from taking up the cigarette habit, she wrote. Banning sales to minors doesn't accomplish its objective unless the bans are enforced, according to Joseph DiFranza, a professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. And, writes Shute, the biggest predictor of whether a kid will smoke is whether his or her parents do. Read more.

[Read 12 reasons to quit smoking for good and secrets of successful quitters.]

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