A cross-section of articles we've read this week about HIV/AIDS, STIs and a wide cross-section of structural and systemic factors impacting HIV/AIDS in Black communities.

Science

HIV's Secret Life in Gut Revealed 

One of the first things HIV does when it first enters the body is mess up the gut. Now, the open access journal PLOS Pathogens reports the first 3D ultra-structural study of the human immunodeficiency virus in a live host.

Testing and Diagnostics

Philly FIGHT Helps with Largest-Ever Clinical Trial for a Cure 

AIDS service organization Philadelphia FIGHT, in partnership with the Witstar Institute, an international leader in biomedical research, will participate in the largest randomized trial anywhere focused on testing an easily accessible strategy to advance an HIV cure. The project is made possible by a four-year, $6.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to lead a clinical trial that seeks to "drain the viral reservoir" of the HIV-1 virus in patients with HIV/AIDS.

Miscellaneous

How to Protect Yourself from Medical Identity Fraud. A First Step: Don't Tweet Health Issues. 

Most of us tightly guard our credit cards and bank account numbers, but health insurance policy numbers are also prime targets for thieves. An estimated 1.84 million people were victims of medical identity theft in 2013, according to the Poneman Institute, a research organization, which expects that number to rise.

HPV Vaccine 'Does Not Lead to Risky Sexual Behavior in Teens' 

Some parents might worry that the human papillomavirus vaccine could lead to more sex or more unsafe sex in teenagers and young people. However, a new study conducted by the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio and published in the Pediatrics journal finds that these concerns are unwarranted.

Method of Study is Criticized in Group's Health Policy Tests 

The idea seemed transformative. The Affordable Care Act would fund a new research outfit evocatively named the Innovation Center to discover how to most effectively deliver health care, with $10 billion to spend over a decade.

But now that the center has gotten started, many researchers and economists are disturbed that it is not using randomized clinical trials, the rigorous method that is widely considered the gold standard in medical and social science research.

New Rule Allows Patients to Get Test Results Directly from Labs, without Doctors' Clearance 

Patients may obtain their test results directly from the laboratory that produced them, without having to go through their doctors, under regulations announced Monday by the Obama administration.

Rihanna Joins Viva Glam by MAC to Fight AIDS 

Slowly, the sales of one lipstick brand have grown so large that the little-known charity it supports, the MAC AIDS Fund, has become the second largest private donor to AIDS organizations, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Setting the Stage for an HIV Cure 

Last week during his State of the Union address, President Obama asked Congress to "undo the damage done by last year's cuts to basic research so we can unleash the next great American discovery." We believe that discovery could be a cure for HIV/AIDS.

Understanding the Spread of HIV in Women in the South 

Her biggest hope is that a cure will come soon. But either way, Lauryn Taylor will make the 45-minute bus ride to take part in the Women's Interagency HIV Study for as long as she lives.