Reminder: Updated Glossary of HIV/AIDS-Related Terms Released in English and Spanish!

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NIAID: Long-Term Non-Progressor HIV Patients Stockpile Immune Weapons

"To help develop an effective HIV vaccine, researchers are trying to better understand how the immune systems of a small minority of HIV-infected people known as long-term non-progressors (LTNPs) contain the virus naturally. CD8+ T cells, which kill cells infected with HIV, enable LTNPs to control HIV, but it has been unclear how CD8+ T cells mediate that control so effectively. A new report shows that the ability to stockpile two molecular weapons makes the HIV-specific CD8+ T cells of LTNPs superior cellular killers."

• NIAID: Read the press release.
• AIDSinfo: Preventive HIV Vaccines Fact Sheet
• AIDSinfo: Therapeutic HIV Vaccines Fact Sheet

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MMWR: Revised Surveillance Case Definitions for HIV Infection

"Since the beginning of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, case definitions for HIV infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have undergone several revisions to respond to diagnostic and therapeutic advances and to improve standardization and comparability of surveillance data regarding persons at all stages of HIV disease. HIV testing is now widely available, and diagnostic testing has continued to improve; these changes are reflected in the 2008 revised case definition for HIV infection, which now requires laboratory-confirmed evidence of HIV infection to meet the case definition among adults, adolescents, and children aged 18 months to <13 years."

• CDC: MMWR December 5, 2008 / 57(RR10);1-8

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