Anti-retroviral drug therapy has slashed AIDS death rates to match those of uninfected people in the first five years after the virus attacks the body, new British research has found.

Since the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs such as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's. Sustiva in 1996, the five-year, post-diagnosis survival for those infected sexually is now about equal to that of the general population

The New York City's Health Department wants to make all Bronx adults go through an HIV test every three years through "The Bronx Knows" campaign it will launch Friday. The push for the voluntary medical test is because of Bronx's unusually high death rates from AIDS among all boroughs in the U.S.

To ensure widespread availability of testing facilities, 40 emergency rooms and storefront clinics would provide voluntary testing procedure. Dr. Thomas Friden, the city's health commissioner, explained than anyone admitted to an emergency room for other ailments would be asked if they are willing to undergo an HIV test as well

The number of HIV cases among young gay men has increased in a big way, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported Thursday. The CDC stated that from 2001 to 2006, the largest transmission category for HIV in the U.S. was in men who had sex with men.

Gay boys and men aged between 13 and 24-years old saw the biggest increase in HIV cases, about 10 times higher than in the homosexual community overall, where the number of new infections is going up about 1.5 percent a year. homosexual men were the only risk group in which the number of new infections rose annually from 2001 through 2006

The New York City's Health Department wants to make all Bronx adults go through a compulsory HIV test every three years. The push for the mandatory medical test is because of Bronx's unusually high death rates from AIDS among all boroughs in New York.

To go around bureaucratic state laws on consent, 40 emergency rooms and storefront clinics would provide voluntary testing procedure. Dr. Thomas Friden, the city's health commissioner, explained than anyone admitted to an emergency room for other ailments would be asked if they are willing to undergo an HIV test as well

Following a large number of false-positive results, New York City health officials have suspended the use of oral HIV test OraQuick in the city. Manufactured by Orasure Technologies Inc.'s, the test which rapidly screens saliva and blood samples for antibodies to both HIV-1 and HIV-2 has been halted at its 10 sexually transmitted disease (STD) walk-in clinics.

In January 2004, the clinics introduced on-site, rapid HIV testing of finger-stick, whole-blood specimens using the OraQuick test. However it was replaced by the finger-stick test with an oral fluid test, the OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test in the same year in March