Most US women face stroke risk

The most promising of the many experimental HIV vaccines in development will offer only limited immunity against the deadly virus,US government scientists said recently ahead of world HIV Vaccine Awareness Day.Unlike classical vaccines,the first-generation HIV vaccines will not enable people to fight off the virus,but may protect their immune system from the worst ravages of the virus and dealy the onset of AIDS.And because patients are at their most infectious when viral levels are high,such vaccines might also reduce the spread of the sexually transmitted disease,making it a useful tool for public health authorities batting to contain the global HIV/AIDS pandemic."There is optimism that even a less-than-perfect vaccine could benefit both individual recipients and the at-risk community," said the authors in a commentary published in the "New England Journal of Medicine."It is still not clear when the first vaccines will be available .

Sexually active teenage girls infected around the time of birth with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are more likely to have cervical infections and abnormal Pap test results,new research shows.Extensive research has examined the reproductive health outcomes among teenagers who acquire HIV infection through sex,senior investigator Dr.Susan B.Brogly of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston said.In contrast,this is the largest cohort study,and the first to publish on rates of genital infections,cervical lesions,and pregnancy among girls who had been living with HIV since birth,she said.Their results will be published in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health .