HIV Patients Less Likely to Get Cancer Treatment: Study

While medications are helping HIV-positive people avoid developing full-blown AIDS indefinitely, a new study finds that cancer patients with HIV are up to four times less likely to be treated for their tumors.

The research comes with caveats. It looked at just three states from 1996, when powerful HIV drugs first began changing the face of the disease, to 2010, when patients routinely took the medications. And the study doesn't explain why HIV-positive people with cancer receive less treatment or how this affected their lifespans.

Still, "the main message is that these patients are not receiving appropriate cancer therapy," said study author Dr. Gita Suneja, an assistant professor of radiation oncology with the University of Utah. "There's a lack of awareness about the issue as a whole because any one physician will see few of these patients. It's something that we need to focus on."

In the 1980s and early 1990s, patients with AIDS -- the disease caused by infection with HIV -- often didn't live long enough to develop cancer, other than a few types linked to the failure of their immune systems. Now, HIV patients often don't develop AIDS and are likely to become ill with cancer as they age.

But these patients aren't the same as others with cancer. HIV-infected people are more likely to develop lung, anal and immune system cancers, possibly because the tumors begin developing before they begin taking HIV medication, said Dr. Michael Horberg, director of HIV/AIDS with Kaiser Permanente.

The new study compared patients in the United States with cancer: more than 3,000 with HIV, and more than 1 million without HIV. The researchers found that the HIV patients were less likely to have received standard treatment for certain types of colon, lymphoma and lung cancers. HIV patients were also more likely to have not received any treatment for certain types of lymphoma, lung, prostate and colorectal cancers.

Among those with a type of lung cancer, for instance, one-third of the HIV patients didn't get the standard surgical treatment, compared to 19 percent of the other patients.

What's going on? Patients may be offered treatment but decline it, said Suneja, who worked on the study while at the University of Pennsylvania. Treatment challenges, which can include drug interactions and a potential increase in immunosuppression after chemotherapy or radiation, may also play a part in the differences, the researchers said.

Horberg said it's also possible that the cancers weren't caught early or that cancer physicians didn't treat the patients as aggressively as they could have.

He also said physicians need to be more careful about making sure that HIV patients don't have cancer, even if the patients are young. "Screening for cancer has to be a key element of HIV care," Horberg said. "There has to be increased vigilance. A physician may not be thinking of lung cancer or anal cancer when a patient is at a younger age, but you actually have to think about it earlier than usual."

In the bigger picture, HIV patients with cancer "should have access to the cutting-edge therapies and be enrolled in studies so we can gather information about how effective these treatments are for them," he said.

The study appeared online June 30 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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Cold Sore Virus Active Without Symptoms, Study Finds

The virus that causes cold sores -- herpes simplex type 1 -- remains active even in the absence of symptoms, according to a new study.

Researchers in Australia found there's an ongoing struggle in the cells of people infected with the virus. This explains why some people with the virus never develop cold sores and why others get them only occasionally. The authors said the findings could lead to the development of new treatments.

"We thought when the disease was dormant, it was a truce. It turns out that the virus is waking up more often than we thought, but our cells are constantly pushing it down," said David Tscharke, associate professor in the Research School of Biology at Australian National University.

"When we thought there was nothing going on we had no targets to look at. Now [that] we know there is an interaction, we can look for ways to help the good guys to win," Tscharke said in a university news release.

In conducting the study, published July 24 in PLOS Pathogens, the researchers used cells and viruses that were genetically modified so infected cells turned bright yellow even when the virus was inactive. This allowed the infected cells to be identified. Then, using a microscope equipped with a laser, the scientists measured levels of viral activity in the cells.

"We expected that we would see no activity in the dormant cells," Tscharke said. "The surprise came when we found the virus was doing something in many cells."

Cells also have different levels of viral activity, the researchers found. "For some it's very low and in others more of the virus genes are turned on. The host cells were responding most strongly when there was lots of virus activity," Tscharke said.

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AIDS Epidemic May Be Subsiding: Report

 A new United Nations report suggests that the AIDS epidemic might be waning: The number of new HIV infections worldwide is at a record low, AIDS-related deaths are down 35 percent, and more people with HIV are getting the lifesaving medications they need.

International health officials even set a tentative date for the planned demise of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

"If we accelerate all HIV scale-up [increased efforts to fight the virus] by 2020, we will be on track to end the epidemic by 2030," Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, said in an agency news release. "If not, we risk significantly increasing the time it would take -- adding a decade, if not more."

At the end of 2013, an estimated 35 million people worldwide were living with HIV, according to the UNAIDS report, which was released Wednesday.

However, the trend in recent years is promising. In the last three years, new HIV infections have dropped 13 percent, and the 2.1 million new HIV infections reported last year are the fewest since the turn of the century.

New HIV infections among children fell by 58 percent since 2001, and are below 200,000 for the first time in the 21 most affected countries in Africa.

The largest decline in new infections was in the Caribbean -- 40 percent since 2005, the researchers noted. But new infections did increase 8 percent in western Europe and North America, 7 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, and 5 percent in eastern Europe and central Asia since 2005.

The news on AIDS-related deaths worldwide was also heartening, with statistics showing a 35 percent decline after the number of deaths peaked in 2005. AIDS-related deaths did increase by 66 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. The only other regions where AIDS-related deaths are rising are eastern Europe and central Asia, where the death toll increased 5 percent between 2005 and 2013. Tuberculosis remains the leading cause of death among people with HIV.

Also, a growing number of people with HIV are receiving lifesaving antiretroviral drugs. In 2013, 2.3 million more patients gained access to the medications, boosting the total number to nearly 13 million by the end of 2013. As of now, that number could be as high as nearly 14 million, according to UNAIDS.

In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 90 percent of people who know they have HIV are receiving treatment, the findings showed.

Ending the HIV epidemic by 2030 would prevent 18 million new infections and 11.2 million AIDS-related deaths between 2013 and 2030, U.N. officials noted.

However, some experts questioned the wisdom of setting such a high goal.

"We've made progress, but the number of people getting infected is still extraordinarily high," Shabbar Jaffar, a professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told theAssociated Press. Jaffar added that boosting efforts to fight the disease in Africa, where almost 70 percent of people with HIV live, would be hard because "they [health officials] are already working beyond capacity at the moment."

While there was good news in the report, it also noted that 19 million of the 35 million people worldwide who are infected with HIV do not know they have the virus.

"Whether you live or die should not depend on access to an HIV test," Sidibe said. "Smarter scale-up is needed to close the gap between people who know their HIV status and people who don't, people who can get services and people who can't, and people who are protected and people who are punished."

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HIV Meds May Also Help Control Hepatitis C, Study Finds

 For patients infected with both HIV and hepatitis C, HIV antiretroviral therapy may help control both viruses, a small study suggests.

Researchers said doctors could use their findings to improve treatment strategies for people with the two diseases.

"The findings suggest that HIV suppression with antiretroviral medications plays an important role in the management of individuals with [hepatitis C] and HIV infection," said study leader Dr. Kenneth Sherman, a professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. "It supports the concept that in those with HCV/HIV infection, early and uninterrupted HIV therapy is a critical part of preventing liver disease."

The researchers conducted the study to address concerns that treating patients who have HIV -- the AIDS-causing virus -- and hepatitis C with HIV antiretroviral therapy would damage the liver and cause more harm than good.

To put this theory to the test, they closely examined 17 patients infected with both viruses for two years. The patients received approved HIV antiretroviral drugs. They were also examined frequently, and their blood was routinely tested to track any changes in the viruses and their immune response.

The findings were published July 23 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Some patients experienced an initial increase in a blood test that shows changes in liver injury, hepatitis C or both in the first 16 weeks of the study.

Over 18 months, however, the study revealed that "viral loads" for hepatitis C dropped back down to levels expected for a patient infected with only hepatitis C and not HIV.

"The drop in [hepatitis C] viral levels was a big surprise, and not what we necessarily expected," said Sherman in a university news release. "There is a complex interaction of biological effects when patients are infected with both HIV and the hepatitis C virus." He explained that initially HIV treatment results in a transient increase in hepatitis C viral replication and evidence of liver injury. However, over time, HIV suppression leads to reduced hepatitis C viral replication.

In the United States, up to 300,000 people are infected with both hepatitis C and HIV. Globally, that number increases to between 4 million and 8 million, the researchers said.

Drug makers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences supplied the antiretroviral medications used in the study at no charge. One of the scientists involved in the research, Dr. Judith Feinberg, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Cincinnati, is a Bristol-Myers Squibb investigator and speaker.

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Nearly 5 Percent of Young U.S. Women Have Chlamydia: CDC

An estimated 1.8 million Americans aged 14 to 39 are infected with the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia, and many don't know it, federal health officials reported Thursday.

Rates of infection are highest among young women. An estimated 4.7 percent of women aged 14 to 24 were infected with the easily treated disease in 2012, which often has no symptoms. But, if left untreated, chlamydia can lead to infertility, problems during pregnancy and other health threats.

"Chlamydia is common, and it's especially common in young women. Most young women who are infected don't know they have it," said study author Elizabeth Torrone, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of STD prevention.

"This report really underscores the need for young women to be screened for chlamydia annually," she said.

The report was based on statistics from the 2007-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Infection rates were highest among black women aged 14 to 24 -- at 13.5 percent. Among Mexican-American women, the rate of infection was 4.5 percent. And among white women, it was 1.8 percent, according to the study.

The overall prevalence of chlamydia among those aged 14 to 39 has remained virtually unchanged for nearly a decade, according to the report. From 2007 to 2008, the infection rate was 1.6 percent; from 2009 to 2010, it was 1.7 percent; and from 2011 to 2012, it was 1.9 percent.

Chlamydia is easily diagnosed with a urine test, and it is easy to treat with antibiotics, Torrone said. She added that it's important that the partners of infected women be treated, too.

Dr. Metee Comkornruecha, an adolescent medicine specialist at Miami Children's Hospital, said the findings "line up with what we are seeing."

If the infection is caught early, it is usually cured with a single dose of an antibiotic, Comkornruecha said. If the infection has spread, however, the treatment may require two weeks of antibiotics or, in some cases, stronger intravenous antibiotics, he said.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that all sexually active women under the age of 25 be screened yearly for chlamydia, Torrone said.

A woman's risk for infection decreases as she ages, according to the report. It was published in the Sept. 27 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Studies Link Cold Sore Virus to Alzheimer's Risk

The virus that causes common cold sores -- herpes simplex -- might increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, two studies by Swedish researchers suggest.

In fact, being a carrier of certain antibodies to the virus can double the risk of Alzheimer's disease, the researchers found.

"The identification of a treatable cause [herpes simplex] of the most common dementia disorder is a breakthrough," said lead researcher Dr. Hugo Lovheim, an associate professor in the department of community medicine and rehabilitation at Umea University in Sweden.

"Whether treatment of herpes infection with antiviral drugs may slow the Alzheimer's progression is not known, but is certainly worth investigating in clinical studies," he said.

But others aren't so sure that there's a clear cause and effect relationship between herpes simplex and Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, doubts that herpes and Alzheimer's disease are connected.

"From time to time data such as these appear in the literature, but they do not address causality or mechanism. The new data are likewise not definitive, and they do not say anything new about the association," he said.

"I do not disbelieve the data. I simply do not know whether the association has anything to do with the cause of Alzheimer's disease," Gandy added.

Herpes simplex is a common infection, affecting up to 90 percent of the population, according to background information in the article. It's the virus that causes cold sores, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). Once you have herpes simplex, you have it for life, though the virus isn't always active, according to AAD.

The theory linking the herpes virus and Alzheimer's disease is that the virus weakens the immune system, allowing the virus to spread to the brain, which may start the process toward dementia, the researchers said.

In one study of nearly 3,500 people followed for an average of 11 years, Lovheim's team found that having certain antibodies to a herpes infection doubled the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

In the second study, blood samples were taken from 360 Alzheimer's patients an average of 9.6 years before being diagnosed with the disease. The researchers compared these with samples taken from people without Alzheimer's disease. When comparing all of the samples, the researchers found no association between Alzheimer's and herpes infection. However, when they looked only at people who'd had their blood taken at least 6.6 years prior, there was a significant association between the herpes virus and the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

"I think herpes virus causes a significant proportion of all cases of AD -- about 40 to 50 percent -- according to our data," Lovheim said.

Lovheim said that these studies indicate that the role the herpes virus plays in the development of Alzheimer's disease is more than a chance association, but instead indicate a causal relationship.

"I think a causal relationship is likely, but like all epidemiological studies, there might always be confounders one has not thought about or not measured," he said. "In a few years we hope we will be able to start clinical studies to investigate whether antiviral drugs might slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease," he said.

However, Greg Cole, the associate director of the Geriatric Research and Clinical Center at the UCLA Alzheimer Disease Research Center in Los Angeles, isn't convinced.

"More than 90 percent of the population has antibodies to herpes, and they are not all destined to develop Alzheimer's disease," he said.

However, an immune response or infection connection between herpes and Alzheimer's disease is possible, Cole noted.

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Multiple Drug Use Raises Infection Risk for 'Swinging' Couples

Multiple drug use put couples who "swing" at increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), a new study shows.

Swingers are defined as heterosexual couples who have group sex, swap partners and/or visit sex clubs for couples. Researchers looked at 289 people, average age 49, in the Netherlands who said they were swingers and visited an STD clinic between 2009 and 2012.

Half of the participants said they'd had six or more sex partners in the last six months, and had not used a condom during vaginal sex. More than half said they'd had group sex during the same time, and half of them did not use condoms.

One quarter of the men reported having sex with other male swingers in the last six months, according to the study published Oct. 23 in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Overall, rates of chlamydia and/or gonorrhea were 13 percent, but no other STDs were present among the participants.

The researchers found that 79 percent of the swingers said they used erectile dysfunction drugs and recreational drugs such as cocaine, LSD, methamphetamines, marijuana, laughing gas and alcohol, and that 46 percent reported multiple drug use.

Recreational drug use (other than alcohol and erectile dysfunction drugs) was associated with high-risk sexual behaviors in men and women, while drug use was only independently associated with STDs in female swingers, especially those who took part in group sex.

"Drug-using populations are a target for interventions that address the practice of safer sex along with secondary prevention of drug use," the researchers wrote.

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Syphilis on the Rise Among Gay, Bisexual Men: CDC

The number of cases of syphilis in the United States jumped 10 percent from 2012 to 2013, with gay and bisexual men accounting for 75 percent of the increase, U.S health officials reported Tuesday.

Rates of another sexually transmitted disease -- chlamydia -- fell for the first time in 30 years, with more than 1.4 million reported cases in 2013. This represented a 1.5 percent decrease from 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"There are over 20 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases [STDs] every year in the United States, and they continue to pose a risk of lifelong complications for millions of Americans," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.

According to the report, 17,357 cases of syphilis were reported in 2013 -- a rate of 5.5 per 100,000 people.

There are a variety of reasons that put gay and bisexual men at high risk for syphilis, said Mermin.

"Some are the high number of sexual partners and sexual networks that create a vicious cycle where the prevalence of syphilis is higher. And that leads to higher incidence, which leads to higher prevalence, and that cycle can increase the frequency of infection," he said.

Dr. Jill Rabin, co-chief of the division of ambulatory care in the Women's Health Programs-PCAP Services at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, N.Y., called the increase in syphilis cases "very alarming."

"Syphilis is like the canary in the coal mine for HIV," the virus that causes AIDS, she said. "People are going to be positive for syphilis before they are diagnosed with HIV. This means that there is a potential increase in HIV cases."

The sores caused by syphilis make it easier to get or give someone HIV. If pregnant, syphilis can cause birth defects, or you could lose your baby. In rare cases, syphilis causes serious health problems and even death, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Syphilis is easy to cure with antibiotics if caught early.

For chlamydia, the infection rate was about 447 per 100,000 people in 2013. Cases remain of chlamydia remain concentrated among young women, according to the report.

If left untreated, chlamydia can result in severe reproductive health complications, including ectopic pregnancy, a life-threatening condition in which the fertilized egg attaches outside the uterus, and infertility.

Infections of a third sexually transmitted disease -- gonorrhea -- remained roughly unchanged from 2012 to 2013, at a rate of 106 per 100,000 people. There were 333,004 reported cases in 2013. Mermin said the rate of drug-resistant gonorrhea has slowed and there is still an effective antibiotic to treat it.

Fred Wyand, a spokesman for the American Sexual Health Association, said the stigma of a sexually transmitted disease shouldn't keep people from being diagnosed and treated.

"Having an STD doesn't mean someone is dirty or broken," he said. "Far from it.

"One of the great barriers to having sexual health conversations is the sense of embarrassment. People need to have frank, open conversations," he added. "It's not about sex, it's about health."

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Smartphone Device Detects HIV, Syphilis

A smartphone accessory that can detect HIV and syphilis has been developed by Columbia University researchers.

The low-cost device can spot markers of the infectious diseases from a finger prick of blood in 15 minutes. It's the first smartphone accessory that replicates all the functions of a laboratory-based blood test, according to the researchers.

The device was tested by health care workers in Rwanda who used it to analyze blood samples from 96 patients. The health care workers were given 30 minutes of training on the device, and 97 percent of the patients had a positive response to the device.

The findings were published Feb. 4 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"Our work shows that a full laboratory-quality immunoassay can be run on a smartphone accessory," team leader Samuel Sia, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, said in a university news release.

"This kind of capability can transform how health care services are delivered around the world," Sia added.

However, one expert was more cautious about the possibilities of the device.

"This is a new technology that uses smartphones to detect antibodies against HIV and syphilis. Although an encouraging development, there are significant limitations, such as comparison with confirmatory tests in standardized laboratories," said Dr. Ambreen Khalil, an infectious disease specialist at Staten Island University Hospital, in Staten Island, N.Y.

Khalil noted that the device might work well in areas where it is hard to get adequate health care and medical resources are limited.

"It would be interesting to evaluate its performance in other settings as well," Khalil said.

The device -- called a dongle -- is small and light enough to fit into a hand, uses little power and will cost about $34 to make, according to the researchers.

"Our dongle presents new capabilities for a broad range of users, from health care providers to consumers," Sia said.

"By increasing detection of syphilis infections, we might be able to reduce deaths by 10-fold. And for large-scale screening, where the dongle's high sensitivity with few false negatives is critical, we might be able to scale up HIV testing at the community level with immediate antiretroviral therapy that could nearly stop HIV transmissions and approach elimination of this devastating disease," he added.

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Most HIV Infections Come From Undiagnosed or Untreated People: Study

 If an American becomes infected with HIV, chances are he or she contracted the virus from someone who didn't know they were infected or wasn't getting proper treatment.

That's the message of a new U.S. study, which found that undiagnosed and untreated people with HIV may be responsible for more than nine out of 10 new infections.

The findings "highlight the community-wide prevention benefits of expanding HIV diagnosis and treatment in the United States," a team led by Dr. Jacek Skarbinski, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote in the report.

Looking at 2009 data, Skarbinski's team said that about 45,000 new cases of HIV were transmitted that year, adding to the total of more than 1.1 million Americans who were already living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Using national databases, the investigators estimated that more than 18 percent of that total remained undiagnosed, while another 45 percent were aware of their status but were not getting medical care.

Only about one-quarter of HIV-infected Americans had managed to get their viral status under control by using the current standard of care known as antiretroviral therapy, the researchers found. These drugs can lower an HIV patient's viral load to undetectable levels.

The study findings are published in the Feb. 23 online edition in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

The findings raise concerns about efforts to contain the spread of HIV, given that untreated patients are more likely to infect others than those who are receiving therapy and have been able to suppress the virus in their system, the study authors explained in a journal news release.

Treated patients who have been able to suppress their virus are 94 percent less likely to transmit HIV than those with undiagnosed HIV, the researchers found.

So the vast majority of new infections in the United States -- nearly 92 percent -- likely occur after contact with people who don't know they carry HIV, or do not receive treatment, according to the CDC team.

In a commentary accompanying the report, Dr. Thomas Giordano, from the DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, wrote that "the study demonstrates that the steps of the cascade that propel HIV transmission in the United States are delayed diagnosis and inadequate retention in care."

However, Giordano added, "what is surprising is the magnitude of the effect of those steps."

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Herpes Drug Might Help Control Spread of HIV, Too

A widely used herpes drug also seems to help people with the HIV virus, even if those people don't also have herpes, a new small study found.

The researchers said their findings challenge the belief that drug Valtrex (valacyclovir) requires the presence of herpes to benefit people with HIV-1. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

The study included 18 HIV patients in Peru. When patients took Valtrex twice daily for two weeks, they had decreases in HIV-1 levels. Patients taking a placebo saw their HIV levels go up.

Experts thought that Valtrex worked against HIV by reducing inflammation caused by the herpes virus. This would give the HIV virus fewer active immune cells to attack, reducing the spread of the virus. But the drug doesn't depend on reducing inflammation to work against HIV, said study co-senior author Dr. Michael Lederman, a professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland.

This means that Valtrex can be used in a broader range of people with HIV-1, and also suggests promising new directions for creating new HIV drugs, the researchers said.

That's especially important because some forms of HIV-1 have become resistant to existing drugs.

"The drug might be an agent that can be used safely in some people with HIV infection who have a form of HIV that is highly resistant to other antiretroviral drugs," Lederman said in a university news release.

"Valacyclovir might well augment the cocktail of medications they take for reducing HIV replication. Valacyclovir is a well-tolerated drug, and it doesn't have a lot of side effects," he added.

The findings were published online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

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Learn the Effects of Hepatitis C on the Body

Hepatitis C is a viral disease that primarily causes inflammation of the liver, but the effects can be felt throughout the body.

Hepatitis C is caused by a virus that is passed through contact with the blood of an infected person. The infection leads to inflammation of the liver.

The liver processes blood and filter toxins so they don’t cause damage to your body. The liver also produces bile, which helps you to digest food and stores glucose and vitamins. Inflammation makes it difficult for the liver to perform these vital functions. In time, the hepatitis C infection can affect the entire body.

Early symptoms, including yellowing skin and fatigue, may be mild and easily dismissed. Chronic infection can cause scarring of the liver (cirrhosis). As the disease progresses, symptoms such as skin problems, blood disorders, and fever may appear.

In the long term, hepatitis C can lead to severe liver damage, liver cancer, and liver failure. Early treatment can help delay or prevent serious damage.

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3 reasons seniors should have HIV and STD testing done

Whether you’re dating at 18 or 78, there’s one thing that should take place: STD testing. STDs and HIV has been on the rise among seniors in recent years; the CDC reports that rates of chlamydia and syphilis among ages 45 to 64 have nearly tripled in the last decade. Gonorrhea is also on the rise. Here are three reasons for STD testing among this population:

1. Lack of sex education. Many people 50 years or older never had a formal sex ed course in high school and may not think this topic is relevant. However, while pregnancy may not be a consequence of sex anymore, STDs and HIV remain prevalent, and many seniors are unaware of the basics of STD and HIV prevention. Condoms provide excellent protection against most STDs, not just pregnancy. These prophylactics may seem alien to many seniors who relied on oral contraceptives and other forms of birth control during years of marriage and without proper condom use, STDs spread.
2. Menopause. After menopause, women no longer need to worry about unwanted pregnancies, which may lead to a disregard of condoms as mentioned in the first point. Furthermore, menopause causes bodily changes that make women more susceptible to HIV and STDs. Thinning of the vaginal walls and vaginal dryness can cause small, microscopic cuts which allow as an entry point for HIV.
3. Viagra and Internet dating. It’s actually two reasons, but combined, these elements increase ability and opportunity for dating among seniors. Combined with the lack of sex ed and no threat of pregnancy, this puts the demographic at risk for STDs and HIV. Seniors shouldn’t be denied dating, sex and companionship (80% of those between 50 and 90 are sexually active), but as we advise the rest of the dating population, safe sex is the best sex.

Testing is fast and easy. Find an STD testing center near you or go online and check out the home test kits (scroll to the bottom). Test in the privacy of your home when it's convenient for you. Everything you need is in the kit including postage.

What is online STD testing?

Online STD testing is a fairly new concept. The actual STD testing process doesn’t take place online; STD testing is available for purchase online and then testing is performed at a lab near you or at home.

Online STD Testing vs. Traditional Testing

Ordering STD tests online from a service like getSTDtested.com offers more convenience and privacy compared to traditional testing routes, and it's quick and easy. A doctor’s office or free clinic require appointments and often long waits. Online STD testing allows you to order a test from your computer, test immediately without an appointment and receive your results in about 3 days. Many of these labs are open on Saturday, so you can test around your busy schedule.

Online STD Testing Options

Testing is available at over 4,000 labs in the continental United States and Alaska. When testing at a lab there is no need to answer intrusive questions about your sex life or undress for an examination. Certified phlebotomists will take a urine and/or blood sample which are then shipped to a processing facility. From their the results come to us, not back to the lab, and you receive them as a password-protected pdf as soon as they arrive 

At-home STD testing is available for chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis and HIV. You can select STD tests online and have the kit mailed to your home or office. Everything, including postage, is provided. All you do is collect your sample and mail it to the lab for processing.

Online STD Testing is Confidential

Testing is confidential in most cases. STD testing is a personal matter, so your confidentiality is protected at all stages—from ordering to billing to treatment. Lab testing takes place at diagnostic laboratories that do more than STD testing (everything from cholesterol testing to diabetes screening), so no one will know the nature of your business execpt the phlebotomist who collects your specimen. And your personal information is never shared with insurance companies or third parties.

Testing is quick and easy. Find an STD testing center near you.

Survey says: friends with benefits use condoms more

According to one study, people in a “friends with benefits” relationship have safer sex. Those surveyed, primarily young adults in their mid-20s, use condoms during oral and vaginal sex more frequently than those in traditional relationships.

But don’t assume this makes friends-with-benefits sex safer, or riskier, than sex among those in committed relationships. Friends with benefits are much less likely to be monogamous (36% vs. 96%), have had more sex partners and didn’t use condoms during all encounters. Additionally, these survey participants were less sexually satisfied and had less communication about sex. 

Casual FWB relationships are common (there was even a recent movie with the same title); half of college students have engaged in this type of relationship. With the prevalence of these relationships, experts call for specific sex education surrounding these relationships.

So what can you do to keep a friends-with-benefits relationship healthy? Engage in open communication, continue using condoms, practicing safe sex and have regular STD testing performed.

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Influential task force recommends routine HIV testing for all

The U.S. Preventative Task Force has recently recommended that physicians to administer a routine HIV test for everyone ages 15 to 65. The goal of this recommendation is to reduce the prevalence of HIV in the United States.

Among the nearly 1.2 million people infected with HIV, approximately 20 to 25 percent are unaware of their positive status. Most cases of HIV are asymptomatic making it difficult to diagnose but easy to spread. Routine HIV testing could potentially catch many of these undiagnosed cases and enable early HIV treatment to take place. Additionally, making a HIV testing a regular part of a check-up may reduce stigma around this important health practice.

Routine HIV testing would be similar like cholesterol testing—it’s just a normal part of a checkup!

What do you think about these new recommendations for routine HIV testing? Please share!

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What are early symptoms of HIV?

Let’s get right to the point: Early symptoms of HIV are difficult to diagnose. These signs are often vague and easily mistaken for other more common conditions, like the flu. Plus, some people never experience any discernible symptoms until the virus has seriously progressed several years later.

HIV is best treated and managed when diagnosed as soon as possible, but evaluating early symptoms of HIV is not a reliable way to diagnose this virus. The only way to diagnose this virus is through a routine HIV test.

When early HIV symptoms are present, symptoms may appear about 2 to 4 weeks after infection (but up to 3 months) and last a week or so before clearing up on their own. Signs of a recent HIV infection may include the following:

• Fever
• Headache
• Swollen glands
• Fatigue
• Muscle aches
• Sore throat
• Rash

This symptoms are very vague and can indicate a number of viral infections, such as mono, the flu or hepatitis C. If you are concerned about an HIV infection, HIV testing can provide answers and peace of mind.

Testing is quick and easy. Find an STD testing center near you.

STD FAQ: Does male STD testing require swabbing?

A large number of men fear STD testing for one reason: the dreaded swab. Sure, there’s nothing appealing about having a cotton swab insert into the penis, but there’s also nothing appealing about chlamydia. STD testing is a must for men, and fortunately, new technologies have made swabbing a thing of the past. (Hepatitis, herpes and HIV testing require a small blood sample.)

Painless urine-based STD tests for chlamydia and gonorrhea eliminate the need to swab. (Men should have a chlamydia test and gonorrhea test as part of their routine STD testing.) For men, getSTDtested.com only uses urine tests at their local labs (phew!). There’s no pain and no need to undress with this process. STD testing has never been easier!

However, many locations (especially low-cost clinics) still rely on swabbing as a test method. Do your research before testing, so there are no unpleasant surprises at the lab or doctor’s office. 

It's quick and easy. Find an STD testing center near you.

How common is hepatitis?

In the U.S., the two most common strains of hepatitis are hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Hepatitis isn’t talked about much when it comes to STDs and STD testing, but these two infections are more common than you might have originally thought.

Hepatitis B has become much less prevalent in the U.S. since the vaccine was introduced. Still, 38,000 cases of hepatitis are reported each year. It’s estimated that many more people—somewhere between 800,000 to 1.4 million—are infected with this virus but don’t know it. Hepatitis B testing is recommended for anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated. Upon a negative result, the vaccine should be administered to prevent this virus.

Hepatitis C is more common than hepatitis B, although only 18,000 cases are reported annually. About 2.7 to 3.9 million people are living with hepatitis C, and like hepatitis B, most are unaware of their infection. Hepatitis C testing is recommended for all baby boomers (the generation born between 1945 and 1964), since the virus is prevalent among this group. IV drug users and anyone who have been exposed to infected blood should also be tested. Currently there is no vaccine for hepatitis C. 

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STD treatment: A quick overview

Regardless of the infection, STD treatment is most effective when the STD is diagnosed and treated early. Routine STD testing provides a diagnosis sooner rather than later, avoiding complications and minimizing the chance of unknowingly spreading the infection further. Here’s an overview of four major STDs and their treatment:

Chlamydia treatment: This common STD is cured with antibiotics, typically azithromycin (and some doctors are adding cefixime). It’s important to avoid sex until the antibiotics have had time to fully cycle through the body. Also, all partners who may have been exposed to the infection should have a chlamydia test and receive treatment. Prompt chlamydia treatment is crucial in avoiding long-term repercussions.

Gonorrhea treatment: Gonorrhea treatment is similar to chlamydia treatment, however this STD requires a different antibiotic regimen. While gonorrhea symptoms and chlamydia symptoms are nearly identical, STD testing is required to determine the correct treatment. Like chlamydia, prompt gonorrhea treatment is necessary to avoid complications.

HIV treatment: Unlike gonorrhea and chlamydia, HIV is not curable. However, when diagnosed early, HIV treatment can manage this virus and help prevent it from progressing to AIDS. HIV treatment requires a combination of antiretroviral therapy (known as HAART), administered under a doctor’s supervision. Today, advances in medicine have made HIV a chronic, manageable illness enabling those infected to live long, healthy lives.

Genital herpes treatment: This STD is not curable, but is not life threatening. More than anything, genital herpes is a nuisance. Genital herpes treatment can help keep symptoms at bay and make those infected less contagious. Antiviral medication, like acyclovir, can suppress herpes outbreaks when taken daily.

Find an STD testing center near you. Get Lab Tested can provide scripts (with positive test results) for chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes and trichomoniasis in some states. Give us a call at 877-317-3178 to find out if this service is available in your area.

5 facts about HIV testing

Routine HIV testing (and STD testing!) is recommended for all sexually active adults and teens (anyone between the ages of 13 and 64). Here are a few things to know about this important - and super easy - health practice:

1. A person with HIV can develop a detectable level of antibodies within a few weeks of infection, with an average of 25 days. 97% of those with HIV develop detectable antibodies within 3 months. If concerned about a particular exposure, HIV testing should take at 3 months and then at 6 months.
2. HIV testing can be performed at home. An FDA-approved test kit is available for the most private, discreet testing. This HIV test requires a small blood sample that is mailed to a lab upon completion.
3. The HIV ELISA test is considered the “gold standard” of HIV testing with an accuracy rate greater than 99.9%. If positive, this antibody test is confirmed with the Western Blot.
4. DNA and RNA tests are available for HIV testing. These tests look for the genital material from the virus, rather than antibodies. This method can detect the virus 10 days after an exposure, but confirmation from the HIV ELISA test is recommended at 3 months post-exposure.
5. Routine HIV testing is the best way to detect an infection. HIV symptoms are often nonexistent, so a test is the only way to diagnose the virus.

Remember - HIV is best managed when caught early (look for an STD testing center near you).

Genital herpes by the numbers: How common is it?

In the U.S., genital herpes is very common. Probably more common than you think, in fact. This STD affects at least 45 million people. In other words, approximately 16% of the population has genital herpes caused by HSV-2. This number is likely higher since many genital herpes cases are caused by HSV-1, the strain most responsible for oral herpes.

Genital herpes is a widespread infection, but the majority of cases—up to 90%—are undiagnosed. This STD often doesn’t produce symptoms, or signs are so mild, they are mistaken for other common conditions.

When it comes to men and women, genital herpes affects the sexes disproportionately. This STD is more common in women due to anatomical differences. One in five women is infected with genital herpes from HSV-2, while the virus infects one in nine men.

Since genital herpes is difficult to diagnose, the best way to know your status is through STD testing. A blood test for genital herpes can detect this condition, even when symptoms aren’t present.

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