by Jon Lentz

The diagnostic test, developed by Abbott Laboratories Inc, detects the virus more accurately in the weeks immediately following transmission, the company said.

The sooner patients are diagnosed and placed into care, the better the chance there is to stop further spread of the virus, said Abbott’s senior director for research and development of infectious disease diagnostics.

“With this test, we can detect probably at least 90 percent of the so-called acute infections, people in those early stages, in those first few weeks before they develop those antibodies,” Abbott’s Gerald Schochetman told Reuters in an interview.

Abbott’s test would be the first U.S. test that directly identifies HIV while currently-available tests detect the antibodies that combat the virus and show up weeks later.

The test also is the first approved by the FDA for pregnant women, which could allow them to more quickly start treatment to limit transmission of the virus to their fetuses.

The test, called ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab Combo assay, has been available in Europe since 2004 and is commonly used in countries such as the United Kingdom and France.

Approximately 18 million people in the United States are tested each year for HIV, which can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in five infected individuals doesn’t know they have the virus.

About 56,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV each year, and more than a million are living with HIV, the CDC has said.

Abbott’s test will cost about the same as a standard HIV blood test and should be available by the end of the year, company spokeswoman Darcy Ross said.

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WASHINGTON – Condoms that do not fit right could break and may reduce sexual pleasure for both partners, suggesting reasons why men and women often fail to use them, researchers reported.

The study, released Monday, has implications for countries trying to encourage people to use condoms to reduce the risk of AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy, the researchers reported in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

“Men and their female sex partners may benefit from public health efforts designed to promote the improved fit of condoms,” Dr. Richard Crosby of the University of Kentucky and Dr. Bill Yarber of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction in Indiana wrote.

They surveyed 436 men aged 18 to 67 for their study.

Nearly half — 45 percent — said they had used a badly fitting condom during the previous three months.

These men were more than 2 1/2 times as likely to say the condom broke or slipped when they used it. They also often reported it was irritating to wear.

The men who wore poorly fitting condoms were twice as likely to say that using one reduced sexual pleasure for themselves and their partners.

The findings may make some people giggle, but the researchers said the implications were serious. Men will often not buy condoms sized “small” or even “medium,” they said.

“Moreover, the increased likelihood that men using ill-fitting condoms will remove condoms before sex ends constitutes another form of condom failure. Fortunately, it seems likely that these problems could be rectified through education programs,” the researchers wrote.

See original story on MSNBC!

Click here to visit CONDOMERIE and choose your own ’size to fit’ condom!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States.

“Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated,” said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world,” Douglas added in a telephone interview.

The administration of President Barack Obama has signaled a willingness to move away from so-called abstinence-only sex education approaches promoted by his predecessor, George W. Bush, and conservative state and local governments.

Several studies have shown such approaches do not work well and that it is better to encourage abstinence while also offering children and teens information about how to protect themselves from diseases as well as pregnancy.

“We haven’t been promoting the full battery of messages,” Douglas said. “We have been sending people out with one seatbelt in the whole car.”

SOARING RATES

The CDC’s latest study on STDs found:

* 1.2 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1 million in 2007.

* Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported.

* Adolescent girls 15 to 19 years had the most chlamydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.

* Blacks, who represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 71 percent of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.

* Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

* 13,500 syphilis cases were reported in 2008, an almost 18 percent increase from 2007.

* 63 percent of syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men.

* Syphilis rates among women increased 36 percent from 2007 to 2008.

Syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea can all be treated with antibiotics but untreated can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy and can infect newborns.

Douglas said better sex education can help.

“We are not honestly and openly dealing with this issue and it’s the larger issue of sexual health,” he said.

Douglas said children and teens need to know about condom use, and should limit their number of sex partners and avoid sex with people who do have many other sex partners.

“If you are a man who has sex with men you ought to be getting a battery of STD tests every year,” Douglas added.

In addition, black Americans need to understand their risks. Douglas said high rates of incarceration of men in many black communities meant fewer men have sex with more women, in turn often spreading sexually transmitted diseases.

Overall, CDC estimates that 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year, almost half among 15- to 24-year-olds.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Anthony Boadle)