What Is AIDS-Related Lymphoma?

The lymph system is made up of thin tubes that branch, like blood vessels, into all parts of the body. Lymph vessels carry lymph, a colorless, watery fluid that contains white blood cells called lymphocytes. Along the network of vessels are groups of small, bean-shaped organs called lymph nodes. Clusters of lymph nodes make and store infection-fighting cells.

The spleen (an organ in the upper abdomen that makes lymphocytes and filters old blood cells from the blood), the thymus (a small organ beneath the breastbone), and the tonsils (an organ in the throat), are also part of the lymph system.

Because there is lymph tissue in many parts of the body, the cancer can spread to almost any of the body’s organs or tissues including the liver, bone marrow (the spongy tissue inside the large bones of the body that makes blood cells), spleen, or brain.

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Heart Risks Emerging in People With HIV

Drugs that suppress HIV are keeping infected individuals alive and relatively healthy for years, even decades. But studies suggest that a new health risk is emerging for these long-term survivors: increased odds for heart attack and stroke .

It’s not clear whether the cause is the virus itself or the drugs used to treat it, said Dr. Steven Grinspoon, professor of medicine at Harvard University.

The exact cause of heightened heart risk among HIV patients "may not be just one or the other," he said. "Both may act, in different ways. The drugs may be causing metabolic problems such as dyslipidemia in the traditional way, while the virus can cause inflammation, which is a known factor in atherosclerosis."

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Study: Treating herpes doesn’t prevent HIV

Doctors have long suspected that people with herpes are more likely to catch HIV. So they thought that by treating herpes, they could also cut a person’s HIV risk. But a new study that tested this strategy found the assumption may have been wrong.

"It’s a significant, disappointing finding," Francis Ndowa, coordinator of the sexually transmitted infections control team at the World Health Organization, said in an interview.

Ndowa was not connected to the research, published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet.

The finding may spark a rethinking of HIV prevention strategies in Africa, where controlling sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes is usually part of general AIDS prevention plans.

More information available here

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