Source : AFP / 28 Nov 2013

HIV infections in Europe and Central Asia increased by eight percent in 2012 compared to a year earlier, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control announced Wednesday.

The rise of 131,000 new cases was driven by a nine-percent increase in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, which accounted for 102,000 new infections — around three-quarters of them in the Russian Federation alone.

By Al Arabiya with AFP / 5 Mar 2013

Researchers say they have, for the first time, cured a baby born with HIV - a development that could help improve the treatment of babies infected at birth.

The findings were presented Sunday at the 20th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Atlanta, the U.S.

The health of the mother largely determines the fate of her child, in fact an overwhelming majority- over 90 percent- of HIV infections in infants are passed on by mothers during pregnancy, labor, delivery or breastfeeding.