Australian scientists have said they have a made a breakthrough in the fight against AIDS.

The Queensland Institute of Medical Research say they have discovered how to modify a protein in HIV, so instead of replicating, it protects against the infection.

Associate Professor David Harrich says while it cannot cure HIV, the modified protein has protected human cells from AIDS in laboratory tests.

‘I consider that this is fighting fire with fire,’ Harrich said.

‘What we’ve actually done is taken a normal virus protein that the virus needs to grow, and we’ve changed this protein, so that instead of assisting the virus, it actually impedes virus replication and does it quite strongly.’

In theory, this would help keep the HIV at bay and allow the immune system to function normally.

Harrich says while patients would still be HIV-positive, ‘this therapy is potentially a cure for AIDS.’

‘So this protein present in immune cells would help to maintain a healthy immune system so patients can handle normal infections,’ he said.

If clinical trials are successful, one treatment could be effective enough to replace the multiple therapies they currently need.

The Australian professor says animal trials are due to start this year and early indications are positive.

‘This particular study is going to have some hurdles to jump through, but so far every test that we have put this protein through has passed with flying colors,’ he said.

Harrich said he hopes the new treatment has the potential to make big improvements in the quality of life for those with HIV.

‘I think what people are looking for is basically a means to go on and live happy and productive lives with as little intrusion as possible,’ he said.

‘You either have to eliminate the virus infection or alternatively you have to eliminate the disease process and that’s what this could do, potentially for a very long time.’

In October last year, scientists found two South African women who were able to create antibodies that killed 88 known strains of HIV. This has given scientists hope there could be a possible vaccine for the virus.

At the end of 2010, it was estimated 34 million people are living with HIV and AIDS worldwide.

Canada looks set to end its lifetime ban on men-who-have-sex-with-men giving blood after a Canadian Blood Services recommendation that the ban be reduced to five years.

In September 2011 the Canadian Blood Services board of directors passed a motion committing the organization to re-examine its policy and in December it recommended to Health Canada that men-who-have-sex-with-men who have not been sexually active for five or more years should be considered acceptable donors.

Health Canada is expected to make an official decision on the recommendation within the next three months, meaning some gay men could be donating by the middle of 2013.

A statement by the Canadian Blood Services indicated that it could be open to a further reduction of the ban in years to come.

‘We see this change as a first and prudent step in incremental change on this policy,’ the Canadian Blood Services statement read.

‘It will be reviewed in the near future as additional data emerge and new technologies are implemented.’

Reacting to the news, AIDS Calgary Awareness Association executive director Susan Cress told CBC News Calgary that her organization would like to see the ban on HIV negative men-who-have-sex-with-men and who practice safe sex removed completely.

‘The emotion of this topic needs to go away and the politics of the topic needs to go away,’ Cress said.

‘We just need to see an evidence-based decision … We have the science that backs that a ban is not something that’s going to secure our blood system, so just remove the ban.

In May of 2012 an Australian Red Cross review recommended that Australia’s ban on gay men giving blood be reduced from twelve to six months, while Mexico became the first country in North America to screen donors based on sexual behavior rather than orientation in December of last year.

Teenagers sodomising younger boys at school is apparently the ‘reason’ for the rapid rise of HIV cases in Sudan’s youth, according to a report broadcasted by the country’s Blue Nile TV.

The reported featured a medical doctor employed by Sudan ministry of health who stated that ‘sodomy has had an alarming growth in the education system’ and that senior students force younger to have sex with them in school toilets, ‘spreading the AIDS epidemic’.

The report, which was broadcast last week, created a moral panic in Sudan.

Opposition leaders blasted the government for creating an education system that ‘promotes’ homosexuality and AIDS.

One critic alleged that as the government recently changed primary education from six to eight grades, the increased age differences ‘encouraged older teenage homosexuals’ to take advantage of younger students. This, according to the journalist is the main reason for the infection rates.

Beijing Gender and Health Education Institute is planning the first AIDS walk in China.

Organizers hope that around 150 people will walk together along the Great Wall of China just north of Beijing on Saturday 13 October to raise money and awareness.

‘I’m really excited,’ the walk’s organiser Xiaogang Wei, who also runs LGBT webcast Queer Comrades, told Gay Star News. ‘It’s not just about the money but it’s also about getting the HIV message out there.’

Around 30 people have registered already and the organizers are planning a big publicity campaign to get over 150 to walk for AIDS and HIV awareness. This Saturday Beijing’s most popular gay club Destination is promoting the walk.

Funds raised from the walkathon will go towards three support projects for people living with AIDS in Beijng, Harbin and Shenzhen.

From 2012, China AIDS Walk will be annual, making its way in yearly instalments across the country along the Great Wall, raising money and awareness in the interior provinces along the journey.

According to UNAIDS there are 780,000 people living with HIV in China, of which 17.4% were infected through gay sex.

‘Despite their staggering numbers, people living with HIV and AIDS continue to live a hidden existence in China,’ says a statement on the China AIDS Walk website. ‘Due to general misinformation and widespread fear, there continues to be discrimination and most prefer to remain invisible and keep their HIV/AIDS status a secret.’

Earlier this week researchers announced the start of a second trial into an HIV vaccine in Beijing.

The first AIDS Walk was in Los Angeles in 1985 and they’ve been held in dozens of cities all over the US since then, raising money for healthcare for local people with HIV and AIDS.

A controversial safe-sex campaign targeting gay men has returned in the Australian state of Queensland a year after it was removed from billboards and bus shelters following an orchestrated campaign against it by Christian activists.

The Rip & Roll campaign resulted in 222 complaints, making it the most complained about advertisement in Australia in 2011, after the far-right Australian Christian Lobby urged its members to complain about it.

Advertising company Adshel initially removed the campaign’s posters, which showed two clothed men embracing and a condom packet, from billboards and bus shelters but reinstated them after a public backlash in support of the campaign, with 90,000 people joining a Facebook page in support of the campaign.

‘Healthy Communities is proud to continue a 28 year tradition of promoting safe sex and condom use among gay men, our target population, based on peer education and a sex positive approach,’ Queensland Association for Healthy Communities executive director Paul Martin said.

‘Campaigns that promote fear, guilt or blame only serve to turn gay men off safe sex messages, while campaigns that validate the lives of gay men and allow them to enjoy sex, safely, are the most effective.’

Posters for the campaign will appear in 35 bus shelters around inner-city Brisbane from August 12 and on billboards in Surfers Paradise, Townsville, Cairns, Capalaba and Albion.

Healthy Communities expects more complaints from the Australian Christian Lobby but is confident the campaign can go ahead following a ruling by the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau in support of last year’s campaign.

‘The Board is strongly in favor of the important health message this advertisement portrays and considered that whilst some members of the community would prefer not to see this issue advertised, the public health message overrides any social sensitivity,’ the Bureau found.

‘The Board noted that the advertisement does not contain any nudity and considered that the image of the two men hugging was not sexualized and that the advertisement is very subtle in its handling of the issue of safe sex. The Board considered that the overall tone of the advertisement is clearly that of a medical issue and not of a sexual issue.’

Healthy Communities is Queensland’s only LGBT community health organization and is going forward with the campaign despite being stripped of $2.5 million in funding from the new conservative Queensland state government.

The organization is seeking other sources of fundraising but has already had to make a number of staff redundant.