Any adult who has been prescribed HIV medications knows just how difficult adhering to those drugs can be. Between the number of pills, nausea, diarrhea, and the long-term side effects, HIV medication adherence can be tough. So it's no surprise when I hear what a hard time parents have getting their child to take their medications. Luckily, there are ways to help your kids take their HIV medications each and everyday.

Related Information

• HIV Resources for Children and Teens

• Talking to Your Kids About HIV

• What Every Teen Needs to Know About HIV

Noted HIV positive AIDS skeptic Christine Maggiore died peacefully December 27, 2008 after a long battle with pneumonia. She was best known for her efforts to to re-examine conventional HIV and AIDS theory. Specifically, she felt HIV was not the cause of AIDS and that HIV was actually a harmless virus. Ironically, her HIV positive daughter Eliza died three years ago of what the LA County Coroner deemed to be PCP; Pneumocystis pneumonia. Her beliefs were so strong that Maggiore filed a lawsuit against the LA County Coroner for claiming Eliza died of PCP. While many felt her beliefs were way off track, she did stimulate healthy debate over the cause and affect between HIV and AIDS. She also was the founder of Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, a non-profit organization that challenged "common assumptions" about AIDS. She also published a book called "What if Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?" that explained her beliefs in detail. While many experts wonder if her death will weaken the HIV denialist movement, members of the movement assured them that Maggiore's would not spell the end of the denialist movement.

Related Information

• What is an HIV Denialist?

• The HIV - AIDS Connection

• What Are The AIDS Defining Illnesses?

Taking medications each and everyday can be exhausting at times. And eventually people feel they need to take a break from their HIV medicines. These "drug holidays" were once considered to be safe in certain people. However, recent studies show that taking short breaks from HIV medications can in fact be very detrimental to your immune system. Taking short breaks from your meds gives HIV a chance to multiple and wreak havoc on your immune system. This article explains drug holidays and whether or not they are a good idea for you.

Related Information

• Adherence Strategies That Can Work for You

• 10 Steps to Better Medication Adherence

• What is the Best Medication Combination For Me?

For years, experts believed that healthy, intact vaginal tissue was an effective barrier to HIV infection. We believed that the risk of infection was greatly decreased if the vaginal tissue was healthy, free of tears or open wounds, and free of any sexually transmitted disease. The feeling was that HIV was too large to penetrate deep enough into the genital tissue to cause infection. Now researchers at Northwestern University have found that HIV does penetrate healthy, intact vaginal tissue during intercourse; deep enough to cause HIV infection. The belief is that HIV can penetrate the tissue when cells are not bound as tightly together; mainly during the normal cycle of old tissue sloughing hope to be replaced by new tissue. What this discovery means is that the need for protected sex during vaginal intercourse is as important as ever. In other words, condoms are a must.

Related Information

• Questions About HIV Transmission

• How Is HIV Spread From Person to Person?

• How Safe is Oral Sex?