NICHD News Releases

Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research 2012 Annual Report
This NICHD Division recently released its annual report highlighting research that covers a range of topics, from understanding fertility and preventing birth defects to promoting healthy lifestyles and behaviors and developing new ways to analyze data.

Anti-HIV therapy appears to protect children’s hearts, NIH network study shows
For children who have had HIV-1 infection since birth, the combination drug therapies now used to treat HIV appear to protect against the heart damage seen before combination therapies were available, according to researchers in a National Institutes of Health network study.

Harnessing Research to Combat Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
STDs and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have affected health and human relationships throughout history. For STD Awareness Month this April, the NICHD highlights some of its research efforts related to STDs and STIs.

Scientific Vision: The Next Decade
The NICHD embarked upon a collaborative process in 2011 to create a scientific Vision, identifying the most promising scientific opportunities for the Institute and its partners to pursue over the next decade. The newly published Scientific Vision statement presents the results of that process and outlines scientific goals for the coming decade.

NICHD reorganizes extramural program
​Alan Guttmacher, M.D., Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) announced a number of changes to streamline the institute’s organizational structure and accelerate the exchange of scientific ideas.

NICHD vision statement now available online
A document charting a research course for the many collaborators who share an interest in promoting the science concerning human development through the life span, child health, women's health, and rehabilitation research is now available online.

Research for a Lifetime: Commemorating the NICHD’s 50th Anniversary
On October 17, 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the legislation establishing the NICHD to examine “the complex process of human development from conception to old age.” The Institute marks its golden anniversary with Research for a Lifetime, an all-day scientific colloquium to highlight the Institute’s mission, accomplishments, and future research directions.

20 percent of youth with HIV didn’t know they were infected at first sexual experience
​Roughly 20 percent of youth who have had HIV since birth did not know their HIV status when they first became sexually active, according to a study by a National Institutes of Health-supported research network.

HPV vaccine may benefit HIV-infected women
​Women with HIV may benefit from a vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), despite having already been exposed to HPV, a study finds. Although many may have been exposed to less serious forms of HPV, more than 45 percent of sexually active young women who have acquired HIV appear never to have been exposed to the most common high-risk forms of HPV, according to the study from a National Institutes of Health research network.

NIH Study Shows HIV-Exposed Children at High Risk of Language Delay
Children exposed to HIV before birth are at risk for language impairments, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

NIH Researchers Show How Anti-HIV Drug Acts to Block Herpes Virus
An anti-HIV drug also discovered to stop the spread of the genital herpes virus does so by disabling a key DNA enzyme of the herpes virus, according to findings by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

New Drug Regimens Cut HIV Spread from Mother to Infant
Pregnant women who are unaware that they have HIV miss the chance for drug treatment that can benefit not only their own health, but could also prevent them from transmitting the virus to their infants. When HIV is not diagnosed until women go into labor, their infants are usually treated soon after birth with the anti HIV drug zidovudine (ZDV), to prevent the infants from becoming infected with the virus.

Herpes Virus Changes Anti-Herpes Drug to Form that Hinders AIDS Virus
The drug acyclovir has long been used to suppress outbreaks of oral and genital herpes. Herpes viruses change acyclovir to a form that prevents them from reproducing. Now, it appears that after acyclovir is altered by herpes viruses, it also interferes with the AIDS virus's ability to reproduce, report researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Depo Provera Appears to Increase Risk for Chlamydial & Gonococcal Infections
The injectable contraceptive depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) appears to increase a woman's risk of acquiring the sexually transmitted infections chlamydia and gonorrhea by approximately three fold when compared to women not using a hormonal contraceptive, according to a study jointly funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Population and Reproductive Health.

Thai Study Shows that Inexpensive Treatment Reduces Risk of Mother to Child HIV Transmission
A single dose of the drug nevirapine given at the beginning of labor, when combined with a short course of the anti-HIV drug AZT (zidovudine), dramatically reduces a woman's chances of passing HIV on to her child, according to a study of Thai women funded in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

Multivitamins During Pregnancy & After Birth Delay Progression of HIV in Women
Multivitamin supplements containing high doses of the vitamin B complex, as well as vitamins C and E, given to HIV-infected women during pregnancy and for more than 5 years after they gave birth reduced the symptoms of AIDS, according to a study of Tanzanian women supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the John E. Fogarty International Center (FIC) for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences, both of the National Institutes of Health. The supplements also bolstered counts of disease-fighting immune cells, and modestly lowered HIV levels in the blood.

Analysis Shows Infants of Mothers Infected With HIV Face Nearly Constant Risk For HIV Infection For Duration of Breastfeeding
After four weeks of age, infants who breast feed from mothers infected with HIV continue to be at risk for infection with HIV for as long as they breastfeed, according to an analysis conducted and funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. Previously, researchers thought the risk for being infected with the virus from breast milk diminished as an infant grew older.

Harmless Virus Prevents HIV Variant from Spreading in Human Tissue Blocks
Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), a common virus that is apparently harmless in adults, appears to prevent a form of the AIDS virus from reproducing in laboratory cultures of human tissue, according to a study published in the November issue of Nature Medicine.

NICHD Funds New Sites to Follow Disease Progression in HIV-Infected Women
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) will fund three sites to conduct research to increase understanding of how infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) affects adolescent and adult women.

Shorter AZT Treatment Reduces Mother to Child HIV Transmission as Well as Longer Treatment but for Less Cost
A shorter course of AZT therapy than currently prescribed for HIV-infected pregnant women may allow women in developing countries to afford the treatment that can reduce their babies' chances of contracting AIDS, but at a much lower cost, according to a study in the October 5 New England Journal of Medicine.