FRIDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- HIV patients receiving highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) are more likely to have a level of arterial stiffness similar to that in healthy patients with high blood pressure, a new study finds.

Arterial stiffness increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with high blood pressure.

The study provides new insight into the link between HIV infection, HAART use and the premature development of cardiovascular disease in HIV-infected patients, even when they have normal blood pressure.

However, the effects may not be severe enough to halt treatment, and the study didn't establish that HAART causes the stiffness, noted the researchers, from the University of Athens in Greece. The study appears online June 25 in the American Journal of Hypertension.

Previous studies have found that HIV patients treated with HAART had a higher level of arterial stiffness than HIV patients who weren't treated with HAART.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about HIV/AIDS treatments.

MONDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- A radical new therapy could improve treatment of people with HIV-AIDS by destroying the viruses circulating in the body as well as those hiding in immune system cells, according to a new study.

A team of American and Canadian researchers have high hopes for a combination of targeted chemotherapy and what's known as highly active anti-retroviral (HAART) treatments.

When HIV viruses hide in immune cells, the researchers explained, existing HAART treatments can't reach them. But the study identified where HIV hides in immune cells and the "stealth" mechanisms that enable the virus to elude existing treatments. This finding could lead to new therapies that are different than current treatments, they said.

"Our results argue in favor of a strategy similar to the one used against leukemia, which is targeted chemotherapy, associated with a targeted immune treatment," study co-leader Dr. Rafick-Pierre Sekaly, a professor at the University of Montreal and scientific director of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida, said in a university news release. "This would make it possible to destroy the cells containing a virus while giving the immune system time to regenerate with healthy cells."

Another co-leader, Dr. Jean-Pierre Routy, an infection and immunity researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, explained the importance of the finding.

"For the first time, this study proves that the HIV reservoirs are not due to a lack of potency of the antiretroviral drugs but to the virus hiding inside two different types of long-life CD4 memory immune cells," Routy said in the news release. "There are several types of HIV reservoirs, each necessitating a different treatment to eliminate them."

The researchers acknowledged, however, that it will take many more years of work before the finding might lead to new treatments for people with HIV-AIDS.

The study appears in the journal Nature Medicine.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more about HIV-AIDS treatment.

WEDNESDAY, June 17 (HealthDay News) -- Placing teenage girls with a history of juvenile delinquency in specialized foster-care programs had an unexpected consequence: It kept them from getting pregnant, researchers found.

Researchers directed 166 girls aged 13 to 17 who were ordered by the courts to receive treatment for criminal behavior to either specialized foster care or a group-care facility.

The specialized programs, called Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC), were developed in the 1980s to provide severely delinquent youths one-on-one care and supervision from foster parents trained in behavior management.

Techniques include awarding points for positive behavior (completing chores, attending school regularly) and losing points for negative behaviors, such as not completing homework, according to the non-profit Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy.

One of the keys of MTFC is limiting contact with other troubled teens. In contrast, children in group homes are housed with delinquent youths.

After two years, 26 percent of the girls in foster care became pregnant, compared to almost 47 percent of teens in group care, according to the study reported in the June issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Girls in the foster-care program also had reduced levels of criminal activity and arrests and increases in school engagement.

The results were dramatic, said study author David Kerr, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Oregon State University.

Teen pregnancy rates fell for much of the last decade before ticking up again the last two years. The United States still has one of the highest rates compared to other industrialized nations.

Girls in conventional foster care are particularly at risk. One survey of teens in three states found that nearly half of girls in the foster system reported a pregnancy by age 19, Kerr said.

In MTFC, teens are highly supervised by foster-care parents, who are provided with ongoing consultation, support and crisis intervention services from program supervisors.

"One of the most interesting aspects of this research is that the MTFC program was created to reduce crime, not pregnancy," Kerr said. "It specifically targeted changing the girl's environment: her home, her peers and her school experience. The focus was on giving her lots of supervision, support for responsible behavior, and consistent, non-harsh consequences for negative behavior. And this worked to reduce pregnancy rates."

There are 51 of these specialized foster care programs in the United States and Canada, 41 in Europe and one in New Zealand.

While caring for teens in group homes costs $7,000 a year less than specialized foster care programs, an independent analysis of teen boys showed that reductions in criminal activity among teens in the specialized programs costs taxpayers and crime victims $78,000 less per teen in the long term.

"The figures aren't available for girls yet, but delaying unintended pregnancies should add to that savings," Kerr said. "But aside from the economics, the real plus is helping a high-risk teen grow up some more before she takes on that important job of motherhood. That's good for everyone."

More information

For more on Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care, visit the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy  .