Diarrhea doesn't make headlines. Nor does pneumonia. AIDS and malaria tend to get most of the attention.

In its first study of women's health around the globe, the World Health Organization said Monday that the AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44.

AIDS experts urged Russian officials to scrap their abstinence-based strategy for curbing the spread of HIV, saying the country's fast-growing epidemic could be entering a dangerous new phase.

Almost one in three people infected with the virus that causes AIDS do not know they have the disease, increasing the risk of infection, the European Commission warned Monday.

Laos has 3,395 known cases of people infected with HIV, of whom 2,180 have developed AIDS, state media reported on Friday.

Smoking crack cocaine daily adds to the risk of spreading HIV, a Canadian study published on Monday says, although researchers acknowledge they are not sure about the exact link.

A group of Taiwanese HIV patients are appealing against a U.S. court decision barring them from suing pharmaceutical giant Bayer, their lawyer said Tuesday.

Nearly 16,000 Thais ignored the false rumors that they were being infected by the AIDS virus, and overcame their fears of becoming social outcasts to participate in the first HIV vaccine trials to show positive results.

Scientists and government leaders have already started mapping out how to try to improve the world's first successful AIDS vaccine, which protected one in three people from getting HIV in a large study in Thailand.

For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.