WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- The percentage of HIV-infected people in the United States receiving highly active retroviral therapy has increased since 2000, according to a new study.

The researchers also found that people with HIV appear to be less infectious and have healthier immune systems at death.

Researchers looked at national data on 45,000 people receiving clinical care for infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Between 2000 and 2008, the proportion of HIV-infected people prescribed highly active retroviral therapy increased nine percentage points to 83 percent.

During that time, there was an increase in viral load suppression among HIV patients. Suppression of viral load reduces the likelihood of transmitting HIV to others. Among patients taking highly active retroviral therapy, the proportion with suppressed viral load increased from 54 percent to 81 percent between 2000 and 2008.

The researchers also found an increase in median CD4 immune cell count among patients who died from HIV. A higher CD4 count suggests a healthier immune system.

The study, published in the Sept. 4 issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, was led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore.

The findings are "good news for the HIV epidemic in the U.S., but there is room for improvement," lead author Keri Althoff, an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School's department of epidemiology, said in a school news release. "We need to continue to focus on linking HIV-infected adults into care and effective treatment, not only for the individual's health, but to reduce the likelihood of transmission to others."

More information

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

TUESDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests how smoking during pregnancy may increase a child's risk of obesity during adolescence.

Children born to mothers who smoked while pregnant show structural changes in their brains, which make them more partial to fatty foods and prone to subsequent weight problems, the study found.

"The fact that prenatal smoking is associated with a high risk of obesity in offspring has been known, but the potential mechanism that may lead to this risk was not fully understood," said study author Dr. Zdenka Pausova, a scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. "Our study suggests that maternal smoking may cause structural changes in the part of the brain that processes reward and may increase preference for fatty food."

Still, more study is needed to validate the findings, she said. Not all mothers who smoke are destined to have obese children, she added. Smoking during pregnancy is one of many factors that may tip the scales in favor of teenage obesity.

The new study, published online Sept. 3 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, included 378 adolescents aged 13 to 19. Of these, 180 kids had mothers who smoked more than one cigarette a day during the second trimester of pregnancy. The average was 11 cigarettes a day.

As expected, babies born to mothers who smoked weighed less at birth. They also tended to be breast-fed for shorter periods of time, and were more likely to weigh more as teens than their peers whose moms did not smoke while pregnant.

What's more, scans showed that teens whose mothers were smokers during pregnancy had a significantly lower volume in the reward center of the brain, the amygdala.

When the researchers assessed the participants' dietary fat intake, they found an inverse correlation between amygdala volume and fat consumption, meaning the more fat consumed, the lower the amygdala volume.

Dr. Lorena Siqueira, director of adolescent medicine at Miami Children's Hospital, said the new findings provide one more reason that mothers-to-be should not smoke. "We have known that smoking during pregnancy increases the risk for low birth weight babies and preterm delivery," she said.

Calling the findings "fascinating, but preliminary," she said that maternal smoking history may not be the sole reason why some teens crave fatty foods. "This needs to be looked at more as a lot of what we are seeing may be due to access to salty, fatty foods that we all have a taste for."

Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, N.Y., said this new information may help experts tailor quit-smoking messages toward some pregnant women.

"We often counsel these women and tell them that smoking during pregnancy may increase their risk for a low birth weight baby, but they may not appreciate this," Folan said. Risk of adolescent obesity may resonate more for some women. "We know if we personalize the message, it can help motivate them to make a quit attempt," she said.

About 10 percent of pregnant women in the United States and Canada smoke, according to background information in the study.

It's never too late to quit smoking when pregnant, Folan said. "The pregnancy will be improved and you will be more likely to deliver at term without the health risks associated with preterm birth," she said.

More tools are available today to help people quit smoking than ever before, she said. "Talk to your doctor about which method will be best for you," she added.

While the study found an apparent link between maternal smoking and fatty food cravings in teens, it didn't prove the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The American Cancer Society provides information on how to quit smoking for good  .

THURSDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Parents and doctors can do more to protect girls from cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), say U.S. health officials who are concerned by lagging HPV vaccination rates among females.

Last year, significantly more U.S. teens were vaccinated against meningitis and whooping cough (pertussis) than in 2010, while increases for the HPV vaccine were far less significant, according to researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Almost all cases of cervical and anal cancer are caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus.

The proportion of teenage girls protected by all three HPV shots ranges from about 57 percent in Rhode Island to less than 16 percent in Arkansas, according to the report, published in the Aug. 31 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Coverage in the South is lower compared to the West and Northeast, the report noted.

"Stronger health-care provider recommendations for HPV vaccination, implementation of reminder/recall systems, elimination of missed opportunities for vaccination, and education of parents of adolescents regarding the risk for HPV infection and the benefits of vaccination are needed to protect adolescents from HPV-related cancers," Dr. Christina Dorell and her CDC colleagues wrote.

Using data from the National Immunization Survey-Teen to assess vaccination coverage among 13- to 17-year-olds, the researchers found that from 2010 to 2011, vaccination coverage for tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis (Tdap) at age 10 or older jumped from about 69 percent to about 78 percent. The rate for meningitis coverage also rose during that time, from about 63 percent to 71 percent getting one or both recommended doses.

But the proportion of teenage girls getting one or more dose of HPV vaccine rose only from about 49 percent to 53 percent, and the proportion getting all three doses grew from 32 percent to less than 35 percent.

For the third year straight, the percentage-point increase was less than half that of the increase in pertussis and meningitis vaccination.

"Like the previous year, poor and minority teen girls who start the three-dose HPV series have lower rates of finishing it. Coverage was also lower for younger girls, meaning 11- and 12-year-olds are not getting the vaccine as recommended," according to a CDC news release.

Giving the HPV vaccine every time another teen vaccine is given would improve HPV vaccine coverage rates, the researchers said. "Addressing missed opportunities for vaccination . . . is needed to protect adolescents against HPV-related cancers," the authors wrote in the report.

Two vaccines, Cervarix and Gardasil, protect against most of the types of HPV that cause most cervical cancers, the CDC says. Gardasil has been shown to protect against genital warts and cancers of the anus, vagina and vulva.

HPV vaccination is recommended at age 11 or 12, before the start of sexual activity. Women up to age 26 who did not get all three shots when they were younger are also advised to get the HPV vaccine.

One of the U.S. government's Healthy People 2020 targets is 80 percent coverage for all three vaccines -- HPV (in females), meningitis and Tdap -- among teens 13 to 15.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about the HPV vaccine.