If you thought drinking reptile blood to gain an athletic edge was icky, you may be surprised how much medical value there actually is in the practice. Alligator blood has some pretty awesome infection-fighting abilities, and drugs made from it can even help treat AIDS and organ transplant patients. More details after the jump.

Humanity is one more step closer to finding the cure against HIV, and as it turns out, it's been inside of us all along. Literally. Researchers at the University of Alberta has discovered a gene that actually blocks HIV, thereby stunting its spread from the onset. Read up on this wonder gene by clicking on full article.

As if beer bellies weren't that big of a problem for humanity, the HIV virus had to make matters worse. Scientists have identified immune cells in the human gut to be the first to fall to the dreaded disease, making room for full-blown AIDS. All you need to know about it after the jump!

It might not be practically safe to feed babies with pre-chewed food. US government scientists have found out that the AIDS virus can be passed from infected mothers to their babies if they pre-chew the food.

Apparently, the pre-chewing of food occurs often in developing countries where they may have a lack on baby food or may not have a way to blend baby food. Details in the full article.

Scientists have found another tool which can be a powerful weapon in the fight against AIDS. According to microbiologists, an existing drug can disrupt the stealthy ways of the HIV virus, making the process of treating it easier. Full details after the jump.

For the 39.5 million people (according to UNAIDS and WHO) in the world living with AIDS today, a glimmer of hope may be appearing in the guise of Dr. Indrani Sarkar's research. The doctor and a scientific team have recently developed an enzyme that, under laboratory conditions, has successfully destroyed the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV). Dr. Sarkar explained that the enzyme, dubbed Tre, eliminates the virus by removing it from the human genome. As the doctor explained:

In laymans terms, it's an engineered enzyme which recognises sequences in the HIV genome that is duplicated, integrated virus and by the process of recombination, it cuts out the virus from the genome.

Dr. Sarkar's enzyme was based on research done for her 2002 PhD thesis at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany, while the Tre enzyme was developed after a year. Dr. Sarkar's research further indicates that Tre and its 126 "cycles of mutation" can completely remove HIV from the human genome within three months.

But while these early lab results have proven to be very promising, Sarkar admitted that this experimental treatment will not be reaching clinics for a very long time - about five to 20 years to be exact. I'll have to say I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed on this one...for the sake of AIDS victims out there who deserve a better chance at life.

Otologics in Colorado have successfully created and tested the world's first and most efficient hearing aid, taking the hearing impaired a step closer to a normal life.

Traditional hearing aids have proven very helpful to individuals with hearing problems, but along with the devices came notions that formed a social stigma against the device. It also hinders activities such as swimming, diving and showering.

With the new technology, the user has a piston-like device implanted near the small bones in the ear. The piston responds to a microphone powered by a coil and a battery embedded under the skin. This improves the hearing by allowing vibrations to better reach the inner ear and get to the brain without a hitch.

The battery and the coil can be replaced every five years, while the piston and the microphone can stay in the body permanently and monitored through regular checkups.

In tests conducted with 20 respondents, all of the patients said that their hearing improved to normal or near-normal levels with the comfort of having a device that doesn't impede activities. "Individuals implanted with the system have said that it becomes a part of you--there's a greater sense of security." says Otologics CEO Jose Bedoya.

A veritable Death Star for virus scum? A joint-research study by various universities have developed a new procedure utilizing a low-powered laser to kill viruses.

The procedure uses the laser to emit a pulse of light over target biological samples, creating mechanical vibrations in the virus shell, or capsid. This causes the shell to disintegrate, which in turn destroys the virus.

The laser's power setting for the tests was at 50 megawatts per square centimeter. This is reportedly too low to harm any nearby human tissue and blood, and is further too low to cause the target microbe to mutate.

The latter effect was a detected problem with standard UV treatment; The radiation from this procedure sometimes caused the virus to mutate and develop a resistance, while the UV light also risked damaging the surrounding tissue's DNA. Microwave treatment also didn't appear to work that well, as the surrounding moisture in the tissue diffuses the energy too much for it to affect the virus.

Light pulse tests were conducted on M13 bacteriophages, where it was found that a single light pulse destroyed the target.

Kong-Thon Tsen  of the Arizona State University indicates that this new procedure could be used to help disinfect blood and biological samples in hospitals. We imagine first on the list is disinfecting blood packs. Tsen further added that the procedure could also be used as a new means to treat patients carrying blood-borne disease.

For example blood dialysis allows us to irradiate a patient's blood outside the body and potentially cleanse it of infectious virus particles before reintroducing it into the patient. In this way, we could reduce mortality associated with diseases like hepatitis C and AIDS.

For the moment, Tsen and his team are planning to test the procedure on deadly diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C. They also plan to confirm if the procedure will have any considerable side-effects on mammalian test subjects. This study was conducted in coordination with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the Uniformed Services University of The Health Sciences.

China, home to more than one billion people, is serious about birth control and other problems that come with sex. In fact, the commerce and health ministries in the country issued a regulation ordering hotels, holiday resorts, and public showers to provide condoms.

Beijing News reported Friday that pamphlets about AIDS prevention are also required to be made available from those places.

This move is not enough to fight AIDS in one of the biggest countries in the world, said health experts. Being late in applying prevention methods is one thing, but the lack of sex education is a major problem in trying to fight the virus. China, which used to believe that AIDS was a disease that only gays, sex workers and drug users should worry about, is also a conservative country that refuses to talk openly about sex.

Scientists in Australia have started research on an experimental sex lubricant which studies have shown to prevent HIV and genital herpes.

Dr. Jeremy Paull, lead researcher, has already presented the product to the International AIDS Society conference in Sydney. Men apply it directly to themselves before sex. The gel, called Viva Gel, is in essence a microbicide gel and is supposed to inactivate the HIV and herpes viruses. "The active ingredient in the microbicide is dendrimer, a molecule which binds itself to the viruses and prevents them from infecting healthy cells," says Dr Paull.

Experiments have been successful in animals with an 85%-100% success rate. So far, human experiments have been also successful. It is now also being tested as a contraceptive for women.