American honeybee colonies have bounced back after a bad year, the annual beekeeping survey finds. Beekeepers lost only 22.2% of their colonies this past winter, from Oct. 1 to March 31, which is lower than the average of 28.6%, according to the Bee Informed Partnership’s annual survey of thousands of beekeepers. It was the second smallest winter loss in the 14 years of surveying done by several different U.S. universities. Last winter’s loss was considerably less than the previous winter of 2018-2019 when a record 37.7% of colonies died off, the scientists …

Thai scientists administered a second dose of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine to monkeys on Monday, looking for another positive response to enable clinical trials in humans as early as October.   The Thai vaccine is one of at least 100 being worked on globally as the world reels from a devastating virus that has infected more than 8.7 million and killed 461,000, with Sunday’s 183,000 cases the highest reported in a single day.   Thirteen monkeys were immunized on Monday and the next two weeks will be critical in determining whether researchers can proceed …

The COVID-19 pandemic could affect availability and distribution of antiretroviral medicine used to treat HIV, UNAIDS said Monday.A recent survey conducted by UNAIDS showed the impacts that lockdowns and border closures imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus will impede supplying prescriptions, particularly to low- and middle-income countries.A new study by UNAIDS shows the potential impacts that #COVID19 could have in low- and middle-income countries around the world on supplies of the generic antiretroviral medicines used to treat HIV. — UNAIDS (@UNAIDS) June 22, 2020But the survey said that …

AIDS activist Larry Kramer used to wear an oversized rectangular turquoise ring on his left finger, tinged with variations of green.  A turquoise band circled a second finger.  Two large turquoise rings decorated his other hand.When Kramer first moved to New York in the 1970s, a fortune teller told him he “must always wear something turquoise to look after your health.”  He trusted the superstition, surviving hepatitis B and a liver transplant — and battling an HIV infection for more than 30 years.”God knows how,” Kramer told VOA in his …

25 years ago this month (June), a landmark U.S. medical trial began testing a drug that would prove to be the first effective treatment of HIV/AIDS. It spawned a generation of drugs that saved countless lives and is still helping to prevent the spread of the virus today. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti takes us back to a time when the AIDS epidemic raged unchecked, and introduces us to a man who would not be alive today without the advent of these drugs.Camera: Mike Burke     Produced by: Mike Burke   …

One of the coldest places on Earth on Saturday became one of the hottest places on Earth. A Russian heat wave sent the thermometer in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk soaring to 38 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Meteorologists say that would be the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle.  Verkhoyansk is about 10 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Temperatures in the town average 40 degrees below zero Celsius (-40 Fahrenheit) in winter, and it rarely gets warmer than 20 degrees (68 Fahrenheit) in summer.  Experts blame the unusual heat wave on a massive high-pressure system that has been stalled over Siberia for almost two weeks, preventing cooler air from flowing south. All of Russia has experienced an uncharacteristically warm winter and spring this year with average temperatures breaking records in the …