BEIJING: An outspoken AIDS activist was charged with subverting China s government after security officers barged into his home and took him away, a watchdog group and lawyer said Saturday. Hu Jia s whereabouts were not known after he was seized by about 20 officers Thursday, said China Human Rights Defenders, an inter
(AP) -- JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The newly elected leader of South Africa s ruling party was ordered to stand trial on corruption and other charges next year, raising doubts about whether the party would back his candidacy for the 2009 presidential election. Jacob Zuma will be tried in the High Court in August on c
The matter-of-fact display on prostitution was startling enough. Then, a large remote-controlled condom floated above the conference hall. Kay Warren, wife of pastor Rick Warren, wondered what she had gotten herself into. It was her first International AIDS Conference, in 2004 in Thailand . Just two years earlie
TOKYO - Hundreds of Japanese who contracted hepatitis C from tainted blood products hammered out a deal with legislators Friday that includes a government apology and monetary compensation. The agreement is a landmark victory in the five-year legal battle of some 200 hepatitis C patients, who had filed lawsuits in seve
LOS ANGELES - Federal officials have signed a deal to add 400 beds to a Lancaster detention center for immigrants, making it the largest facility of its kind in California, authorities said Thursday. The Mira Loma Detention Center will now be able to hold 1,400 people. The facility is run by the Los Angeles County Sher
WASHINGTON - A nine-year ban on city funding for needle-exchange programs in the District of Columbia has been lifted, a move city officials say is key to reducing the soaring rate of AIDS and HIV infections in the nation s capital. President Bush on Wednesday signed a $555 billion federal spending bill that includes a
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A prominent University of Kansas AIDS researcher who was developing a vaccine aimed at helping poor people around the world fight the virus has died of a heart attack. Opendra Bill Narayan, 71, a senior faculty member at University of Kansas Medical Center, died Monday. Narayan gained prominence mor
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- HIV testing will soon become part of routine prenatal care and be required for some newborns in New Jersey under a new law that supporters say is putting the state in the forefront of the national fight against HIV transmission to babies. Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey signed the measure into law We
CHICAGO - Officials from the University of Illinois at Chicago say a dental clinic that serves patients with HIV and AIDS will close next year. Dean Bruce Graham says state funding for the Special Patient Care Clinic has declined over the past five years. He says the school has had to make several cuts, including staff
KABUL, Afghanistan : The sound of gunfire once echoed in the imposing, bullet-scarred structure. Now, a stale whiff of heroin hangs in the air. The spent bullet cartridges have been replaced by used syringes. Huddled in a tight circle, a group of men smoke hashish. In a corner, a 22-year-old man mumbles incoherently, a
WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. - An HIV-positive woman whose infection is linked to the U.S. Navy has prevailed in her two-year battle to have the military cover her medical expenses. Richelle Starnes got the news in a personal call from the surgeon general of the Navy Wednesday night. I just broke down and started crying. This
CAPE TOWN, South Africa : South African authorities have threatened to use police in door-to-door searches to compel 23 patients with highly infectious, drug resistant tuberculosis to return to the hospital they escaped from last week. Eastern Cape health department spokesman Siyanda Manana said that court orders would
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Swedish fashion chain Hennes & Mauritz AB said Thursday it will launch a new clothing collection aimed at spreading awareness of HIV and AIDS among young people and raising money for projects to battle the disease. The collection, dubbed Fashion Against AIDS, is supported by well-known des
LONDON - Syphilis is back: The sexually transmitted disease long associated with 19th Century bohemian life is making an alarming resurgence in Europe. Syphilis used to be a very rare disease, said Dr. Marita van de Laar, an expert in sexually transmitted diseases at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Contr
NEW YORK - Denise Martin, who gained fame as the lunch lady on CBS reality show Survivor: China , is donating the $50,000 she received from producer Mark Burnett to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDs Foundation. Martin told viewers on Sunday night s live finale that she d been demoted to janitor at a school in Douglas
Even though public opinion is overwhelmingly on their side, Democrats are winding up the year with little accomplished on the military and foreign policy issues that helped propel them to power in the last election. They have been unable to bring troops home from Iraq or force Preside
BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Tuesday with a group advocating African development to discuss ways of keeping up the momentum for Africa once Berlin hands over the Group of Eight presidency to Japan . Under German leadership, the G-8 nations this year sought to reaffirm their commitment to lift Africa out
LUSAKA, Zambia : Domestic violence and poverty are preventing many Zambian women from accessing AIDS drugs, undermining the Zambian government s ambitious treatment program, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The New York-based rights watchdog released a report focused on women s treatment in Zambia, based on interviews
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Forty nine highly infectious tuberculosis patients cut through wire fencing and broke out of a hospital isolation unit, apparently because they wanted to spend Christmas with their families. The mass escape highlights the problems faced by South Africa as it struggles to cope with an epidem
WASHINGTON - Manufacturers of gels, films and other products designed to prevent pregnancy must state that they do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases, under a new federal rule. The Food and Drug Administration unveiled a new label Tuesday for widely used vaginal contraceptives containing the sperm-killin
Magic Johnson doesn t trust rookies to win a basketball game, much less lead the nation. You don t want somebody in there that is young or a rookie at politics, Johnson said Tuesday at a raucous rally in support of presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. We want somebody in there that knows what they re doing be
Celean Jacobson and Michelle Faul, Associated Press Writers
POLOKWANE, South Africa - Jacob Zuma triumphed at the African National Congress on Tuesday, parlaying his charisma and widespread popularity to win the governing party s top job and put him in line to become the country s next president. His overwhelming victory -- 2,329 votes to President Thabo Mbeki s 1,505 -- came d
POLOKWANE, South Africa - The African National Congress lurched toward a leadership vote Monday, a usually smooth, private process slowed by a bitter public rivalry that had delegates contesting even how the votes would be counted. Late Monday -- a day later than expected -- President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma were fo
WASHINGTON, (AP) - Unable to override a promised veto, Democrats have backed down on their insistence that the 2008 foreign aid budget reverse President Bush s ban on providing aid to family planning groups abroad that offer abortions. A measure to ease restrictions on international aid was stripped this weekend from a
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands : A 16-year-old girl from Zambia won the 2007 International Children s Peace Prize for her efforts to help educate children in her homeland, the organization that awards the prize said Sunday. The award, which includes a 100,000 euros (US$145,000) grant, was established by the Amsterdam-based Kid
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) - On a back street in one of Antananarivo s seedier neighborhoods, Saholy clutches at the hood of her blue jacket, pulling it down against the light rain. She steels herself for more verbal abuse from her fellow street walkers plying their trade on the corners. Saholy is 39, a single m
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- After a protracted delay, tough new laws against sexual abuse will finally go into effect Sunday in South Africa, which is often called the rape capital of the world. The Justice Ministry said Friday that the Sexual Offenses Amendment Act would help the country fight the scourge of sexu
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa : An HIV-positive man convicted of raping 55 women -- and dozens of other offenses including kidnapping and robbery -- was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday. The judge said he was frustrated that he couldn t impose a harsher punishment on the country s worst serial rapist, 39 year-old M
About 8,500 additional patients of a Long Island doctor will be advised to get tested for blood-borne diseases as an inquiry into his practice expands, the state’s Department of Health says. The agency initially told 628 patients of the doctor, Harvey S. Finkelstein, an anesthesiologist with a practice in Plainview, th
WASHINGTON -- The gap between rich and poor remains huge, but a survey of global health finds that significantly fewer people in poorer countries say they have had to go without food or health care because they lacked the money to pay for it. The phenomenon was evident in almost two dozen of 35 countries in which trend
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates : Two Emirati men were sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison in the highly charged kidnapping and sexual assault of a French-Swiss teenage boy. Veronique Robert, the mother of the 15-year-old victim, said justice was done, but that she would still appeal to try to gain a life sentence
BOSTON - A jury awarded $2.5 million in damages Wednesday to a woman who received HIV treatments for almost nine years before discovering she never actually had the virus that causes AIDS. In her lawsuit against a doctor who treated her, Audrey Serrano said the powerful combination of drugs she took triggered a string
WASHINGTON - The lack of a comprehensive HIV-AIDS education program in District of Columbia public schools is putting students at risk, according to a report released Wednesday. The report card by the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice gives the school system a D, citing delays in approving systemwide health stand
WASHINGTON (AP) -- On World AIDS Day last month the White House said new rules would soon make it easier for people with HIV/AIDS to travel to the United States . Democratic lawmakers and gay rights groups are complaining that the regulations proposed by the Homeland Security Department could actually create more barri
Des Moines, Iowa (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee s 15-year-old comments that AIDS patients should have been isolated have so alarmed the mother of Ryan White, an Indiana teenager whose life-ending battle with AIDS in the 1980s engrossed the nation, that she has asked for a meeting. I would be ve
FOSTER CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc. said Tuesday they have agreed to collaborate to commercialize the drug Atripla in Europe for the treatment of adults infected with HIV. If approved by the European Commission, Atripla would represent the first and on
WASHINGTON (AP) -- GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday he won t run from his statement 15 years ago that AIDS patients should have been isolated. Huckabee acknowledged the prevailing scientific view then, and since, that the virus that causes AIDS is not spread through casual contact, but said that was n
LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security provides inadequate care for illegal immigrant detainees with HIV or AIDS, according to a new report by a civil rights group. The study by Human Rights Watch concluded that facilities failed to deliver complete anti-retroviral regimens consistently, failed to presc
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could pose a dangerous public health risk. As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to
BEIJING: Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan stars in a video clip launched Thursday to promote condom use and raise AIDS awareness in China . The campaign, entitled Life is Too Good, includes three TV clips produced by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon, who won an Oscar last year for their docume
BALTIMORE - When married human-rights and public-health advocates Brian Hennessey and Radia Daoussi traveled to Toronto last year for the International AIDS Conference, they brought their two young daughters along - as they normally did when they traveled around the world chronicling the disease. Their assignment was t
QUANTICO, Va. -- An HIV-positive Navy chaplain was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to forcible sodomy and other charges, admitting that he forced himself on a Naval Academy midshipman and had sex with an Air Force officer without disclosing his HIV status. Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Lee, 42 y
RICHMOND, Va. - The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Virginia has more than doubled over the past decade, and many more may not know they re infected, state health officials said. There are 18,587 Virginians known to be living with HIV/AIDS in the commonwealth, up from 6,730 in 1997, according to the Virginia D
WASHINGTON - A former Navy chaplain plans to plead guilty to allegations that include forcible sodomy and failing to tell a sex partner he was HIV-positive, his attorney said Wednesday. Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee was to enter the plea Thursday at his court-martial at Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virgin
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco-based Presidio Pharmaceuticals has relocated to San Francisco’s Mission Bay life sciences campus, the company announced Wednesday. The new headquarters will be located at 1700 Owens St. Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Inc specializes in therapies for viral infections including HIV-1 and hepatiti
NEW YORK - A Valentine s Day auction of contemporary works donated by some of the world s leading artists will benefit HIV/AIDS relief programs in Africa. Sotheby s auction house has joined with Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, U2 s Bono and Damien Hirst in organizing the charity auction. More than 100 artworks, all inspir
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Kent County health officials are seeking more patient records from a dermatologist accused of failing to follow sterilization procedures. Dr. Robert W. Stokes is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court later this month for insurance fraud. The Grand Rapids Press reports he agreed through his at
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Drug developer Mylan Inc. said Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration tentatively approved its generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc s Viread HIV treatment, through an emergency plan for AIDS relief. Matrix Laboratories Ltd. will make the drug, also called
WORCESTER, Mass. - Audrey Serrano received HIV treatments for almost nine years before receiving a stunning diagnosis: She never actually had the virus that causes AIDS. Now Serrano is suing a doctor who treated her, saying the powerful combination of drugs she took triggered a string of ailments, including depression,
LOS ANGELES - Kids who earn virtual cash in the popular online world Club Penguin can give some of it to charity as part of a program announced Monday by the Web site. It s showing the kids they can truly make a difference, said Lane Merrifield, a co-founder of Club Penguin, which is based in British Columbia and was p
ATLANTA - Advocacy groups say new government estimates will show at least 35 percent more Americans are infected with the AIDS virus each year than the government has been reporting. Government officials acknowledge they are revising the estimate, which they say is not yet complete. But advocates are pushing for the go
ATLANTA - Federal health officials are revising their estimate of how many people are infected by HIV each year, and advocacy groups say the number could rise by 35 percent or more. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the numbers are not final and won t be released until early next year. The CDC ha
DOVER, Del. - Delaware State University Professor Dr. Lee Streetman says Delaware is facing an AIDS crisis in its prisons. According to the Department of Justice, the rate of AIDS deaths in prison in Delaware is higher than any other state. Streetman interviewed more than a dozen current and former inmates to learn mor
PUEBLO, Colo. - Coloradans are joining in remembering AIDS victims and that the disease is still a threat. In Pueblo, red ribbons were placed on the trees and bushes outside the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center. The Pueblo Chieftain said about 30 people joined in a remembrance yesterday. The Reverend John Ma
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa : The decline in the number of people living with AIDS in the world is encouraging but more needs to be done to stop new infections, former South African President Nelson Mandela said Saturday. Mandela addressed a crowd of about 15,000 at the fifth international 46664 concert he has hosted to
KABUL, Afghanistan : Afghanistan has recorded 266 HIV cases, two-thirds of whom contracted the virus through intravenous drug use, the public health ministry said Saturday. Deputy Public Health Minister Faizullah Kakar said 75 percent of those infected are men, and seven people are known to have died from AIDS, the dis
A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of the headquarters of Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland for use as a nonprofit center serving people with AIDS and other serious illnesses. Judge Edward D. Jellen on Thursday approved selling the property for about $1 million to a partnership buying the property for V
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The world must not grow complacent about AIDS because the number of new HIV infections still outpaces the number of those being treated for the disease, former South African President Nelson Mandela said at a benefit concert Saturday. Since stepping down as South Africa s first black presi
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazil s government announced plans to put condom-dispensing machines in public schools to help teenagers reduce the spread of AIDS. The health and education ministries and the United Nations sponsored a nationwide contest for students to design the dispenser. Three potential models were select
BOSTON - A new report by the Patrick administration says that blacks and Hispanics have been affected by HIV/AIDS at a grossly disproportionate rate. The report showed that while blacks and Hispanics each make up about 6 percent of the population, they account for just over half of the 17,000 people with HIV/AIDS in th
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - A telephone survey has found Americans are more concerned about the global AIDS epidemic than climate change. But 25 years after the first confirmed case of the disease, 30 percent of Americans say they know little or nothing about it. The survey of 1002 Americans was conducted by Canadian research
AUSTIN - State health officials say Texas has had more than 97,000 reported cases of HIV and AIDS since 1981. Saturday is World AIDS Day, an effort to increase awareness of the disease. Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner David Lakey says HIV can affect anyone. The physician says it s important that
WASHINGTON - Dozens of students, HIV-positive activists and health advocates were arrested Friday in a loud protest at the White House in advance of World AIDS Day. Demonstrators said the Bush administration s response to the spread of AIDS has been ineffective. They called for increased funding and an end to abstinenc
MOUNT AIRY, Md. - Representatives of several Christian groups fighting the spread of AIDS in poor countries said they were heartened after meeting Friday with President Bush, who is seeking an additional $30 billion to combat the disease worldwide over the next five years. Children of Zion Inc., a Bel Air-based mission
NORFOLK, Va. - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $28.5 million to Eastern Virginia Medical School to develop a substance that will help prevent HIV infection. The donation will go to the medical school s CONRAD program, which works closely with the federal government to help people in foreign countrie
MOUNT AIRY, Md. -- President Bush urged Congress on Friday to approve an additional $30 billion for the fight against AIDS world-wide over the next five years, and announced he would visit Africa early next year to further highlight the need and his administration s efforts. We dedicate ourselves to a great purpose: We
LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) - A southern African radio correspondent has been receiving a flood of text messages and cell phone calls - some from offended listeners and readers. All because Kennedy Gondwe chose to get circumcised to protect himself from AIDS, and took the British Broadcasting Corp. s radio and Web audience thr
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- A Buddhist monastery that provided a hospice for AIDS patients has been closed down by the regime in Myanmar , which is also still arresting dissidents, the top U.S. diplomat in the country said Friday. The monastery, in the biggest city Yangon, was raided Thursday. Apparently, it was ordered
LONDON: Queen said it would release its first new recording in 10 years this weekend and that it will be available for free on its Web site. The rock group, including its new frontman Paul Rodgers, recorded the new song, Say It s Not True, to mark World AIDS Day on Saturday. Freddie Mercury, Queen s famous lead vocalis
UNITED NATIONS: A new global survey measuring attitudes toward the AIDS epidemic revealed that 52 percent of people are frustrated or angry with their governments for not honoring a 2005 commitment to help those affected by HIV and AIDS. Nearly one-third of the 3,500 people surveyed in the seven wealthiest nations said
BANGKOK, Thailand : Thailand s failure to properly address a very high rate of HIV infection among injecting drug users mars its status as a global leader in fighting the deadly virus, a report by two private groups said Thursday. Injecting drug users were the first group in Thailand to be affected by HIV, and the infe
LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton used an appearance at one of the nation s largest evangelical churches Thursday to sketch a broad agenda to take on disease around the globe, calling it the right thing to do. The centerpiece of a speech laced with Biblical references and reflections on her own faith wa
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Most Democratic presidential candidates support lifting a ban on federal funding for needle exchange as a way to protect public health, according to a questionnaire released Wednesday by a coalition working to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. John Edwards, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson and Joe Bide
DETROIT - Michigan s first report card on its AIDS work shows it s doing a good job in decreasing HIV infections among drug users and pregnant women. But the Michigan AIDS Fund says the state is performing poorly at curbing the infection rate in young African Americans. The Detroit Free Press reports Michigan earned a
BEIJING - The number of people estimated to be living with HIV in China has risen to 700,000, with increases among intravenous drug users and sex workers, according to a report released Thursday by the U.N. and the Chinese government. Earlier Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency mistakenly reported the number was
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday called for intensified efforts to stop the spread of the HIV virus, saying he felt spiritually close to those suffering from AIDS. I am asking all people of goodwill to multiply efforts to stop the spread of the HIV virus, to oppose the scorn that often strikes those affect
MOUNT AIRY, Md. - President Bush will promote World AIDS Day on Friday at a small-town church that supports a Christian group home and school in Namibia for children orphaned by the disease. In advance of Saturday s World AIDS Day observance, Bush will meet with representatives from groups that have been fighting AIDS,
SEATTLE - University of Washington investigators determined that a former AIDS researcher who resigned after a rival questioned his work altered images and fabricated data, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday. In a report issued at the end of 2003 following a 16-month probe, the three investigators recommended that Sc
ST. JOHN S, Newfoundland: Canadian health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador will contact 35 people whose private health records, including test results for HIV and hepatitis, were accidentally leaked on the Internet. A government investigation revealed 1,420 computer files were available over the Internet for betw
WASHINGTON - Rates of AIDS and HIV infections in Washington are the worst among the city s black population, while an alarming number of new cases are appearing in women and even some young children, according to a broad report released Monday by city officials. It is a modern epidemic that affects all populations of t
PUEBLO, Colo. - Health officials have detected 17 cases of latent tuberculosis after the death of a Nepalese student who attended the Colorado State University-Pueblo. The 17 people who were infected likely had come into contact with 19-year-old Kalpana Dangol, who lived in Colorado Springs while attending the universi
NEW YORK - From her baptism in Liberia to Christmas years later in her adopted New York City, Mamie Manneh never lost the longing to celebrate religious rituals by eating monkey meat. Now, the tribal customs of Manneh and other West African immigrants have become the focus of an unusual criminal case charging her with
China s recently lowered AIDS estimates are probably accurate since they are in line with other countries which have scaled back their numbers because of a change in the way data are collated, a leading AIDS researcher said Thursday. China s leaders had denied AIDS was a problem in the past, leading some to doubt the c
BEIJING - Chinese authorities manhandled and detained AIDS patients who were demanding increased government support and access to medical records that would help prove they were infected through hospital blood transfusions, protesters said Wednesday. Police detained 15 AIDS patients from Henan province in Beijing on We
BANGKOK, Thailand : Education programs for sex workers have helped arrest the spread of HIV/AIDS in some Asian countries, but drug use and unprotected sex between men threaten to reverse the gains across the region, a U.N. agency said. An annual update on the AIDS epidemic, released Wednesday by
INDIANAPOLIS - A partnership involving the Indiana University School of Medicine has received a $60 million federal grant toward a program to fight AIDS in Kenya . The grant, providing support over five years, gives the program developed by IU and Moi University School of Medicine in Eldoret, Kenya, the ability to trea
NEW YORK - To activists concerned about AIDS and prisoners rights, it s an urgent, commonsense step that should already be nationwide policy - letting inmates have condoms to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases behind bars. Yet their efforts have run headlong into a stronger political force: Authorities
LONDON - The number of AIDS cases worldwide fell by more than 6 million cases this year to 33.2 million, global health officials said Tuesday. But the decline is mostly on paper. Previous estimates were largely inflated, and the new numbers are the result of a new methodology. They show AIDS cases in 2007 were down fro
LOS ANGELES - Elizabeth Taylor says striking TV and film writers will briefly put down their picket signs when an AIDS benefit performance is held next month on the Paramount Pictures lot. Taylor and James Earl Jones are slated to perform A.R. Gurney s play Love Letters on Dec. 1, which is World AIDS Day. The goal of t
CHICAGO - A woman in her 30s who is one of the four organ transplant patients infected with HIV and hepatitis was not told that the infected donor was high risk, and had previously rejected another donor because of his lifestyle, her attorney said. Attorney Thomas Demetrio filed a petition Thursday in Cook County Circu
CHICAGO - Federal officials are investigating what three hospitals knew and told four organ transplant patients about a high-risk donor who infected them with HIV and hepatitis. The investigation s new phase involves the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees organ procurement programs and h
STOCKHOLM, Sweden : A 32-year-old British man was found guilty Thursday of infecting two young women in Sweden with HIV, and putting 13 more at risk of infection, court documents showed. Christer Merrill Aggett was also found guilty of six counts of having sex with minors. The Solna District Court near Stockholm said t
SEATTLE - A Pierce County woman who also had AIDS died earlier this year from a mutated version of a common cold virus that also sickened three other women at the same residential-care facility, U.S. health officials said Thursday. A new variant of adenovirus has caused 10 deaths and at least 140 illnesses in New York,
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Former President Clinton s nonprofit foundation raised more than $135 million last year as his wife ramped up her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to tax forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Donations to the William J. Clinton Foundation jumped by nearly 70 percent
HONOLULU - The nation s largest doctors group this week adopted new ethical guidelines for how physicians should talk to pregnant patients about donating their babies umbilical cord blood. The American Medical Association voted during a two-day meeting in Hawaii to encourage mothers wishing to donate to give the blood
SEATTLE - Researchers who ran a test of an AIDS vaccine that failed to work have decided to tell volunteers whether they received the vaccine or a placebo. After what they call the unblinding, researchers will continue to offer risk-reduction counseling to the 3,000 volunteers. The vaccine was made by Merck. The study
CHICAGO - A troubling case in which a high-risk organ donor infected four patients with the AIDS virus and hepatitis has led medical ethicists to warn that patients need to know more about whose organs they re getting. Public health officials said Tuesday the Chicago case is the first known instance of HIV transmission
CHICAGO - For the first time in more than 20 years in the U.S., there are documented cases that the HIV virus has been transmitted from a high-risk organ donor to transplant recipients. The transplants occurred in January at three Chicago hospitals, but the four patients who were infected with HIV and the virus for hep
BEIJING - China will relax a long-standing rule that bars foreigners with HIV from entering the country, a health official said. The law will be revised but a date has not yet been set, said Mao Qun an, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, according to a transcript of a news conference posted on the ministry s Web s
PHILADELPHIA - Award-winning actor and human rights activist Richard Gere became the 2007 recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, which honors artists whose leadership benefits humanity. Gere, 58, who was chosen because of his philanthropy and advocacy on behalf of independence for Tibet and better care for HIV/AIDS pa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Behind high fences patrolled by guards to prevent escape, a drab building once used for smallpox victims houses patients with a new, virtually uncurable strain of tuberculosis. Patients sleep or sit listlessly in the 12-bed women s ward, which is equipped with a TV, a fridge and a table with a
LOS ANGELES - Dr. R. Scott Hitt, an AIDS specialist and the first openly gay person to head a presidential advisory board, has died. He was 49. Hitt died Thursday of colon cancer at his home in West Hollywood, according to John Duran, the city s mayor and a longtime friend. Hitt was chairman of the Presidential Advisor
SEATTLE - About 100 volunteers in Seattle took part in the test of an AIDS vaccine that failed to work and may have increased the risk of getting the virus. They were part of a national test of 3,000 people, mostly gay men female sex workers. The test was conducted by drug maker Merck using a genetically modified cold
TRENTON, N.J. - New data on an experimental AIDS vaccine that failed to work shows volunteers who got the shots were far more likely to get infected with the virus through sex or other risky behavior than those who got dummy shots. The new details, released Wednesday by drugmaker Merck & Co. , don t answer the c
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa : President Thabo Mbeki still doubts that HIV causes AIDS and believes the pandemic is being exaggerated out of racism and greed, according to a new biography. Critics say Mbeki s stance slowed his government s response to the AIDS epidemic, costing hundreds of thousands of lives. But Mbe
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A 15-year-old French-Swiss boy shot anguished glances at an HIV positive man he accuses of raping him and described in court Wednesday a vicious attack by three Emirati men. The case has raised tensions over attitudes toward sex crimes in the tiny Gulf nation s Islamic-rooted legal s
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Old drugs. Outdated tests. Empty promises. New threats. Such is the bleak reality surrounding an international tuberculosis conference opening Thursday in a city scarred by a killer combination of TB and AIDS: an already nightmarish scenario worsened by the spread of untreatable strains. T
KATMANDU, Nepal : Women in a rural village in Nepal have been mailing condoms to their husbands working abroad to protect them from sexually transmitted diseases, a news report said Tuesday. The women in Pang village, in the midwestern mountains of Nepal, have been writing to their husbands urging them not to have sex
WASHINGTON - Ashley Judd says education and prevention are the best way to combat AIDS and HIV, which disproportionately affect women and girls and prey upon the vulnerable and less fortunate. Speaking about her new documentary film, India s Hidden Plague, in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC s This Week, the 39-yea
GENEVA - The U.N. health chief urged countries on Monday to come up with new ways to make medicine for HIV/AIDS and other diseases more affordable in the world s poorest countries, without stifling innovation among pharmaceutical companies. The World Health Organization s 193 member states are hoping to forge a global
MIAMI - An HIV-positive Florida woman who blames her infection on the U.S. Navy would get lifetime care for her disease under a private bill proposed for her in Congress. Richelle Starnes, 27, was born HIV positive after her mother contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. A Navy doctor missed signs Starnes mother was h
PORTLAND, Ore. - Oregon announced this week that it has been awarded a $1.2 million federal grant to help people who have both HIV/AIDS and mental illness. The state will receive the money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The official recipient is the state Department of Human Services. Its HI
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. has teamed up with technology giants Google Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. to launch a new Web site that will provide data and a bird s-eye view of global efforts to fight poverty and meet U.N. development goals. The site will track efforts by countries around the globe to achieve the Millennium
FORT BRAGG, North Carolina - An HIV-positive paratrooper pleaded guilty to assault Thursday for knowingly having unprotected sex with a teenager he met online. Pfc. Johnny Lamar Dalton, 25, who is a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, entered his plea during a court-martial at Fort Bragg. A military judge sentenced D
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe has registered a 2.5 percent decline in HIV infection rates, and the number of AIDS deaths also is dropping, the government said Thursday, crediting its tireless efforts to fight the pandemic. Quoting figures it said were verified by the United Nations, the Ministry of Health said the HIV ra
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Two Emirati men are accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old French boy, a case that has raised questions about the protection of foreigners and the fairness of a legal system where male rape does not exist as a crime. The defendants - aged 35 and 18 - briefly appeared in court Wed
NEW YORK -- An Abyssinian cat from Missouri, named Cinnamon, has just made scientific history. Researchers have largely decoded her DNA, a step that may aid the search for treatments for both feline and human diseases. The report adds cats to the roughly two dozen mammals whose DNA has been unraveled, a list that inclu
WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni focused on trade and fighting disease during a meeting Tuesday at the White House. There was no mention, when the two appeared before reporters afterward, of alleged human rights abuses by the Ugandan government or of Museveni s maneuvers to remain in p
DENVER - A task force s recommendation that clinics in Denver Public Schools high schools be allowed to distribute condoms and oral contraceptives to students has the support of some parents and teachers, one school principal said. A 43 member task force composed of medical, state, city and parents examined services at
NORRISTOWN, Pa. - A former Boy Scout leader who is HIV-positive will spend 16 to 40 years in prison for sexual crimes against a 14-year-old Montgomery County boy. Fifty-two-year-old David Mayberry of Monte Clare was charged in late 2005 with engaging in deviant sex acts with the teenager, whom he had met online. He was
ATHENS, Ga. - Police have arrested a man on accusations he had sex with a woman without telling her he has AIDS. Keyvin Shurrod Lyle, 34, was arrested Sunday and has been charged with felony reckless conduct, police said. Authorities say Lyle and the woman had sex three years ago. The woman only recently learned she ha
ROME: Sharon Stone sold the jewelry off her neck and helped raise US$1.35 million (EURO940,000) for AIDS research at a Rome benefit, organizers said Saturday. Stone presided over the candlelit auction Friday night in central Rome, which drew celebrities including film director Sofia Coppola, model Eva Herzigova and act
MAE SOT, Thailand - They travel for days though checkpoints, across dangerous roads and past Myanmar s bribe-hungry soldiers to make it to the Thai border. They re not refugees fleeing the junta - they simply want to see a doctor. Myanmar has one of the world s worst health care systems, with tens of thousands dying ea
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc. surged Friday after the biotechnology company said a liquid version of its HIV drug candidate bevirimat was effective in treating the virus in a mid stage trial. Panacos also late Thursday reported a third-quarter loss of 15 cents per share, beating an average ana
KHAYELITSHA, South Africa : American Idol viewers will never see this particular performance of anti-AIDS songs and dances in a modest community hall, but they helped pay for it. After a star-studded American Idol extravaganza in April raised more than US$75 million (EURO52.6 million), the money is trickling down to ch
MOSCOW (AP) - Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Russians on Thursday that their country is losing the battle against HIV/AIDS because of government inaction and a lack of public awareness. You are in terrible, terrible danger here in Russia, said Holbrooke, who now heads an internati
BANGKOK, Thailand - Police efforts to stop drug abuse sometimes contribute to the spread of AIDS by forcing addicts to use contaminated needles and syringes, law enforcement and health experts said Wednesday. The experts, speaking after the opening of a conference on policing and reducing health risks for people who ab
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan : Four more Kyrgyz toddlers have been infected with HIV in an outbreak blamed on medical negligence, officials said Wednesday, raising the number of people diagnosed to 26. The latest cases involve children who are 2 and 3 years old and were found after an analysis of blood samples from the southern
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Former NBA star and Michigan native Magic Johnson, historian John Hope Franklin and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf have been named recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum s annual Freedom Awards. The museum on the site of Martin Luther King Jr. s assassination handed out the awards at
LOS ANGELES - Federal authorities have temporarily shut down a troubled immigrant detention center and moved hundreds of detainees to other facilities, officials said Tuesday. The center, located in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, houses about 450 immigrants who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enf
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- South Africa is recalling millions of locally manufactured condoms after tens of thousands failed an air burst test, dealing a further blow to the country s campaign to prevent the spread of AIDS. The Health Ministry said Tuesday the recall involves condoms distributed free by the gov
SINGAPORE: A group of Singaporeans submitted a petition to decriminalize gay sex to Parliament on Monday, saying a government proposal to legalize oral and anal sex for heterosexual adults only was unjust. The petition, signed by 2,341 people in three days, was presented to lawmakers as part of a debate Monday on the m
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gilead Sciences Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Merck & Co. Inc. said Thursday a European Union panel recommended its once-a-day HIV pill Atripla be approved for sale. The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, part of the European Medicines Agency, or EMEA, said the drug should
SAN FRANCISCO - City health officials took steps Thursday toward opening the nation s first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses. Hoping to reduce San Francisco s high rate of fatal drug overdoses, the public health department co-sponsor
NEW YORK - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton joined birth-control advocates Thursday in demanding that the Bush administration withdraw an appointment that places federal family planning funds under the control of a woman they consider hostile to contraception programs. Susan Orr, who has been one of the top Department of He
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - An HIV-positive, eastern Missouri woman who had unprotected sex with her then-boyfriend was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison. Angela Harris, 27, of St. Charles, pleaded guilty in September to two counts of knowingly and recklessly risking infection of another person with HIV. She could be eli
CHICAGO (AP) -- More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph superbug, the government reported in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ. Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commen
LONDON - Only 60 percent of AIDS patients in Africa still take the drugs they need to stay alive two years after starting treatment, researchers reported, noting a grim reason many stopped: death. Of the patients found no longer to be taking the drugs after two years, 40 percent died and the rest missed scheduled appoi
WILLINGORO, N.J. - When a patient gets a new prescription filled, there s a fair chance a pharmacist will be looking over the doctor s shoulder, more or less. Increasingly, pharmacists are aggressively reviewing prescriptions - mainly those for expensive, chronic conditions - and counseling patients and intervening wit
NEW YORK (AP) -- Merck & Co. shares gained in premarket trading Monday after the Dow Jones industrial average component got approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its new drug to treat HIV. The FDA late Friday OK d Merck s Isentress tablets for people who have strains of the virus that causes AIDS and a
BEIJING: All eyes will be on a rising star in China s Communist Party when delegates from across the country gather Monday for the start of their once-every-five years party congress. Li Keqiang, an economist by training, is a trusted aide long seen as President Hu Jintao s favorite to succeed him. Hu is not expected t
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration is moving with unprecedented speed to launch a drug research center to be paid for by companies it regulates. The goal of the Reagan-Udall Foundation, approved by Congress and signed into law late last month, is to streamline and improve the development of drugs and medical
SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday signed 97 bills and vetoed another 58, creating new laws on everything from the sale of kangaroo skin to protecting endangered condors while halting lawmakers efforts on dozens of other fronts, including giving college aid to illegal immigrants and requiring wa
LOS ANGELES - The immigration detention facility in San Pedro, one of several nationwide to come under scrutiny from immigrant and civil rights groups, has lost its accreditation. The center houses several hundred illegal immigrants who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are facing depor
PORTLAND, Ore. - The former general manager of an adult entertainment store chain has filed a $2.7 million lawsuit claiming he was fired because he refused to fire certain employees with AIDS. Denny O Neil Jr. accused Fantasy for Adults Only and its parent company, Oregon Entertainment Corp., of discrimination, hostile
WASHINGTON - The government approved a novel anti-AIDS pill on Friday, offering a new option for hard-to-treat patients. Manufacturer Merck & Co. (MRK, News) said Isentress should be on pharmacy shelves within two weeks. The AIDS virus uses three different enzymes to reproduce and infect cells. Numerous drugs are a
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. -- Merck & Co. said Friday the Food and Drug Administration approved its Isentress twice-daily tablets as a treatment for patients who have strains of the HIV virus resistant to multiple antiretroviral drugs. Isentress is the first of a new class of antiretroviral drugs called integrase inh
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar s military junta rejected a U.N. statement calling for negotiations with the opposition, insisting Friday that it would follow its own plan to bring democracy to the country. The impoverished country s main opposition party, however, urged the ruling generals to comply with U.N. demands for ne
SEOGWIPO, South Korea - As the world s top condom experts convene this week to update international standards, one American entrepreneur has a simple message: Size matters. It s shaking up an industry that has generally taken a one-size-fits-all approach. Frank Sadlo, founder of TheyFit, which makes what he claims
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - The international scientific community is trying to inject new urgency and unity into the elusive hunt for a HIV/AIDS vaccine, just weeks after trials with the most promising candidate to date were halted. At a conference in Cape Town, Alan Bernstein, founder of the Canadian Institutes of Heal
DAKAR, Senegal - About $18 billion a year has been drained from Africa by nearly two dozen wars in recent decades, a new report states, a price some officials say could ve helped solve the AIDS crisis and created stronger economies in the world s poorest region. This is money Africa can ill afford to lose, Liberian Pr
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor freed by Libya after more than eight years in prison for allegedly infecting children with HIV waived their right to seek redress from Libya upon their release, the doctor said Wednesday. Yes, we signed such papers, Dr. Ashraf al-Hazouz told journ
ATLANTA - More than 30 states have laws barring doctors from heeding a call by U.S. health officials to routinely test Americans for the AIDS virus, researchers report. And states don t seem to be in any rush to change that. None have chosen to remove all barriers since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an
NEW YORK - Black ministers called on the federal government Tuesday to declare HIV/AIDS among blacks a public health emergency and proposed legislation to address the disease in their community. Almost half of all new HIV diagnoses are among blacks. Black men were diagnosed with the disease at a rate eight times that o
BOSTON - A teenage girl who had an HIV-related surgery three years ago wants the state Appeals Court to allow her to appeal MassHealth s decision not to pay for the procedure. Ashley Shaw and her mother are appealing a lower court decision upholding MassHealth s refusal to pay for surgery to remove a painful pad of fat
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A crew that includes Malaysia s first astronaut and an American who will become the first woman to command the international space station prepared Monday for blastoff later this week. The Soyuz-FG rocket is scheduled to blast off from the Central Asian steppe on Wednesday night to take Malaysia
PHOENIX - It started more than a decade ago when a doctor and an activist set out to answer a question. What was the best way to ensure metro Phoenix residents infected with HIV could get better, quicker access to cutting-edge drug therapies? At the time, pharmaceutical companies were testing promising treatments, but
GENEVA: Canada has become the first nation to invoke a provision allowing it to export a cheap, generic version of patented AIDS drugs, the World Trade Organization said Friday. The triple combination AIDS therapy drug, TriAvir, can now be made and exported to Rwanda , which is unable to manufacture
STOCKHOLM, Sweden : A British man has been charged with infecting two young women with HIV and putting 14 more at risk for infection, Swedish police said Friday. Christer Merrill Aggett, 32, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly infecting two girls whom he had sex with without telling them he
SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. launched a Web site Thursday for managing personal health and medical information, but privacy advocates worry that neither the technology nor U.S. law will protect patients most confidential details. From the consumer s point of view, Microsoft s HealthVault site is part filing cabinet, part
PHILADELPHIA - Three funeral directors sold hundreds of bodies to a former oral surgeon who allegedly collected the bones, tissue and skin from the corpses to be used in transplants, a grand jury charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. The 244 bodies fetched about $1,000 each, the grand jury found, with the bo
UNITED NATIONS - World leaders repeatedly warned the U.N. General Assembly that rich countries failures to fulfill their pledges of aid are keeping poor nations from meeting U.N. goals of reducing poverty and achieving environmental stability. At Wednesday s closing session, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said
WASHINGTON - Federal terror-fighting agencies can t identify all the American research laboratories that could become targets of attackers, congressional investigators have found. The Government Accountability Office asked a dozen agencies whether they kept track of all the labs handling dangerous germs and toxins, or
NEW YORK - Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. and partner Trimeris Inc. said Wednesday they are withdrawing a supplemental application with U.S. regulators to market a needle-free injection device for use with HIV treatment Fuzeon. The Biojector 2000 device, or B2000, is cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to deliver
LOS ANGELES - Early in the AIDS epidemic, people infected with the virus often lost a dangerous amount of weight, at times looking gaunt and ghostly. Today, they are facing the opposite problem. Many who have HIV, but not full-blown AIDS, are struggling with obesity, which has overtaken wasting syndrome as the top conc
MIAMI - An 80-year-old doctor was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in a $7 million Medicare scam involving HIV patients, authorities said Tuesday. Dr. Orestes Alvarez-Jacinto was also sentenced to seven months home confinement and three years supervised release. In addition, he must pay $90,000 in forfeitu
It s tempting to scoff at the idea of presidential party girl Jenna Bush writing a book, but her first effort is surprisingly well done. Ana s Story (HarperCollins, 224 pages, $18.99) is a short biography of a 17-year-old single mother in Latin America infected with HIV. Bush met Ana, whose real name and hometown are c
TORONTO - A judge acquitted three doctors, a New Jersey company and a former Red Cross official of criminal charges Monday in a tainted-blood scandal that infected thousands of Canadians with HIV or hepatitis and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths. Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto ruled that the defendan
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The fifth in a series of international concerts that Nelson Mandela has used to raise awareness about AIDS will be held Dec. 1 in Johannesburg. I am very delighted that we are engaging the youth in schools, communities and through the media breaking the silence and stigmas around HIV and AI
PORTLAND, Ore. - Doctor-assisted suicide in Oregon and The Netherlands does not result in more deaths among certain groups of terminally ill patients such as the poor or the elderly, according to a controversial new study. The study, led by University of Utah bioethicist Margaret Battin, analyzed nearly a decade of dat
BALTIMORE - Maryland s prisons have the highest percentage of confirmed cases of AIDS in the nation, based on statistics from 41 states at the end of 2005, a new Justice Department study has found. The study found that the number of confirmed AIDS cases among inmates in Maryland doubled from 204 in 2004 and 408 in 2005
WASHINGTON - Who cares if they re free? Residents in the nation s capital say the condoms being handed out have a serious problem. As many as 70,000 condoms given away in a citywide campaign to reduce HIV and AIDS were returned this week by community groups. Another 100,000 condoms were returned in early September beca
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Jenna Bush looked poised as she stepped to the podium, but she couldn t quite hide the butterflies as she stood before an eager bookstore crowd Saturday to introduce her new book, Ana s Story: A Journey of Hope. This is my first day, so I m a little nervous, the 25-year-old first daughter admitted.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Flagstaff resident Larry O Daniel has been living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus for 20 years. Two years ago, he was able to receive a variety of services and support in Flagstaff to help him cope with HIV through an organization called Northland Cares. Northland Cares had to close in early 20
NEW DELHI - An Indian court has denied an HIV-positive woman custody of her 8-year-old daughter, a rights activist said Friday. The woman, who was not identified to protect her privacy, married a soldier from northwestern Rajasthan state in the late 1990s without knowing that he was HIV positive, said Kavita Srivastav,
PHILADELPHIA - Accepting the Liberty Medal for his humanitarian work in Africa, Bono exhorted Americans to keep working to solve the world s problems and spoke of those who are without freedom. When you are trapped by poverty, you are not free. When trade laws prevent you from selling the food you grew, you are not fre
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Elizabeth Taylor, wearing a coffee-colored, gold-sequined Naeem Khan gown accented with diamond jewelry, put some superstar sparkle into an HIV/AIDS fundraiser. Taylor, 75 and in a wheelchair, is a founding chairwoman of the annual Macy s Passport event, a charity auction and showcase for food an
ATHENS, Greece - Basketball Hall of Fame member Earvin Magic Johnson was honored at a charity basketball game in Athens on Tuesday that raised money for a global AIDS campaign and victims of recent deadly wildfires in Greece. Thank you for allowing me to come to your beautiful country, Johnson, who did not play Tuesda
Text of President Bush s remarks Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions. BUSH: Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to address the General Assembly of the United Nations. Sixty years ago, representatives fro
MEXICO CITY: Mexico s Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to expel five soldiers who tested positive for HIV from the military, establishing a precedent that dismissed troops may seek redress in a federal appeals court. Being HIV-positive does not in itself imply an inability to serve in the armed forces,
PHOENIX - Because of a growing population of patients with AIDS and HIV, the federal government is sending additional funding to Arizona. Maricopa and Pinal counties are set to receive $6.8 million from the $2 billion federal Ryan White CARE Act. The act was named after a young Indiana AIDS victim who was infected thro
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who made his fortune as a trial lawyer, says attorneys should have to show their medical malpractice cases have merit before filing them. He also said attorneys with a history of frivolous suits should be barred from filing new cases. Edwards proposal i
COLUMBIA -- People living with HIV in South Carolina who need the government s help getting their prescriptions filled no longer have to wait for lifesaving medicine. South Carolina has eliminated what was recently the nation s longest waiting list in the country for Medicaid s AIDS Drug Assistance Program, the state D
TRENTON, N.J. - A promising experimental vaccine to prevent the AIDS virus has failed in a crucial experiment, with volunteers becoming infected with HIV anyway, leading the drug developer to halt the study. Merck & Co. said Friday that it is ending enrollment and vaccination of volunteers in the large internationa
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. - A self-published paperback by a local doctor now has a prestigious publisher and worldwide distribution prospects. Dr. Christopher Ryder, an Upper Allen Township-based pediatrician, wrote the first version of the book about four years ago. Ryder, 60, works at the practice of Ryder, Barnes and Assoc
In a disappointing setback, a promising experimental AIDS vaccine failed to work in a large international test, leading the developer to halt the study. Merck & Co. said Friday that it is ending enrollment and vaccination of volunteers in the study, which was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health.
LENOIR CITY, Tenn. - A man accused of brandishing a medical syringe to rob a convenience store on Thursday morning later crashed his car into a house while trying to escape, police said. A man walked into a store shortly before 4 a.m. and flashed a medical syringe, which he claimed was contaminated with AIDS or somethi
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- European Union medicine experts on Thursday recommended lifting a temporary EU-wide ban on the sale of a Roche Holding AG anti-HIV drug that had been contaminated with a substance that can be harmful to health. The European Medicines Agency, or EMEA, said it backed allowing Roche to sell
SELAH, Wash. - A group of medical marijuana patients plans to petition the state attorney general to investigate whether authorities in Yakima County are following the state s medical marijuana law. Washington s medical marijuana law was approved by nearly 60 percent of voters in 1998, closely behind California in the
NEW YORK (AP) -- Drug maker Pfizer Inc. said long-term data reinforce the safety and effectiveness of its new HIV drug Selzentry, according to data from a 48-week study that was presented Tuesday. Nearly three times as many patients receiving Selzentry, in addition to an ongoing treatment regimen, achieved undetectable
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations and the World Bank launched a new initiative Monday to recover billions of dollars of public money stolen from developing countries every year by corrupt leaders and officials. The Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative is aimed at giving teeth to provisions of the U.N. treaty to fight glob
SOFIA, Bulgaria : In a sign of appreciation for helping free six medics sentenced to death in Libya , Bulgaria s President awarded the country s highest state order Monday to the European Union foreign affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. At a ceremony in Sofia, Georgi Parvanov praised Ferrero-Waldner for
ST. CHARLES - A St. Charles woman admits that she exposed a former boyfriend to the HIV virus. Angela Harris pleaded guilty today to two counts of knowingly and recklessly risking infection of another person with HIV. Prosecutors agreed to drop a third charge against the 27-year-old. They have recommended concurrent pr
NEW YORK - Two researchers who opened up the field of heart-valve replacement and a scientist who discovered a type of cell that plays a key role in the immune system have won prestigious medical prizes. The $150,000 Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards will be presented Sept. 28 in New York by the Albert & Mary L
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia : A Cambodian man was charged Thursday with injecting a woman with his own blood after she refused to reciprocate his love, a judge said. Lon Sopheaktra, 22, is being detained at a prison on suspicion he injected a syringe of his blood into the woman s rib cage and waist as she walked home from sch
Lima, Peru - Peruvian officials have closed the country s 240 blood banks after at least four people were infected with HIV from blood transfusions in a public hospital. Health Minister Carlos Vallejos said Thursday the blood banks will be inspected by a commission that will include officials from the
BALTIMORE - A federal judge sentenced a Berlin, Md. man with AIDS to 30 years in prison for child sexual abuse, agreeing with prosecutors that he had inflicted heinous and degrading abuse on an 11-year-old whose family was living with him. U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake also ordered Roderick Parks, 42, to register
NEW YORK - Infection rates for the virus that causes AIDS rose over the past six years among gay men under 30, reported city health officials. New diagnoses of the human immunodeficiency virus among gay men in that demographic increased by 33 percent during the past six years, from 374 in 2001 to 499 in 2006, said a re
Ana s Story (HarperCollins, 304 pages. $18.99), by Jenna Bush: It s tempting to scoff at the idea of presidential party girl Jenna Bush writing a book, but her first effort is surprisingly well done. Ana s Story is a short biography of a 17-year-old single mother in Latin America infected with HIV. Bush met Ana, whose
NEW YORK -- The Food and Drug Administration said Monday Pfizer Inc. informed health care professionals that its HIV drug Viracept contains some traces of a potential human carcinogen. The drug contains a presence of ethyl methanesulfonate, a process-related impurity.
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- AIDS drugs - some of them contaminated, diluted or faked - are being sold at flea markets and hairdressing salons in the face of growing shortages in clinics linked to Zimbabwe s economic crisis, the health ministry said. State media quoted Minister of Health David Parirenyatwa on Monday appealing t
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - The head of South Africa s National AIDS Council has voiced optimism that the country is on track to meet its five-year targets for preventing and treating the disease, despite the mistrust and mudslinging that has engulfed the Health Ministry. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngquka, who is also South Africa
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan : Seven more Kyrgyz toddlers and two adults have been diagnosed with HIV in an outbreak blamed on medical negligence, officials said Friday, raising the number of people infected to 22. The latest cases were found in the southern city of Osh during widespread blood testing following the outbreak in
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to lift restrictions on family planning aid to overseas health organizations that perform abortions or promote the procedure as a method of family planning. The vote came as the Senate passed by a 81-12 vote a $34 billion measure funding foreign aid and U.S. diplomacy. Companion l
BALI, Indonesia : In appearance, they couldn t be more different. Ririn, with her warm brown skin and plump face, simply glows. Young and sweet, just two months after giving birth to a baby girl. Edi stands out as the roughest in a circle of men on the fishing dock. Streaks of motor oil mix with sweat on his chest and
NAPLES, Fla. - Two men have been arrested for trafficking $1 million worth of prescription HIV drugs along Alligator Alley. A Florida Highway Patrol report says troopers stopped a speeding La Cubana bus near mile marker 82 that was on its way to Miami. Inside they found three bags filled with bottles of 20 different pr
NEW YORK - Jeremy Piven makes freaking out look good on Entourage, which shows his character, Ari Gold, decked out in the designer attire required of a high-strung, high-powered Hollywood agent. In real life, Piven is happy to loosen the tie. I m a pretty casual person, the 42-year-old actor told The Associated Press o
WASHINGTON - More than 100,000 condoms given away in a citywide campaign to reduce HIV and AIDS have been returned because of complaints that their paper packaging can be easily damaged and could make the condoms ineffective. A coalition of nonprofit groups distributing the condoms for the District of Columbia Health D
WASHINGTON - An experimental HIV drug from Merck & Co. Inc. should be quickly approved for use by patients running out of treatment options, federal advisers recommended Wednesday. The panel of outside experts agreed unanimously that available data support accelerated approval of Isentress, also known as raltegravi
LONDON - Software tycoon Bill Gates gave his backing to a new initiative unveiled by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to tackle killer diseases in developing countries, but donor countries offered no new funding. Gates is among high-profile supporters of the plan, which Brown said aims to ensure funds pledged to poo
LONDON - For some mentally ill people in poor countries, treatment means being chained to a tree. Others are kept in cages, or roam the countryside to fend for themselves. Though such cases are rare, they underline how mental health problems have often been sidelined in poor countries. On Tuesday, health officials call
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria on Monday formally transferred Libya s decades-old debt of $56.6 million (41.5 million euros) to an international relief fund for the victims of an HIV epidemic that infected more than 400 Libyan children. The agreement was part of a deal that secured freedom this summer for six Bulgarian med
CAPE TOWN, South Africa : President Thabo Mbeki hailed his embattled health minister as a heroine and likened critics to wild animals, causing new dismay among AIDS activists demanding the dismissal of a woman dubbed Dr. Beetroot for her promotion of food as a remedy for the disease. Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmo
WASHINGTON: A new HIV-fighting drug from Merck & Co. appears superior to options for patients who have stopped responding to available drugs, federal regulators said Friday. The Food and Drug Administration said Merck s studies of Isentress show the drug is safe and effective to treat HIV patients who have develope
BANGKOK, Thailand : A Buddhist temple in central Thailand that serves as a refuge for people dying of AIDS opened a free clinic Friday to dispense anti-retroviral drugs that slow the advance of the disease, the project s organizers said. Since 1992, thousands of Thais in the final stages of AIDS have traveled to Wat Ph
CINCINNATI - A federal appeals court Friday upheld the conviction of a doctor who helped sell powdered egg yolks that he and his partner claimed could cure and prevent a variety of diseases, including AIDS and Alzheimer s. But the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Dr. Mitchell Kaminski of Niles, Ill., to be res
CAPE TOWN, South Africa : An estimated half a million South Africans have received anti-AIDS medication, a top health official said Thursday, but he warned of an associated upsurge in resistance problems. The director-general of the health department, Thami Mseleku, said the number of people receiving antiretroviral dr
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Tourism officials have worked for years to make this beach town a gay-friendly destination. Now their biggest obstacle could be the mayor himself. Mayor Jim Naugle has made a string of recent comments that critics say were blatantly homophobic. He portrayed city park restrooms as popular gay sex
COPENHAGEN, Denmark : Denmark said Wednesday it will increase its development aid to Africa by 500 million kroner (67 million kroner; US$92 million) in 2008. The raise will bring Denmark s total aid to African countries next year to 14.4 billion kroner (1.9 billion kroner; US$2.6 billion).
SAN FRANCISCO - Black men in California are more likely to die in a homicide than men of any other racial or ethnic group, and their average life expectancy - 68.9 years - is the lowest in California, a new poll indicates. Despite improving access to health care among all Americans over the past decades, the disparitie
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Hundreds of AIDS activists packed the city s cathedral Wednesday to show support for a politician they believe was dismissed as deputy health minister because she spoke out about the AIDS crisis and other problems in the nation s health service. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, widely credited with
LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) -- Britain unveiled a statue of Nelson Mandela on Wednesday outside the houses of Parliament, honoring the South African anti-apartheid campaigner as one of the great leaders of his era. Mandela, 89, saluted all the South African heroes who joined him in the struggle against apartheid.
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea - Officials in Papua New Guinea are investigating claims by an HIV-positive woman that people with AIDS were buried alive by their relatives when they became too sick to care for, an official said Tuesday. Margaret Marabe, a local activist who reportedly spent five months working to r
LOS ANGELES -- Christy Turlington, who relies on yoga to keep her healthy and balanced, is among a group of celebrities hoping to bring those benefits to the world. Turlington, Russell Simmons and Ziggy Marley are participating in the Global Mala Project, an international effort that aims to use yoga-centered events to
OKLAHOMA CITY - Edward N. Brandt Jr., a former assistant secretary of health under President Reagan and a former executive dean at the University of Oklahoma, has died, university officials said Monday. Brandt, most known for overseeing and coordinating the nation s response to the first cases of what later became know
CINCINNATI - Infection rates for chlamydia in the Cincinnati area are increasing dramatically, and the percentage of those with gonorrhea in the region is one of the highest in the nation, according to federal health figures. Area health officials have noticed the trend and are calling for more testing and greater effo
LONDON - The mounds of flowers are long gone from the gates of Kensington Palace, but the presence of Princess Diana lingers. It has been 10 years since Diana s death in a Paris car crash, when many Britons were poleaxed by grief for a vivacious and troubled woman who was at once princess, style icon, charity worker an
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Asian countries need to promote voluntary HIV testing, develop programs to stop transmission of the virus and empower groups at risk of infection to stop the HIV epidemic from worsening, participants at a regional AIDS conference said Thursday. An estimated 5.4 million people in the region are
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA -- Tens of thousands of women forced to work as sex slaves in Asia are deeply vulnerable to contracting HIV and spreading the deadly virus across the continent, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday. If nothing is done to stop human trafficking in the region, there is just going to be an expl
GENEVA - A ballooning world population, intensive farming practices and changes in sexual behavior have provided a breeding ground for an unprecedented number of emerging diseases, the U.N. health agency said Thursday. AIDS and 38 other new pathogens are afflicting mankind that were unknown a generation ago, the
ALBANY, N.Y. - Rape suspects can be forced to undergo HIV testing under a new law signed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer. The measure gives rape victims the option of forcing an indicted suspect to be tested under a court order, with the results provided to the victim and the suspect. Supporters say that will let victims know qu
GENEVA - With an estimated 2.1 billion airline passengers roaming the planet last year alone, infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever before, the U.N. health agency said Thursday. The World Health Organization called on governments to follow its revised regulations for fighting dangerous health crises.
A study by South African scientists said Wednesday there was no evidence that foods such as garlic and beetroot were a substitute for AIDS medicine, disputing claims by the country s health minister. The report - confirming what experts worldwide have said - was likely to increase pressure on the minister, who has been
Growing political instability, stigmatization of those infected and conservative social attitudes are hampering the fight against the spread of HIV in Asia, a top regional AIDS official said Monday. Nearly a half-million people in Asia and the Pacific are infected with HIV every year and as many as 300,000 of those inf
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A 45-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to life in federal prison without parole for killing a Broward County sheriff s deputy and wounding another three years ago. Kenneth Wilk was found guilty in June of first-degree murder, second degree-attempted murder, possession of child pornography an
CAPE TOWN, South Africa : South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who faced international criticism for her stance on AIDS, is at the center of a growing political row over newspaper allegations that she was once dismissed from a hospital job for theft and that she was a heavy drinker. In a controve
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka : The United Nations announced Tuesday a new initiative to expand HIV prevention programs across Asia for intravenous drug users, whose use of shared needles is one of the major drivers of the disease in the region. In some countries in the region, IV drug users account for as much as 70 percent
BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese authorities have cracked down on groups fighting HIV and AIDS, threatening activists, closing their offices and ordering that a conference be canceled, a human rights organization and activists said Tuesday. The government s actions raise questions about whether it is really committed to fightin
PHILADELPHIA - A gay couple ordered to steer clear of each other after their release from prison because they are felons may resume contact, a federal judge ruled. The men are entitled to the same treatment as people in other kinds of family relationships, U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz wrote. Daniel Mangini and Steve
OLYMPIA, Wash. - A state audit is recommending that the Legislature eliminate the current process of credentialing registered counselors through the Department of Health, saying it creates the potential of unqualified people to practice in the state and leaves citizens at risk. The 155-page audit released Tuesday cover
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- The top U.S. health official praised South Africa s new national AIDS plan on Sunday, but sidestepped questions about the dismissal of a deputy minister seen as a driving force behind the country s program. South Africa s five-year plan, launched earlier this year, aims to reduce the
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka : Thousands of government officials and health care workers from across Asia are meeting in Sri Lanka for an international conference aimed at ensuring the AIDS epidemic does not worsen in the region. Opening the conference Sunday night, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse urged Asia s government
Gov. Bill Richardson ordered the state Health Department on Friday to resume planning of a medical marijuana program despite the agency s worries about possible federal prosecution. However, the governor stopped short of committing to implement a state-licensed production and distribution system for the drug if the pot
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - South African President Thabo Mbeki - who has long been accused of playing down the AIDS epidemic - hit back Friday at criticism of his government s policy and his firing of the popular deputy health minister. In his weekly column, Mbeki said that he would not be pressured by the ill-intentio
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A former U.N. envoy accused South Africa s leader of presiding over an AIDS apocalypse, saying Wednesday that President Thabo Mbeki s dismissal of the country s widely praised deputy health minister last week crushed a glimmer of hope in the fight against the epidemic. Stephen Lewis,
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A Dutch Catholic bishop who once said the hungry were entitled to steal bread and advocated condom use to prevent AIDS has made headlines again, this time by saying God should be called Allah. Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn t we all say that from now on we will call God A
WASHINGTON - Drug maker Abbott Laboratories has warned doctors to be extra cautious when using its HIV fighting drug Kaletra in children, according to a letter posted Tuesday to a government Web site. Abbott reminded health care providers that children should receive less than a 5 milliliter dose of its Kaletra o
LOS ANGELES - The family of a 23-year-old AIDS patient who died in custody at an immigration detention center in San Pedro believes Victor Arrelano was improperly denied vital medical treatment. The family of Arrelano, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico , will file a wrongful death claim against the U.S. government.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- President Thabo Mbeki fired a deputy health minister lauded for revitalizing South Africa s campaign against AIDS because she failed to work as part of a collective, according to a dismissal letter released Saturday. Mbeki dismissed Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge on Wednesday after reports
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- The dismissed deputy health minister credited with revamping South Africa s beleaguered campaign against AIDS expressed fears Friday that her work would now be undone. Speaking for the first time since she was fired late Wednesday, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge said she was ousted for att
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - President Thabo Mbeki fired his deputy health minister, one of the country s most respected female politicians, sparking anger Thursday among AIDS activists. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was credited with revamping a beleaguered campaign against AIDS, earning the respect of activists working a
Two AIDS doctors made a house call recently to the set of TV s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The plot line was the suggestion that HIV doesn t cause AIDS -- a fringe theory promoted on the Internet and by certain African leaders. But the two physicians weren t there to doctor the script. They just wanted to ma
SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is giving the subjects of news stories a way to comment on articles written about them. The online search leader launched an experimental feature this week on its Google News site in the U.S. that allows any person mentioned in a news story that s linked on that site to submit a written resp
TRIPOLI, Libya - The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has acknowledged that the Bulgarian medical workers who were jailed on charges of infecting children with HIV were tortured during captivity, Al-Jazeera TV said on its Web site Thursday. The doctor and five nurses were released last month and have maintained tha
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea - The number of HIV cases in Papua New Guinea may not be as high as previously feared, but the disease is still spreading rapidly in rural areas, the health minister said Thursday. New data compiled by local officials with help from overseas aid organizations put the adult per capita infe
BRUSSELS -- The European Commission on Tuesday put on hold Roche Holding AG s license to sell an HIV drug that was recalled in June after contaminated batches were found. Viracept , an antiretroviral agent for use in HIV therapy, was withdrawn after the Swiss pharmaceutical company discovered contamination with higher-
WASHINGTON - The government approved a novel drug Monday to help patients with the AIDS virus who are running out of options, while acknowledging lingering questions about the pills long-term effects. Pfizer Inc. s Selzentry is the first anti-AIDS drug that works by blocking a crucial doorway, called the CCR5 receptor,
BOZEMAN - It s been nearly a year since state health officials, under a federal mandate, began keeping data on HIV and AIDS patients by name, rather than assigning a code number; but the privacy of patients continues to be preserved, a state official says. Montana had an elaborate system to shield the identities of the
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Dominican police shut down the laboratory of a prominent psychiatrist and former Santo Domingo mayor who claims he cured more than 50 people of AIDS by injecting them with an unknown substance, prosecutors said Thursday. Police raided the lab of Jose Ramon Baez Acosta on Wednesda
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The HIV infection rate is dropping among young, pregnant women in South Africa but it is on the rise for the country s older women, according to a government study released Thursday. The 2006 survey showed the rate of infection for the virus that causes AIDS fell among pregnant women under
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria s government said Thursday it wants to divert $57 million owed by Libya to an international humanitarian fund for the African country following the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor imprisoned for allegedly infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus.
BEIJING -- One year before the start of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government has failed to live up to promises of greater human rights and has instead clamped down on domestic activists and journalists, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. China , which has long been criticized for its human rights record, has cra
NEW DELHI - The trafficking of women to work as prostitutes is likely a key factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS across South Asia, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association . The study, which looked at Nepali women who had been trafficked into the sex trade in
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The University of Maryland is getting a $15 million grant to develop a vaccine to protect against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, state officials announced Tuesday. The five-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been awarded to the University of Maryland School of Medicine s Inst
Trenton, N.J. (AP) -- Intravenous drug users will be able to get clean needles in four New Jersey cities under an experimental program approved Tuesday to try to slow the spread of HIV and AIDS. The needle exchange pilot program approved for Atlantic City, Camden, Newark and Paterson will end New Jersey s status as the
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Four top Kyrgyz doctors were fired Monday for accidentally infecting 10 children and one adult with the virus that causes AIDS, the Republican AIDS Association said. Health Minister Tuygunaaly Abdraimov fired the head of the southern Osh region s children s hospital, the regional epidemic control
WASHINGTON - President Bush awarded 30 science and technology medals Friday for breakthroughs in such fields as astrophysics, laser technology, climatology and tissue engineering. The National Science Foundation administers the Medal of Science, which was established by Congress in 1959. The Medal of Technology was est
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Concertgoers at a festival in the Dutch city of Lichtenvoorde were treated to an unusual sight Friday: A pink hot air balloon 127 feet high, shaped exactly like a condom, drifting lazily across the sky. The balloon, with the words Vrij Veilig -- Dutch for Safe Sex -- was launched by the publi
BEIJING - China s Health Ministry has told all hotels and public bathing facilities to provide condoms as part of a campaign to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS, a state-run newspaper reported on Friday. The regulation said condoms should be provided, or machines selling them made available and materials supplied on AI
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A summer basketball camp turned away a 10-year-old boy because he has the virus that causes AIDS, according to a lawsuit filed by the boy s mother. The head of the Deer Mountain Day Camp s weeklong basketball program initially told the mother her HIV-positive son would be welcome for a 2004 session
TRIPOLI, LIBYA - France and Libya signed cooperation agreements Wednesday in areas such as defense, health, counterterrorism and civilian nuclear power as French President Nicolas Sarkozy met here with strongman Col. Moammar Kadafi after the release of six foreign medical workers. The six had been held for more tha
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria on Thursday rejected Libyan protests over the presidential pardons it gave six medical workers freed earlier this week from life imprisonment in the Arab country. There are no legal problems with the status of the medics that returned from Libya, Prosecutor General Boris Velchev told the stat
LOS ANGELES - Federal agents raided 10 marijuana clinics Wednesday, the same day city leaders introduced a measure calling for an end to the crackdown on the dispensaries allowed under state law. The bust netted five arrests, large quantities of marijuana and cash, and was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration s sec
NEW YORK - While volunteers passed out cups of Jell-O to the lunch crowd at a senior center, another group was distributing something that didn t quite fit amid the card games and daily gossip: condoms. You re giving out condoms, 82-year-old Rose Crescenzo asked with a wistful smile, but who s going to give us a guy?
FRISCO, Texas - A suburban Dallas man accused of having unprotected sex while aware that he is HIV positive has been charged with four counts of aggravated assault. Philippe Padieu, 51, of Frisco, is accused of having sex with four women, at least one of whom has tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, sai
CAIRO, Egypt - The release of six foreign medics raised expectations in Libya for a breakthrough in relations with the West after the European Union promised stepped up economic and political cooperation with Moammar Gadhafi s regime. Although questions remained about the concessions made during secretive negotiations,
TRIPOLI, Libya - The families of the children infected with the AIDS virus in a Libyan hospital voiced outrage Wednesday at the pardon and release of six medics who were flown home to Bulgaria a day earlier. We deeply condemn and are deeply disappointed at the absurdity and disrespect shown by the Bulgarian presidentia
Former NBA star Magic Johnson leads the list of people named Tuesday as recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum s annual Freedom Awards. Also named were historian John Hope Franklin and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. The museum, on the site where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, will hand out
A timeline of events in the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya on charges of infecting more than 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS. -- Feb. 9, 1999: Libyan authorities detain 23 Bulgarian medics, nurses and doctors in the port city of Benghazi. -- March 7,
SYDNEY, Australia - HIV-infected babies given antiretroviral drugs in the first weeks of life were four times more likely to survive than those left untreated, raising hopes that more young lives can be saved, new research suggests. Drugs given to infected infants in South Africa - even th
SYDNEY, Australia - Discrimination and a lack of access to health services have sparked an alarming rise in the rate of new HIV infections among men who have sex with men in developing countries, a leading American AIDS research group said Tuesday. Studies have found that infection rates are growing among men who have
SYDNEY, Australia - A U.S. health expert urged governments worldwide Tuesday to endorse circumcision to slow the spread of HIV, saying men without the procedure have a greater risk of contracting the virus from infected female partners. Experts at an AIDS conference in Sydney also warned that HIV infection rates were r
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were pardoned by President Georgi Parvanov upon their arrival in Sofia on Tuesday after spending 8 1/2 years in prison in Libya . The medics, who were sentenced to life in prison for allegedly contaminating children with the AIDS virus, arrived on board a
PARIS - Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to life in prison in Libya for allegedly contaminating children with the AIDS virus left Tripoli Tuesday on board a plane with the French president s wife, France s presidential palace said. The delegation, which had arrived in Tripoli on Sunday to negoti
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Six medics sentenced to life in prison in Libya for allegedly infecting children with HIV came home to Bulgaria on Tuesday and were greeted with tears and hugs -- and a presidential pardon that allowed them to walk free after 8 1/2 years behind bars. The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doc
Abbott Laboratories Inc. dropped a lawsuit that alleged a cyber-attack against the company s Web site by a French AIDS activist group. The pharmaceutical and medical products maker filed the lawsuit in May against Act Up-Paris in a Paris criminal court. The company claimed the organization disrupted the company s Web
PARIS - President Nicolas Sarkozy, his wife and EU officials pressed for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to life in prison in Libya for allegedly infecting children with AIDS, the president s office said Monday. A delegation including France s first lady Cecilia Sarkozy and the E
TRENTON, N.J. - Merck & Co. s second-quarter profit jumped 12 percent as revenues from six new medicines and strong growth of key older ones offset losses to generic competition. The drugmaker on Monday raised its profit forecast, boosting its shares, but took another charge for its massive Vioxx litigation. Whiteh
PARIS - France s first lady was in Libya on Monday for a second day of secretive talks to try to secure the repatriation of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor imprisoned for allegedly infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus. Cecilia Sarkozy, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, arrived in Tri
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Access to life-extending HIV/AIDS drugs in developing countries has improved during the past three years, but new infections still dramatically outpace efforts to bring treatment to patients, health officials said Monday. Three years ago, fewer than 300,000 people in the developing world were
LUSAKA, Zambia - Former President Bill Clinton said Saturday that cheap anti-AIDS drugs were no magic bullet for ending the epidemic ravaging Africa, and that the continent needs better overall health care. Affordable medicine will soon be not much of an issue anywhere, Clinton said during a one-day visit to the southe
SYDNEY, Australia - The world will not be able to celebrate advances in HIV diagnosis and treatment until the United Nations goal of universal access to drugs is reached, leading international AIDS researchers said at a conference Sunday. We are dealing with a preventable disease and 11,000 people are contracting HIV/A
SYDNEY - The world will not be able to celebrate enormous advances in HIV diagnosis and treatment until the United Nations long-term goal of universal access to drugs and other prevention measures is reached, leading international AIDS researchers said Sunday. We are dealing with a preventable disease and 11,000 people
It s time the world stopped talking about a cure for AIDS. As bleak it this sounds, this is the advice from a top international authority on the invasive disease, Dr Anthony Fauci, who says the answer to the global epidemic will come - but it will come from a new arena entirely. This is a hugely exciting time in the wo
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia will increase the amount of money it spends on fighting AIDS by 75 percent over the next three years, with the major focus on hardest-hit Papua province, the welfare minister said. Indonesia has one of Asia s fastest growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections out of 235 million peop
GENEVA - Rwanda has told the World Trade Organization it will invoke a provision allowing it to buy cheap, generic drugs to fight AIDS - the first time a country has declared that it will import medication manufactured under a so-called compulsory license. The African country said it expects over the next two years to
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria pressed Wednesday for the repatriation of five of its nurses and a Palestinian doctor jailed in Libya after their death sentences were commuted to life in prison. For us, the case will be closed only after the medics return to Bulgarian soil, and we are working for it to happen as soon as pos
RALEIGH, N.C. - Military and civilian authorities have charged an HIV-positive soldier with assault with a deadly weapon, accusing him of having unprotected sex with a partner he didn t tell about the infection. Military and civilian prosecutors haven t decided who will prosecute the case against Pfc. Johnny Lamar Dalt
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Nelson Mandela gave the world a present for his 89th birthday Wednesday, joining other Nobel peace laureates, politicians and development experts in forming a council of elders dedicated to finding new ways to foster peace and resolve global crises, and to supporting the next generation of
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited HIV-positive Dominican children in a hospital funded by his foundation for an up-close look at how AIDS can ravage its smallest victims. Tuesday s visit was the first stop on an eight-day global tour of projects of the Clinton Foundation, wh
BEIJING - China has taken significant steps to fight HIV and AIDS, but still must reach out to more patients in the vast country and overcome a lack of cooperation from some government officials, a U.N. AIDS official said Tuesday. There are an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV in China, according to the most rec
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico s AIDS treatment program, hit by drug shortages in recent months, will be aggressively revamped to ensure patients in the U.S. territory receive medication without delays, the governor announced Tuesday. The program aims to provide anti-retroviral drug therapy for thousands of HIV/AI
TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libya on Tuesday dropped death sentences against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of children with HIV, commuting their punishments to life in prison, the foreign minister said. The ruling came after families of the children each received $1 million, accordi
TRIPOLI, Libya - Relatives of the Libyan HIV-infected children have agreed to drop their demand that five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor be executed, the advocate for the families said Tuesday. The six medical workers deny having infected more than 400 children and say their confessions were extracted under
TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya s highest judicial authority on Monday postponed a decision in the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor facing death sentences on charges of infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus. The Supreme Judiciary Council will review the case Tuesday and decide whether to appro
TRIPOLI, Libya - Several eastern European countries would forgive Libyan debt dating back to the Cold War under a proposal to compensate families whose children were allegedly infected with the AIDS virus by five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, a victims advocate said Saturday. The six foreign medics hav
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Nelson Mandela celebrates his 89th birthday Wednesday, launching a humanitarian campaign along with former President Jimmy Carter, ex-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other elders of the global village. The initiative stems from an idea by British entrepreneur Richard Branson and music
PARIS - A presidential aide who visited Libya with the French first lady expressed optimism Friday about the fate of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death there for allegedly infecting children with HIV. Cecilia Sarkozy, wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, met with Col. Moammar Ghadafi and the families of the childre
The following excerpt from Walt Whitman s The Dresser is being engraved on a granite wall around the entrance to the Dupont Circle Metro station: --- Thus in silence, in dreams projections; Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals; The hurt and the wounded I pacify with soothing hand, I sit by the
WASHINGTON - Fewer high school students are having sex these days, and more are using condoms. The teen birth rate has hit a record low. More young people are finishing high school, too, and more little kids are being read to, according to the latest government snapshot on the well-being of the nation s children. It s
WASHINGTON - A public art project celebrating individuals who have worked to ease the suffering of people living with HIV and AIDS is taking shape in the heart of Washington s gay community. An excerpt from The Dresser, a Walt Whitman poem about tending to soldiers wounded in battle, is being carved in the granite wall
Providence, R.I. -- A pharmaceutical company owner accused of illegally marketing and distributing steroids then paying doctors to write medically unnecessary prescriptions will plead guilty, his attorney said Thursday. Daniel McGlone, who owns New Jersey-based American Pharmaceutical Group, agreed to plead guilty to 5
WASHINGTON - The United States took another step in restoring normal diplomatic relations with Libya on Wednesday when President Bush nominated a U.S. ambassador to the once-outcast nation. The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, where some lawmakers are pushing the administration to make Libya do more to accou
WASHINGTON -- Government regulators said Wednesday they will ask a group of experts to review a new HIV drug from Merck and Co. in September. On Sept. 5, the Food and Drug Administration s panel of antiviral drug experts plan to assess the safety and efficacy of Merck s treatment Isentress, according to documents poste
SOFIA, Bulgaria - The five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to die in Libya for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with HIV set out for the North African country nearly a decade ago with hopes of bettering their lives. Lured by promises of higher paying jobs, they were sent through a Bulgarian recruitment agency to al-
BEIJING - Six people were jailed for organizing illegal blood sales in southern China, and blood collection centers in two other provinces were fined or shut down after they failed to prescreen donors, newspapers reported Wednesday. To safeguard against further infractions, the Ministry of Health ordered all blood coll
A timeline of events in the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly infecting more than 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS. -- Feb. 9, 1999: Libyan authorities detain 23 Bulgarian medics, nurses and doctors in the port city of Benghazi. -- March 7,
TRIPOLI, Libya - A settlement has been reached to resolve the crisis over five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly infecting more than 400 children with the AIDS virus, a foundation headed by the Libyan leader s son said Tuesday. Foundation spokesman Salah Abdessalem did
TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting more than 400 children with the AIDS virus. But the verdict may not be the final word in the case. Libya s Supreme Judicial Council, which is headed by the minister of
WASHINGTON -- President Bush s most recent surgeon general accused the administration Tuesday of muzzling him for political reasons on hot-button health issues such as emergency contraception and abstinence-only education. Dr. Richard Carmona, the nation s 17th surgeon general, told lawmakers that all surgeons general
Concord, N.H. (AP) - Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday that people who want to legalize marijuana for medical purposes really just want to make the drug available to everyone. I believe the effort to try and make marijuana available for medical uses is really a way to legalize it. There s no reason for it
SOFIA, Bulgaria - A Bulgarian lawyer for the six medics accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV voiced fears Tuesday that the supreme court in Tripoli will uphold their death sentences. Harry Haralambiev said any other outcome in the ruling, expected Wednesday, would require extraordinary courage by the judges. T
OKLAHOMA CITY - Two University of Oklahoma scientists are starting research that they hope will someday lead to the development of a vaccine to combat the HIV virus, which causes AIDS. The research to be performed by Mark Lang, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the OU Health Sciences Center, and
BOSTON - Switzerland-based Roche on Monday licensed rights to gene-silencing technology in a potential $1 billion deal that marks the second recent move by a large drug maker to develop novel disease treatments based on Nobel Prize-winning research. Roche is licensing technology in the emerging field of RNA interferenc
BALTIMORE - The Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has received a $43 million federal grant to help fight AIDS in Nigeria . The money from the President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief will be used to treat 48,000 patients in Nigeria and to expand HIV testing and counseling to
GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Guyana announced Friday it was drafting regulations for alternative healers who promise cures for cancer, AIDS and other diseases with potions and herbs found in the Amazon. The growing ranks of herbalists peddling their cures nightly on TV have raised safety concerns for the South American country
NEW DELHI - India has roughly 2.5 million people infected with HIV, less than half the number of cases that previous studies estimated, the health minister and international AIDS experts said Friday. The drastically reduced numbers come from expanded surveys and an improved methodology, providing a far more accurate po
Seattle -- This fall, sober public servants will convene meetings across Washington state to answer a pressing question: How much marijuana constitutes a two-month supply? What may seem like an odd question for straight-laced government types to tackle is a serious attempt to shore up the state s medical marijuana law,
SAO PAULO, Brazil - The Brazilian government and Abbott Laboratories have agreed to reduce the price of an anti-AIDS drug by nearly 30 percent this year, and even more next year, the Health Ministry and the company said. Wednesday s agreement with the U.S.-based company lowers the price of each
DENVER - In response to a lawsuit brought by a man suffering from AIDS, a judge has temporarily blocked a state rule limiting the number of medical-marijuana patients that caregivers are allowed to oversee. This (policy) was done without public input and appears to be arbitrary and very unfair to the plaintiff, Chief D
YANGON, Myanmar - Phyu Phyu Thin, an AIDS activist and opposition party member in Myanmar who was taken into custody by police more than a month ago, has been freed from detention, she said Monday. The 36-year-old woman is a member of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi s National League for Democracy, Myanmar s main
GENEVA - Halfway through a 15-year global development plan, millions of people are being lifted out of dire poverty and millions of children are going to school, but the world is failing to sufficiently cut hunger, maternal mortality and infant death rates, the United Nations said Monday. Progress in reaching the Mille
LONDON - Princes William and Harry took to the stage at London s Wembley Stadium on Sunday at a star-studded pop concert they planned themselves in honor of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 46th birthday. The princes greeted an estimated 70,000 fans at the venue - and millions more watching the
SANTA FE, New Mexico - New Mexico has a new medical marijuana law with a twist: It requires the state to grow its own. The law, effective Sunday, not only protects medical marijuana users from prosecution - as 11 other states do - but requires New Mexico to oversee a production and distribution system for the drug.
LUCKNOW, India - Two doctors in northern India were suspended after refusing to deliver the baby of an HIV-positive woman, forcing her husband to handle the delivery, officials said Saturday. Doctors Urmila Kalra and Abhilasha Gupta of the gynecology department at Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College in the north Indian cit
WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. - Richelle Starnes cell phone alarm beeps to interrupt her three times a day. It s her reminder: Take the medication. Richelle is 26, a red-headed forward on the semi-pro Orlando Falcons soccer team, and the ring is an interruption she s used to, a reminder she has HIV. Now, however, her supply of
SEATTLE - Sixty million more people around the world could be infected with HIV by 2015 if prevention programs aren t scaled up and spread out, according to a group of public health experts convened by the Gates and Kaiser foundations. We should be wining in HIV prevention, Jennifer Kates, vice president and director o
NEW DELHI - India needs a high-profile campaigner to promote safe sex in its fight against AIDS, as Thailand had in the 1990s with a senator who became known as Mr. Condom, a top official was quoted as saying Friday. Mechai Viravaidya, a former Cabinet minister in Thailand, emerged as an AIDS-fighting crusader in the
LUCKNOW, India - A hospital in north India is investigating a complaint made by an HIV-positive woman that her husband was forced to deliver her baby after doctors refused to help, a senior hospital official said Friday. We have ordered an inquiry into the incident. We have spoken to the lady concerned and we have form
BAMAKO, Mali - Laura Bush wrapped up a tour of Africa on Friday by visiting a school and sitting in on a math class in Mali, saying she was impressed by education efforts in the country. The larger focus of the first lady s tour this week was AIDS, and the former schoolteacher also visited
WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A historically diverse field of Democratic presidential candidates - a woman, a black, an Hispanic and five whites - denounced an hours-old Supreme Court affirmative action ruling Thursday night and said the nation s slow march to racial unity is far from over. We have made enormous progress, but th
ATLANTA (AP) - An emergency room doctor who was suspended after being arrested for trying to have sex with a 15-year-old boy he met over the Internet pleaded guilty Thursday to that charge and to producing child pornography. Adam Wayne Lebowitz, 48, of DeKalb County, was arrested Nov. 2 at the boy s home in Coweta Coun
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats are cutting President Bush s marquee foreign aid program to funnel more money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa and elsewhere. The Senate Appropriations Committee is slated Thursday to cut Bush $3 billion request for the Millennium Challenge Corporation to $1.4 billion
LUSAKA, Angola (AP) - First lady Laura Bush promoted the role of faith-based organizations in combating disease in Africa as she launched an anti-malaria campaign in Zambia on Thursday. Religious institutions bring a personal healing touch to the fight against AIDS, Mrs. Bush said, adding that Zambian health caregiver
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats are cutting President Bush s marquee foreign aid program to help emerging democracies so that they can funnel more money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa and elsewhere. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday cut Bush $3 billion request for the Millennium Chal
LOS ANGELES - Actor-director Paul Glaser, former co-star of Starsky & Hutch, has filed for divorce from his wife. Glaser cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for ending his 10-year marriage to Tracy Barone Glaser, according to court papers filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He was seeking joint
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. - Drug maker Merck & Co. said Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration will review its marketing application for its HIV drug candidate Isentress by mid-October. The agency granted the application priority status, meaning the FDA will review the application in six months
MAPUTO, Mozambique - First lady Laura Bush donned a white face mask Wednesday to show the benefits of spraying homes with insecticide to combat malaria, one of Africa s worst killers. Defeating this epidemic is an urgent calling - especially because malaria is treatable and preventable. ... Already, we re seeing signs
MADISON, Wis. -- Federal regulators are reviewing a complaint by a watchdog group accusing University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists of mistreating primates who died after experimentation. Necropsy reports obtained by Stop Animal Exploitation Now show a 4-year-old macaque monkey that died in 2005 had an unspecified fo
YANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar s military regime has released dozens of activists detained last month after marching in processions to pray for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition confirmed Thursday. At least 47 of the 52 who were arrested in separate incidents in May were freed Wednesday n
ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) -- A court convicted 21 medical workers Wednesday for their roles in infecting scores of children with the virus that causes AIDS in a case that has outraged Kazakhstan. The Shymkent district court gave suspended sentences to five senior health officials, including the district s chief medical o
MAPUTO, Mozambique - U.S. First Lady Laura Bush arrived in Mozambique Wednesday on the second leg of a four-nation Africa tour that focuses on how the United States is helping to fight AIDS and malaria, two of the deadliest diseases on the poverty-stricken continent. Laura Bush, accompanied by her daughter Jenna, i
ABUJA, Nigeria - A court denied a request Tuesday by Pfizer Inc. to throw out a Nigerian government lawsuit seeking US$7 billion in damages over allegations the company conducted a drug experiment that led to deaths and disabilities among children more than a decade ago Lawyers for the world s largest drug maker ha
DAKAR, Senegal - First Lady Laura Bush started a four-nation Africa tour Monday that is expected to focus on how the U.S. can help fight AIDS on a continent where many countries struggle to even provide basic health care. Mrs. Bush, accompanied by her daughter Jenna, is scheduled to visit areas that have benefited from
DAKAR, Senegal - U.S. first lady Laura Bush picked vegetables and handed out mosquito nets in this West African capital Tuesday to emphasize that fighting AIDS in Africa also means tackling some of the continent s even more widespread afflictions - malnutrition and malaria. It s often overlooked that one of the essenti
OLYMPIA, Wash. - The state Department of Health says as many as 1,700 Washington residents may be HIV-positive without knowing it. State Health Officer Dr. Maxine Hayes says the department recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 be tested at least once for HIV and annually if that person is in an identif
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that ordinary taxpayers cannot challenge a White House initiative that helps religious charities get a share of federal money. The 5-4 decision blocks a lawsuit by a group of atheists and agnostics against eight Bush administration officials including the head of the White House Office of
CHICAGO -- Never mind that Chicago hosted the 2006 International Gay Games. Or that it has the country s first government-recognized gay neighborhood. Or that up to 400,000 people attend the city s Gay Pride Parade each year. When most people think of gay meccas, Chicago -- home of the Blues Brothers, legendary playgro
DENVER - A Denver man who is registered to use marijuana for medical reasons has filed a lawsuit challenging a limit on how many people medical marijuana providers can serve. AIDS patient Damien LaGoy, 47, filed his lawsuit Friday in Denver District Court against the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Los Angeles -- A woman who claims her ex-husband infected her with the AIDS virus on their honeymoon must allow his lawyers to see her medical records, a judge ruled Friday. The woman, identified in court only as Bridget B., waived state privacy protection of her medical history when she sued for fraud in 2002, Los Ang
Regina King, Howard Hesseman and Jimmy Jean-Louis of NBC s Heroes are among a group of performers getting HIV tests next week to raise awareness of the spread of the virus in black communities. They will be screened Monday in front of cameras at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) headquarters in Los Angeles as part of a new
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A black Baptist leader is urging black churches to set goals for reducing by 25 percent the rate of black divorce, teen pregnancy, illiteracy, murder and HIV infection by 2012, and increasing the adoption of black foster children. The goals are part of the ambitious Save the Family Now initiative that
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey on Thursday moved to require both pregnant women and some newborns to be tested for HIV. The Assembly voted 74-5 and the Senate 37-0 to approve the bill. The bill now goes to Gov. Jon S. Corzine for his consideration. It requires all pregnant women be tested twice for HIV, once early and once
EDITOR S NOTE - One in an occasional series of stories on the challenges facing children in Africa. CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Little Natasha is a giggling, wriggling bundle of mischief. She adores Barney the Dinosaur, claps along to her favorite songs, and throws a typical 3-year-old s temper tantrums. Natasha, who
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria s foreign minister said Friday that negotiations were taking place with the families of Libyan children with HIV, but he cautioned that a deal to allow the release of six medics convicted of infecting them was far from being reached. Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin told Bulgarian National TV t
Peter Godwin s new book, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun (Little, Brown, 346 pages, $24.99), is part personal memoir, part family history and part examination of a country s slide into disaster. If there s any theme that unites these parts, it s that of frailty -- human and national. There s the physical frailty of Godwi
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Bulgaria s prime minister said Thursday there were good signals about the fate of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya on charges they infected children with HIV, but cautioned that hopes for their release had been dashed before. Proceedings in the latest appeal by the nurses and a
LONDON - More than 130,000 lives could be saved if the world implements a two-year strategy to stop drug-resistant tuberculosis, the World Health Organization and partners said. Officials are concerned that the current epidemic - where most people catch curable strains of the disease - might evolve into a drug-resistan
WASHINGTON, -- A computerized pill box that patients can keep at home to dole out their drugs on schedule and in the correct doses received federal approval Thursday. The Electronic Medication Management Assistant - EMMA - is for home use but only under the supervision of a health-care provider, the Food and Drug Admin
LONDON - Imagine looking at Leonardo da Vinci s heart sketch while listening to Hank Williams Your Cheatin Heart, or viewing a sculpture of an HIV-positive woman in a cast made from wax laced with the retroviral drugs she took to stay alive. This is London s newest museum, where science, medicine and art meet. Artif
CANBERRA, Australia - Prime Minister John Howard stood firm against gay marriage Thursday as an opinion poll revealed that 71 percent of Australians believe that same-sex partners should have the same legal rights as common-law heterosexual couples. We are not in favor of discrimination, but of course our views on the
NEW YORK - Drug developer Pfizer Inc. said Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration asked the company for more information on its HIV treatment candidate maraviroc, which is under regulatory review. A Pfizer spokesman said the company is working to answer additional questions the FDA
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. humanitarian coordinator warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in Myanmar unless efforts are stepped up to tackle acute poverty, AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. I think there is definitely a need for scaling up the humanitarian response, Charles Petrie, who also heads the U.N. Development Pr
HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut s governor, a cancer survivor, vetoed a bill that would have allowed people with certain serious illnesses to use marijuana, saying it was fraught with problems and sent a mixed message to children. Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Tuesday that she struggled with the decision. I am not unfamiliar wi
TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya s Supreme Court said Wednesday it would rule July 11 on the appeal of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death on charges of infecting about 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus. The court announced the date after final arguments from lawyers of the nurses and the fami
PHILADELPHIA - Richard Gere will receive the 2007 Marian Anderson Award for his advocacy efforts on behalf of independence for Tibet and better care for HIV/AIDS patients. His accomplishments as an actor are only surpassed by his accomplishments as a humanitarian and as an advocate for human rights issues around the wo
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Nearly half the residents of Indonesia s remote Papua province have never heard of HIV, despite the virus s prevalence there being 15 times the national average, new internationally funded research shows. The lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is a major contri
SAN FRANCISCO - The influential American Academy of Pediatrics is reviewing its neutral stance on circumcision following recent studies showing the procedure may have reduced HIV infection rates in African men. The organization, which represents 60,000 pediatricians and helps set pediatric policy for the larger
ST. LOUIS - Only a few years ago, the subject of HIV-AIDS would have been off the table within the nation s largest black religious organization. But AIDS awareness and prevention finally has its place on the agenda of The National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. It s among the topics that will be tackled during the group
PITTSBURGH - A pharmacist filed up to $7 million worth of false claims for HIV/AIDS medications and conspired to fill bogus painkiller prescriptions over the Internet. Anthony A. Grejda, 45, of McMurray, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to charges of health care fraud, conspiracy and illegally distributing the pa
SAN FRANCISCO, -- On the eighth day of her son s life, Julia Query welcomed friends and family to celebrate his birth and honor their Jewish heritage. But there was no crying, no scalpel, no blood, no mohel - the person who traditionally performs ritual circumcisions in the Jewish faith. In fact, Elijah Rose s bris di
NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. - Abbott Laboratories Inc. has sued a French AIDS group for staging what the pharmaceutical and medical products maker says was a cyber attack against its Web site in April. A judge has scheduled an Oct. 3 hearing in the lawsuit against Act Up-Paris, which was filed in a Paris criminal court on May
BEIJING - The number of reported HIV carriers and people with full-blown AIDS has risen to 41 in Tibet Autonomous Region, compared to 30 cases last year, state media reported Sunday. HIV/AIDS infections have been found in urban and rural areas and more men than women have been infected, Xinhua News Agency quoted Yuzhan
KIEV, Ukraine - Elton John sang for tens of thousands of Ukrainians at a charity concert in Kiev s main square in a bid to raise money and increase awareness of the rapidly growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in this ex-Soviet republic. The concert, held late Saturday, was the British singer s first performance in Ukraine and pa
BEIJING - China s Health Ministry announced strengthened controls Thursday to ensure the safety of the blood supply, vowing to crack down on illegal collections ten years after the country banned blood sales. The announcement come days after state media reported the sale of fake blood protein to hospitals and pharmacie
CARSON CITY, Nev. - Gov. Jim Gibbons signed into law Wednesday the state s major budget bills, authorizing the spending of a record $7 billion for Nevada s government over the next two years. The bills signed by Gibbons included numerous fee increases, mainly affecting interest groups willing to accept them, but no new
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A 45-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a Broward Sheriff s Office deputy and wounding another, a federal jury ruled Wednesday. Kenneth Wilk, 45, was found guilty of first-degree murder, second degree-attempted murder, child pornography and obstruction of justice
ALBANY, N.Y. - Rape suspects would be forced to undergo HIV testing under a bill quietly making its way into law despite some impassioned opposition by gay rights advocates. The bill, which has strong support in the Legislature, would give rape victims the option of forcing a suspect to be tested under a court order, w
UNITED NATIONS - The Vatican s U.N. observer presented an award for promoting peace and development to the president of the U.N. General Assembly, a pioneering Arab lawyer and women s rights advocate who publicly supported contraception in the fight against AIDS. Archbishop Celestino Migliore said Sheikha Haya Rashed A
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - A man who spent five years in jail for exposing sexual partners to HIV was sentenced to life in prison for knowingly exposing another woman to the virus. Sean L. Sykes, 33, was sentenced Tuesday. He was found guilty in May of having unprotected sex with a St. Joseph woman without telling her he was HI
TRENTON, N.J. -- Some intravenous drug abusers who live in New Jersey could begin getting clean needles before summer s end as the state s first needle exchange programs get under way. The state Health Department is reviewing criteria from five cities that applied to be part of a pilot needle exchange. A decision on al
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas -- Trying to attract investment to Africa, a former Ghanaian ambassador to the U.S. and officials at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock signed a three-year agreement Tuesday to create a center to connect African ambassadors with investment firms. An African economic renaissance from mineral
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South African hospitals - already struggling to cope with an AIDS crisis - have been hardest hit by a nationwide strike for more pay, but even AIDS activists support the protesting workers. About 1 million teachers, nurses and other civil servants have been on strike since June 1. The publ
WASHINGTON - A federal agency s review of the billion-dollar body parts industry calls for more inspections, but experts in the field say it ignores the problems that led to two recent scares involving human tissue destined for transplant. An internal task force report Tuesday recommends the Food and Drug Administratio
WASHINGTON - Federal regulators say they have dramatically boosted inspections of companies that harvest cadaver body parts for transplant, acknowledging weaknesses in government oversight of the multibillion-dollar human tissue industry that last year was rocked by scandal. Releasing a task force report Tuesday, the U
BEIJING - The wife of a Chinese dissident was detained at the airport by security agents Monday and barred from leaving the country to attend a human rights meeting in Switzerland , the activist said. Hu Jia, who like most dissidents is under constant surveillance, has been largely confined to his home since last month
WASHINGTON -- The antipoverty campaign of U2 frontman Bono is promoting a $30 million effort to pressure Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to make the oft-forgotten issue a priority. Dubbed ONE Vote 08, the bipartisan political push aims to get President Bush s successor to commit to taking concrete ste
ATLANTA - Some professional athletes and entertainers joined for a basketball game on Saturday in efforts to raise funds toward HIV/AIDS studies. This event is all about getting youngsters and everyone else in the know, said Oakland Raiders receiver Joey Porter, who played in the benefit game at Morehouse College.
CHINLE, Ariz. - In recent months, Jocelyn Billy s willingness to discuss topics such as sex, relationships and disease on the Navajo Nation has won praise from those working with HIV and AIDS patients. While many Navajo officials shy away from those subjects, the 24-year-old Billy has used her unique and prominent stat
CAMP VERDE, Ariz. -- Former heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison won his MMA debut but lost the crowd Saturday night. Fighting in a cage on a clear night in the desert, Morrison knocked out John Stover (7-2) at 2:08 of the first round. Boos rained down as a panting Morrison raised his hand after breaking Stover s nose w
ROME - President Bush, in his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, defended his humanitarian record around the globe, telling the papal leader on Saturday about U.S. efforts to battle AIDS in Africa. Bush shook hands, posed for photos and shared a few laughs with the pope and then sat down with him at a small desk in
ROME - President Bush, denounced by tens of thousands of anti-American protesters on the streets of Rome, defended his humanitarian record on Saturday to Pope Benedict XVI, who expressed concern about the worrisome situation in Iraq . Bush also sought to shore up relations with Premier Romano Prodi, whose center-l
Tommy Morrison s former agent said the fighter tested positive for the HIV virus in mandatory blood tests for a boxing license, The Arizona Republic reported Friday on its Web site. Tommy has tested positive for the HIV antibodies and he always has, Randy Lang told the newspaper on Friday. Lang said he stopped working
The leaders of the Group of Eight ended their summit Friday after agreeing to set a nonbinding goal to cut greenhouse gases, warn Iran over its nuclear program, and give $60 billion to fight AIDS, TB and malaria in Africa. A deal on the future of Serbia s Kosovo province eluded them, however. The host, German Chanc
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Harvard University s most famous dropout finally got his college degree. Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft Corp. and became the world s richest man after leaving Harvard in 1975, returned Thursday to accept an honorary degree and speak at the school s 356th commencement. I will be changing my job
NEW DELHI - The number of Indians infected with HIV is far smaller than previously believed, according to new data that appears to vindicate critics who said earlier U.N. assessments of the country s epidemic were vastly overestimated. Experts say the still-unreleased survey is likely to show that India s number of HIV
HEILIGENDAMM, Germany -- Leaders of the Group of Eight agreed Friday on a $60 billion package to fight AIDS, TB and malaria in Africa and warned Iran over its disputed nuclear program, on the final day of the summit of the world s richer nations. The G-8 pledged to adopt further measures if Iran refuses to halt i
CAMP VERDE, Ariz. - Tommy the Duke Morrison says an MMA fighter is no match for a trained boxer. And he plans prove it Saturday night in a cage outside a casino in northern Arizona. Morrison, the former world heavyweight champion who tested positive for HIV 11 years ago, will make his mixed-martial arts debut in an uns
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- President Bush s nominee for surgeon general, Kentucky cardiologist Dr. James Holsinger, has come under fire from gay rights groups for voting to expel a lesbian pastor from the United Methodist Church and writing in 1991 that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy. Also, Holsinger helped found a Methodis
UNITED NATIONS -- Not a single country in sub-Saharan Africa is on target to meet U.N. goals of cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring universal primary education, and stemming the AIDS pandemic by 2015, a new U.N. report said Wednesday. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to ask leaders of the world s richest count
LANSING, Mich. - An effort to legalize marijuana for medical use in Michigan cleared a key procedural hurdle Wednesday. A state elections board approved the form of petitions being circulated by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care. The group still needs to collect at least 304,101 valid signatures of Michigan
CHICAGO - On the surface, it s a complex patent fight spanning thousands of miles and more than a dozen time zones. But strip away the lawyers, government officials and fleet of executives, and the standoff between Thailand and Abbott Laboratories Inc. could determine how, and if, millions of people in developing c
NEW DELHI, India -- Meena discovered she had been sold by her boss while riding in an auto-rickshaw headed to New Delhi s red-light district. The 12-year-old was working as a domestic servant in Calcutta when the homeowner told her about a good-paying job at his sister s house in India s capital. But instead, she was s
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - South Africa s health minister, who aroused the ire of the international scientific community by her insistence on garlic and lemon for AIDS patients, marked her return to work Wednesday after a liver transplant by boycotting South Africa s national AIDS conference. Manto Tshabalala-Msiman
WASHINGTON -- A congressional subcommittee has voted to lift a ban on the use of local tax money for a needle exchange program in the District. Members of the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government voted Tuesday to remove the prohibition from an appropriations bill governing the D.C. budget.
Gisele Bundchen is the biggest international star on the runway during Rio s Fashion Week, but she s also making headlines for criticizing the Roman Catholic church s opposition to condom use and abortion. Bundchen, who paraded Tuesday night for the Colcci label, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the church s t
ROME, Italy -- A poor harvest coupled with a worsening economic crisis will leave more than a third of Zimbabwe s population in need of food assistance by early 2008, two U.N. food agencies said Tuesday. Around 2.1 million people in the country s southern provinces will face serious food shortages by the third quarter
BERLIN - Teenagers from industrial and developing countries are hoping to make the Group of Eight leaders hear their concerns about poverty, climate change, AIDS and other issues at this week s summit in Germany . A group of about 70 young people from the so-called Junior 8 Summit, organized by the U.N. Children s Fun
WASHINGTON -- International family planning groups cut off from aid because of their position on abortion could gain access to U.S.-donated contraceptives under legislation approved by a House panel Tuesday. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the State Department and f
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Fewer than 10 percent of the Asia-Pacific s estimated 8.5 million people who are living with HIV are aware of their status, the United Nations said Monday, calling on the region s governments to boost access to health services. With so few people aware of their status, efforts to prevent new infe
KANO, Nigeria - Lawyers for a northern Nigeria state seeking $2 billion in damages from Pfizer Inc. over allegations of wrongdoing in a decades-old drug study failed to show up for the first court proceedings Monday and the case was postponed. The judge hearing the case launched by the northern state of Kano said c
DENVER - There is a reason why reports of a rare strain of tuberculosis attracted worldwide attention: a history perhaps as deadly as the plague. More than 4,000 years ago, tuberculosis killed an Egyptian whose mummified remains were dug up; the case was first described in 1910. Hippocrates called it consumption in 460
ROSTOCK, Germany - Masked demonstrators hurled stones and flagpoles at police during a demonstration Saturday by tens of thousands of people against the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Germany, engulfing the harbor of this northern port city in chaos. Officers in helmets and body armor at one point briefly retreated
WASHINGTON - New penalties against Sudan - check. More dollars to fight AIDS in Africa - check. A respected internationalist to lead the World Bank - check. Friendly words about tackling global warming - check. George Bush is ready to go to Europe. His bag packed with a pre-emptive agenda he spent all week detailing, t
YANGON, Myanmar - Democracy advocates in Myanmar expressed concern Saturday over the continued detention of a prominent AIDS activist who is a member of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi s party. Police took Phyu Phyu Thin from her home on the night of May 21, telling her mother that she would be sent back af
NEW YORK - Maybe Andrew Speaker, flying abroad despite a dangerous strain of tuberculosis, took things too far. But many people push the limits by staying active when they re sick. Depending on circumstances, the choice can be seen as laudable, inconsiderate - or downright criminal. At the office, coughing and sneezing
Bob Geldof took over for a day as the editor of Germany s biggest-selling newspaper, which appeared Friday with an impassioned front-page plea for the country s leaders to end the misery in Africa. Geldof s turn in the chair at the mass-circulation Bild daily came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares to host nex
SYDNEY, Australia - Australia should shut its door to immigrants who are HIV-positive or have communicable diseases such as tuberculosis when regulations are reviewed this month, Prime Minister John Howard reiterated Friday. Howard said last month he opposed HIV-positive people being allowed to immigrate to Australia,
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Dutch authorities arrested four men in a sex-crime investigation in the northern city of Groningen, with at least two of the men suspected of intentionally infecting others with HIV, a prosecution spokesman said Thursday. Three of the men were suspected of drugging male victims and abusing
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Nelson Mandela hailed Tony Blair on Thursday as very good friend to Africa for the priority he has given the continent, while the outgoing British prime minister called on rich countries to fulfill aid pledges to the region. Blair, ending his farewell tour of Africa, said the Group of Eight
SIRTE, Libya - British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed improved relations between Britain and Libya as oil companies from both countries signed a major deal on Tuesday. BP PLC s exploration and production deal with Libya s National Oil Company, worth at least $900 million, brings the company back to Libya for the fi
LONDON - Health professionals should routinely offer to test people for HIV instead of waiting for patients to request it, according to new advice from the United Nations Wednesday. In making the recommendations, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS are underlining the need to identify the millions worldwide wh
KANO, Nigeria - Authorities in northern Nigeria have filed a $2 billion civil case and were preparing criminal charges against the U.S. drug company Pfizer , accusing it of conducting a drug experiment that led to deaths and disabilities in a group of children more than a decade ago, according to court papers.
WASHINGTON -- President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to authorize an additional $30 billion to fight AIDS in Africa over five years, doubling the current U.S. commitment. The money would provide treatment for 2.5 million people under the President s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, White House press secretary Ton
SEATTLE - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Tuesday it would honor the Population and Community Development Association of Thailand with its $1 million Gates Award for Global Health. The prize recognizes the Thai nonprofit for its work in family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention. The Gates Award was esta
TRIPOLI, Libya - British Prime Minister leader Tony Blair launched his farewell tour of Africa in Libya on Tuesday, seeking to seal the rehabilitation of relations with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and build support for action on Darfur and climate change. Blair s discreet, then public, talks to bring Gadhafi into the
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Just weeks after Pope Benedict XVI denounced government-backed contraception in a visit to Brazil, the president unveiled a program Monday to provide cheap birth control pills at 10,000 drug stores across the country. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the plan will give poor Brazilians the
TRIPOLI, Libya - Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting about 400 Libyan children with HIV and facing the death penalty were cleared Sunday of defamation charges in a related case. The proceedings in the HIV case against the six medical workers have generated international criticism of Li
FERNDALE, Mich. -- A group says it plans to collect 550,000 signatures within six months to get a medical marijuana initiative on next year s statewide ballot. The Coalition for Compassionate Care announced Wednesday that the Michigan Medicinal Marijuana Act would allow patients to grow and use small amounts of marijua
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- For the past year, Yonas Tadesse has been trying to stave off the effects of HIV with a blend of science and faith - he takes anti-retroviral medicine but also drinks a liter of holy water, blessed by a priest. The combination has long been a source of controversy in the Ethiopian Orthodox
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A shortage of doctors and nurses in Africa is now one of the biggest obstacles to providing life-saving drugs to AIDS patients, condemning untold numbers to an unnecessary death, a new report says. Africa has increased the number of AIDS sufferers on treatment from 100,000 in 2003 to 1.3
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Bono, who has helped bring worldwide attention to medical and economic problems in Africa, will receive this year s Liberty Medal. The National Constitution Center s annual award honors an individual or organization that has demonstrated leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty of conscience
MOUGINS, France - Sharon Stone played auctioneer, Kylie Minogue and Julian Lennon sang, and burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese did a saucy strip routine - all to raise money for AIDS research. An annual benefit soiree on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday raised $7 million for the American Foundation f
WASHINGTON - Speaker Nancy Pelosi contends that the Department of Health and Human Services miscalculated how much federal AIDS care money the city of San Francisco should get and she s asked the agency for an explanation. The city was awarded nearly $9 million less under the Ryan White CARE Act than it received last y
NEW YORK (AP) -- Consumers who buy scented pink candles at retailer Pier1 Imports are supporting breast cancer research. Those who purchase bottled Ethos water at Starbucks are funding clean water projects around the globe. The buyers of certain RED products at The Gap are investing in the fight against AIDS in Africa.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gay men remain banned for life from donating blood, the government said Wednesday, leaving in place -- for now -- a 1983 prohibition meant to prevent the spread of HIV through transfusions. The Food and Drug Administration reiterated its long-standing policy on its Web site Wednesday, more than a yea
KUALA LUMPUR: The spread of AIDS is threatening millions of migrant workers in Asia who lack sufficient access to health services, regional health workers and advocates for migrant laborers said. For a comprehensive approach to contain HIV/AIDS, the health of not only local populations but also migrant communities need
GENEVA: The world s biggest fund for the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria said Tuesday it has significantly expanded its programs over the past year. The Global Fund, which is financed by government and private donations, said it has committed grants totaling US$7.6 billion (5.7 billion euro) and now provid
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The state is paying top rates - up to 100 percent of some billed charges - for prescription drugs and medical care for prisoners, prison officials said. Patients covered by private health insurance plans usually pay rates that are much lower than billed charges. The government s Medicare and Medicaid p
Santa Cruz, Calif. -- The city s oldest medical marijuana club could close within months because of a severe drop in donations. Wo/Men s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, most of its 175 members seriously ill with cancer or AIDS, has reduced the amount of pot it gives away as it struggles financially. It costs $150,000 a
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The Vanderburgh County Jail has spent so much money on medical care for inmates this year that the sheriff is asking the county for more money to cover expenses, and some say bigger medical bills for inmates are becoming more common statewide. Vanderburgh County is on pace to spend more than $800,00
GENEVA -- A boy born in San Marino , a tiny republic surrounded by Italy , will probably live to age 80, the world s longest male life expectancy, but newborn girls in Japan and 30 other countries have even better prospects, the Wor
BEIJING (AP) -- A prominent Chinese dissident said he and his wife were detained Friday and put under house arrest as they were leaving for Europe to meet other activists to discuss China s human rights situation. Hu Jia said security agents came to his house Friday morning and stopped him and his wife Zeng Jinyan, who
SEATTLE - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will give a $9.7 million grant to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation to study ways to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission to children via breast milk. The money will pay for eight research studies and up to three clinical trials of vaccines that have previously be
AUSTIN - A bill creating a needle-exchange program for Texas drug users appears dead this legislative session because a leading House member said she won t bring the Senate-passed bill to a vote. Texas is the only state in the country that does not allow a needle-exchange program for drug users. The legislation would a
SAN DIEGO - South African Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke at the start of a fundraising drive to finance hospice care for AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa. Hospice and palliative care are desperately needed, Tutu said Tuesday at a kickoff in San Diego s Balboa Park. In my own country, South Africa
SEOUL, South Korea -- A new TV soap opera is gaining popularity in South Korea with the tear-jerking tale of an 8-year-old girl infected by the virus that causes AIDS -- a disease that still invites more ostracism than sympathy here. The MBC network show Thank You has been winning top ratings in its time slot wit
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Spiritually, the Rev. Jerry Falwell seemed prepared for his passing. A little more than two weeks ago, the founder of the Moral Majority preached of man being indestructible until he has finished God s work, then told churchgoers he was at peace with death. On the day before he died, Falwell called hi
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - More than 450 people nationwide now claim they received illegally obtained and possibly diseased body parts from a New Jersey-based scheme, according to court documents. The Food and Drug Administration has said it s concerned that the bone and tissue could be infected with the AIDS virus, syphilis
AUSTIN - Former El Paso state Rep. Nancy McDonald, known as a champion for health care and an advocate for AIDS patients, died Monday at age 72 after battling ovarian cancer, her family said. McDonald was a nurse before being elected to the Texas Legislature, where she served from 1984 until 1995. She was born in Bowli
NEW DELHI -- India s Supreme Court temporarily suspended Tuesday an arrest warrant for actor Richard Gere, who was wanted for allegedly breaking public obscenity laws by kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. The court suspended all legal proceedings against the pair until it decides on the proper jurisdiction for th
BERLIN -- The world s biggest industrial countries are failing to keep up with financial promises they made to Africa, rocker-activist Bono said Tuesday, calling a new progress report a cold shower for the Group of Eight. G-8 members in 2004-2006 contributed less than half the amount needed to make good on promises to
UNITED NATIONS: An estimated 13 million intravenous drug users around the world are in urgent need of HIV prevention and treatment services in order to stop the epidemic from spreading out of control, the United Nations said. Intravenous drug use is estimated to account for nearly one-third of new HIV infections outsid
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Livestock whose genes have been manipulated could play a critical role in developing new medications and cheaper treatments for human ailments, scientists said Monday. However, the use of transgenic animals, which have foreign DNA integrated into their genetic information, remains controversial and
NEW DELHI, India -- Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty asked the Supreme Court on Monday to shift an obscenity case against her and Hollywood star Richard Gere to a nearby court so she can fight the allegations, her lawyer said. Shetty asked the court to transfer jurisdiction over the case to Mumbai, where she lives, lawy
TRENTON - New Jersey would become the first state to require both pregnant women and newborns to be tested for HIV under a proposal introduced by the Senate president. The bill would require all pregnant women be tested for HIV twice, once early in the pregnancy and a second time in the third trimester. Every birthing
BERLIN -- Bono urged Germany on Monday to use next month s Group of Eight meeting as a platform to push for more aid for Africa. Speaking after talks with Kurt Beck, the leader of Germany s Social Democrats, which make up half of Chancellor Angela Merkel s governing coalition, Bono said he was thankful the G-8 talks we
BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday pledged a strong focus on Africa at next month s Group of Eight summit, declaring that the leading industrial powers have the resources to provide real help to the continent. Merkel, who also hopes to make progress on climate change at the June 6-8 gathering, has str
SOFIA, Bulgaria -- The spiritual leader of Bulgaria s Orthodox Christians on Saturday called for a just verdict in the case of six medics sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly infecting about 400 children with HIV. Thousands of people, some holding banners reading You are not alone, attended a public prayer servi
A former worker at a Dallas center that cares for babies with HIV and other young patients has been arrested on a charge of reckless injury to a child, Dallas police said. Tanisha Lacy, 27, is suspected of unintentionally breaking the leg of a 5-month-old boy in her care at Bryan s House, a police supervisor said Frida
The state Senate Thursday unanimously approved a proposal to require people convicted of promoting prostitution to be tested for HIV. The bill now heads for the governor s consideration. If the legislation becomes law, it would probably be the first of its kind nationally. The House sponsor, state Representative Ulysse
WINDSOR, Ontario -- An Ontario man who pleaded guilty to 15 counts of aggravated sexual assault for exposing women to the virus that causes AIDS will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he should be declared a dangerous offender. Carl Leone was remanded into custody Friday after initially being placed unde
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Pope Benedict XVI addressed sexual morality in a speech to tens of thousands of young Catholics, instructing them to avoid premarital sex, remain faithful once they are married and to promote life from its beginning to natural end. The latter was - at least in part - a reference to abortion, the iss
GENEVA, Switzerland -- The disabled, gays and lesbians, and people living with HIV/AIDS are suffering from new and more subtle forms of workplace discrimination, the U.N. labor agency said Thursday. Despite major advances in the fight against discrimination, gender, race and religion continue to determine how people ar
WASHINGTON - After documenting more than $140 million in Medicare fraud in South Florida, federal officials said Wednesday they will take a more thorough look at other providers of medical equipment. An investigation in the Miami area has led to 38 arrests, including 20 on Tuesday. Many defendants set up sham medical e
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday he supported excommunication for politicians who backed Mexico City s decision to legalize abortion, giving a strong message about core church teachings at the start of his first trip to Latin America as pontiff. Church teaching calls for automatic excommu
NAIROBI, Kenya - Africa captured the heart of Dr. Albert Henn nearly four decades ago, when he worked in Togo as field doctor for the Peace Corps. Henn - who worked at Harvard University and had a home in Barnstable - then dedicated his life to the country, most recently leading an AIDS treatment and testing center on
NEW YORK - Former President Bill Clinton announced agreements with drug companies Tuesday to lower the price of so-called second-line AIDS drugs for people in the developing world and to make a once-a-day AIDS pill available for less than $1 a day. The anti-retroviral drugs are needed by patients who develop resistance
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI is heading to the world s most populous Roman Catholic country at time when evangelical Christians are packing converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday, thrusting their Bibles in the air. Benedict will try to halt that wave of Protestant fervor during his firs
DALLAS - An HIV-positive man who prosecutors say secretly videotaped sexual encounters with 131 young men was sentenced to life in prison for attempting to entice a 15-year-old boy to engage in sex acts. During his trial, prosecutors alleged Willie Atkins knew of his condition yet endangered dozens of partners by rarel
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - The leader of South Africa s main opposition party stepped down Saturday after 13 years of relentless criticism of the ruling African National Congress, calling for his successor to take on crime, HIV/AIDS and other problems besetting the country. Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, 50
OLYMPIA, Wash. - A discrimination complaint has been filed against a life insurance company that refused to sell a policy to a man with HIV, a member of the state panel that brought the case. The Human Rights Commission filed the complaint this week against Farmers New World Life Insurance Co. of Mercer Island, the pri
BRASILIA, Brazil - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took steps Friday to let Brazil buy an inexpensive generic version of an AIDS drug made by Merck & Co. despite the U.S. drug company s patent. Silva issued a compulsory license that would bypass Merck s patent on the AIDS drug efavirenz, a day after the Brazili
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazil moved closer to breaking a patent on a U.S.-manufactured anti-AIDS drug after negotiations with Merck & Co. broke down Thursday. The government last week declared Merck s efavirenz anti-retroviral drug a public interest medicine - a move that effectively gave Merck, based in Whiteho
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - A man previously convicted of exposing Kansas City women to HIV was found guilty Wednesday of the same crime in St. Joseph, where his trial was closed to the public. Because of his earlier convictions, Sean L. Sykes faces 10 years to life in prison when he is sentenced June 12. Buchanan County Circuit
NEW DELHI -- A judge who issued an arrest warrant against Richard Gere for publicly kissing a Bollywood actress reportedly has been transferred from his job. Judge Dinesh Gupta, a magistrate in the northwestern city of Jaipur, issued arrest orders last week for both Gere and Shilpa Shetty after the kiss at a public AID
Knowing a partner s HIV status before sex is a growing prevention method among young gay men, although risky behavior likely to transmit the virus is on the rise, according to two new U.S. studies. The studies, which used virtually the same method to look at the prevalence and risk of HIV infection among gay men in San
South Korea - A new TV soap opera is gaining popularity in South Korea with the tear-jerking tale of an 8-year-old girl infected by the virus that causes AIDS - a disease that still invites more ostracism than sympathy here. The MBC network show Thank You has been winning top ratings in its time slot with the story
Thailand s health minister will travel to Washington to explain the decision to break a patent on an AIDS drug produced by an American company, an official said Tuesday. On Monday, the U.S. government included Thailand among 12 countries on an annual Priority Watch List of nations where American companies face problems
ST. PAUL - A bill to legalize marijuana for those suffering from cancer, AIDS and persistent pain barely made it through the Minnesota Senate on Tuesday. The bill passed on a preliminary vote of 33-31, after debate over the agonies of the sick and the danger of sending mixed messages to youth about illegal drugs. It ne
WASHINGTON -- Rock star Bono has tried to feed the world and he s tried to heal the world. Now, he s trying to help some U.S. lawmakers teach the world. The lead singer of the Irish group U2 - and perennial advocate for anti-poverty programs - on Tuesday joined with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and other lawmak
RICHMOND, Va. - A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a law that regulates the sale of life insurance benefits by terminally ill Virginians strapped for cash to pay medical bills and other expenses. Such transactions, called viatical settlements, do not violate the Constitution s commerce clause because Congress has
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - A man previously convicted of exposing women in Kansas City to HIV went on trial Monday on the same charge in Buchanan County, where the judge closed all proceedings to the public. Sean L. Sykes, 33, was sentenced in 1997 to 10 years in prison for knowingly exposing two women to the virus that causes
BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- OraSure Technologies Inc. said Monday that the government of Madagascar has selected it to be the first-line provider of rapid HIV-screening tests. The Madagascar government plans to test up to 400,000 people in 2007, using the company s OraQuick Rapid HIV test. Financial details of the contract were
Schering-Plough Says It Won European Backing on Combination Hepatitis Therapy for Adults LONDON (AP) -- The drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp. said Monday that the European Medicines Agency recommended approval of a combination therapy for adults with chronic hepatitis C who are also infected with clinically stable HIV.
YUMA, Ariz. - When national AIDS experts describe how American Indians are facing another historic battle for existence, they pass up the word epidemic and go right for extinction. These experts stress that America s first people are experiencing an alarming increase in AIDS cases, a trend that many say could wipe out
WASHINGTON -- Randall Tobias, head of the Bush administration s foreign aid programs, abruptly resigned Friday after his name surfaced in an investigation into a high-priced call-girl ring, said two people in a position to know the circumstances of his departure. It was Tobias own decision to resign, according to one o
HOUSTON -- Former heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison was pulled from a scheduled bout Friday night because state boxing officials didn t get the results of lab tests in time. Dick Cole, boxing administrator for the state s Department of Licensing and Regulation, said a Houston doctor, Jorge Guerrero, examined Morrison
WASHINGTON - Randall Tobias, coordinator of the Bush administration s foreign aid programs, resigned Friday, citing personal reasons. Tobias held two titles: director of U.S. foreign assistance and administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development. His rank was equivalent to deputy secretary of state.
NEW DELHI -- Richard Gere tried to quell the storm over a public kiss he gave a Bollywood star at an AIDS awareness event, apologizing Friday for any offense. Gere s embrace and kiss of actress Shilpa Shetty sparked several noisy demonstrations by hard-line Hindu groups and a flurry of legal complaints, which ended wit
HOUSTON - Texas state officials issued a boxing license to former heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison, clearing the way for him to fight in Houston on Friday night. Morrison, the 38-year-old former WBO champion, is scheduled to face Dale Ortiz in a four-round bout at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Houston. It will be Morriso
PARIS -- French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy outlined his stance on key foreign policy issues Thursday, saying he might pull France s troops out of a NATO force in Afghanistan if he is elected. He also denounced the United States refusal to cap carbon emissions and proposed taxing imports from
LOS ANGELES -- An American Idol charity special filled with wrenching pictures of impoverished children and celebrity appeals raised more than $60 million, Fox said Thursday. The money from Idol Gives Back, a two-night special that was combined with the regular talent contest, will go to organizations funding relief pr
NEW DELHI -- A court issued arrest warrants for Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on Thursday, saying their kiss at a public function transgressed all limits of vulgarity, media reports said. Judge Dinesh Gupta issued the warrants in the northwestern city of Jaipur after a local citizen file
HOUSTON - State officials have asked former heavyweight boxing champ Tommy Morrison for more medical information before deciding on his application for a boxing license in advance of a bout scheduled for Friday in Houston. Morrison, 38, is scheduled to face Dale Ortiz in a four-round bout at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Ho
South Carolina will receive a $26.8 million federal grant for the treatment of HIV and AIDS, the state s U.S. senators said Wednesday. The grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services includes $25.6 million to treat low-income individuals and families in South Carolina, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Brazil said Wednesday it would buy an Indian-made generic version of a Merck and Co. anti-AIDS drug if the U.S. company does not offer Latin America s largest country a deeper discount on the medicine. Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao signed a decree declaring Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) s efavirenz anti-re
WASHINGTON - The federal government should approve a novel drug that targets the cells of HIV-infected patients and not the virus itself, health advisors recommended Tuesday. The 12 advisors unanimously voted to urge the Food and Drug Administration to approve maraviroc, which Pfizer Inc. hopes to sell under th
WASHINGTON - Health officials repeated safety concerns about an experimental group of HIV drugs Friday, days before government advisers will recommend whether the first drug from the class merits approval. Pfizer Inc. seeks Food and Drug Administration approval for maraviroc, potentially the first in a novel group of d
WASHINGTON - Analysts expect Pfizer to win approval for a first-of-a-kind drug to treat HIV despite safety concerns raised by government regulators ahead of a Tuesday meeting. A panel of experts meets in Rockville, Md., to advise the Food and Drug Administration on whether to approve Pfizer s maraviroc to fight HIV. If
LUSAKA, Zambia - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has dismissed the health minister and promoted two deputy ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle, officials said Tuesday. Government spokesman John Musukuma gave no reason for Monday s dismissal of Angela Cifire, who had struggled to manage the ministry, plagued by an endemic
LOS ANGELES - American Idol viewers are getting the chance to weigh in on a cause bigger than their favorite singer - those in need in America and Africa. The hit Fox TV show is combining its usual talent competition this week with Idol Gives Back, a star-filled fundraising effort. Bono, Celine Dion, Hugh Grant and Ras
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Two AIDS doctors made a house call last month to the set of TV s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The plot line was the suggestion that HIV doesn t cause AIDS - a fringe theory promoted on the Internet and by certain African leaders. But the two physicians weren t there to doctor the scri
CROWN POINT, Ind. - A judge has sentenced a man to two years in prison for concealing that he was HIV-positive when he gave blood to a Hammond plasma center. Michael Ivy, 46, of East Chicago pleaded guilty last month to donating or selling blood contaminated with the human immunodeficiency virus on Sept. 13 to Bio-Bloo
SAN FRANCISCO - Some Bay Area doctors are promoting Pap tests for gay men to reduce rising rates of anal cancer. U.S. cases of anal cancer have risen 37 percent in the last 10 years, compared to a 1 percent increase in overall cancer cases. Part of the increase is believed to be because of better reporting. Anal Pap sm
Health officials repeated safety concerns about an experimental group of HIV drugs Friday, days before government advisers will recommend whether the first drug from the class merits approval. Pfizer Inc. seeks Food and Drug Administration approval for maraviroc, potentially the first in a novel group of drugs to fight
YAOUNDE, Cameroon - Cameroon will give free treatment to all HIV/AIDS patients in the West African country starting next month, the health minister pledged Thursday. The government of the Republic of Cameroon has decided today that there will be free treatment with antiretroviral (drugs) for all people living with HIV/
TRIPOLI, Libya : The U.S. State Department s No. 2 official sought Libya s help Wednesday in convincing Sudan to accept a robust U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi declined a U.S. request to meet with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who is the highest-ranking U.
NBA star Yao Ming has joined a campaign to combat the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS in China by being featured in posters together with people from AIDS-affected communities, the United Nations said Wednesday. In the posters, which carry the message: HIV/AIDS will not affect our friendship, the 7-foot 6-inch Chi
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe appeared as entrenched as ever in a nation blighted by political violence and economic chaos, presiding Wednesday over independence celebrations and declaring he overcame efforts to topple him be blamed on the U.K. He acknowledged, however, worsening economic hardship
GENEVA - Lower prices for HIV drugs have significantly improved access to treatment for people in poor countries, but figures are still far off target for the U.N. s long-term goal of universal coverage by 2010, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. By the end of 2006 some 2 million people in low- and middle-inco
NEW YORK - Citing bleak data on incarceration, joblessness and AIDS, the National Urban League said Monday that problems facing black men represent America s most serious social crisis and proposed an aggressive campaign to provide them with more opportunities. The 97-year-old black empowerment organization, in its ann
ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Department of Health says reported cases of HIV infection rose among males in the state last year. Health officials said Monday the increase in male cases was partly responsible for the 5 percent total increase in reported cases in 2006. The largest increases seen in males were among those ages
LILONGWE, Malawi - Madonna flew to Malawi on a silver jet Monday to continue her charity work in the impoverished southern African country, bringing along the Malawian boy she is in the process of adopting. The pop star, wearing a baseball cap, carried a small boy down the steps of the jet, and a child s seat was fixed
NORFOLK, Va. - Andrew Adams hated one soup kitchen because he believed the workers deprived him of food. He stopped staying at a homeless shelter because he was convinced the people who ran it were plotting to evict him. So Adams lived on the street, sleeping in out-of-the-way places, trying to avoid the people who, in
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Prime Minister John Howard said Friday that Australia should bar immigrants with HIV, and his government was examining ways to make its tough restrictions even stronger. HIV-AIDS workers accused Howard of xenophobia and promoting the racist belief that immigrants -- particularly Africans --
ATLANTA - The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea is now among the superbugs resistant to common antibiotics, leading U.S. health officials to recommend wider use of a different class of drugs to avert a public health crisis. The resistant form accounts for more than one in every four gonorrhea cases among heterosex
WASHINGTON -- Scientists have unraveled the DNA of another of our primate relatives, this time a monkey named the rhesus macaque - and the work has far more immediate impact than just to study evolution. These fuzzy animals are key to testing the safety of many medicines, and understanding such diseases as AIDS, and th
ATLANTA -- U.S. health officials are recommending wider use of a new drug to treat gonorrhea because the sexually transmitted disease is steadily becoming resistant to the longtime standard antibiotic. Fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics that includes Cipro, have been the most common way to treat the bacterial dis
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thai health officials said Tuesday that the government would consider an offer by U.S. drug maker Abbott Laboratories to supply Thailand and other countries with its AIDS-fighting drugs at a discounted price. Abbott earlier Tuesday announced that after consulting with the U.
MONTGOMERY - The Department of Corrections is expanding its re-entry program for inmates with HIV/AIDS to the entire prison population in hopes of reducing the number of inmates who commit new crimes after they re released. Nearly all infected inmates receive transition services through the Alabama Prison Initiative up
TAIPEI, Taiwan : Health officials want to turn the scantily clad women who sell betel nuts at stands along Taiwan s roadways into anti-AIDS campaigners. Betel nuts, chewed as a mild stimulant, are popular among truck and taxi drivers - and vendors often compete by staffing roadside sales booths with young women in biki
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- The extent of the deadly new strain of tuberculosis in South Africa and the region is not known and is cause for concern, an international health expert said Wednesday. Dr Fabio Scano, a TB expert from the World Health Organization in Geneva, has been sent to South Africa at the r
HONG KONG: Officials detained six people involved in a blood-selling scheme in southern China , cracking down on the illegal practice that helped spread AIDS in the country, news reports said Friday. More than 100 police officers took part in a raid in Jieyang city in southern Guangdong province Wednesday evening, deta
The foundation established after the death of celebrity photographer Herb Ritts is donating $2.5 million and 189 of his works to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which plans to create a photography gallery in his honor. The MFA held a major retrospective of Ritts work in 1996. The new Herb Ritts Gallery for Photography
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Legislation that would require individuals convicted of promoting prostitution to be tested for HIV overwhelmingly passed the House on Thursday, but one lawmaker who voted against the measure believes it s unconstitutional. Bill sponsor Rep. Ulysses Jones Jr., D-Memphis, said he proposed the measure
NEW YORK - City health officials are considering a program to urge circumcision for men at high risk of AIDS, noting studies that the procedure can reduce the chances of getting the disease. The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has sought feedback from gay rights groups and community organizations, and it a
NEW YORK -- The city s new official condom is a sensation, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg s administration, which announced Wednesday that City Hall gave away a record 5 million in the first month of a distribution program. The free condom initiative is part of the city s effort to reduce rates of sexually transm
OLYMPIA, Wash. - The state House late Wednesday passed a measure clarifying the state s medical marijuana law and addressing supply issues, but medical marijuana advocates and patients opposed to the measure argue it does nothing to help them. The measure, which passed on a 64-30 vote, requires the state Department of
JOHANNESBURG - The extent of the deadly new strain of tuberculosis in South Africa and the region isn t known and is cause for concern, an international health expert said Wednesday. Dr. Fabio Scano, a TB expert from the World Health Organization in Geneva, has been sent to South Africa at the request of the governme
EASTON, Pa. - An AIDS activist accused of feigning the disease was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges she defrauded the state of nearly $67,000 in medical assistance and other aid. A district judge ruled there was enough evidence to send the charges against Cassey Weierbach to Northampton County Court. Weierbach
BEIJING - Rural Chinese children increasingly risk being sold or forced to become beggars, petty thieves or sex workers as their farmer parents flock to cities looking for work, an international rights group said Wednesday. China has a thriving black market in girls and women who are sold as brides, as well as babies w
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - OraSure Technologies has hired a firm to develop a consumer counseling and referral system to accompany planned over-the-counter sales of its HIV test. The system to be designed by the Constella Group of Durham, N.C., will be a factor in whether federal regulators approve retail sales of OraQuick HIV.
SINGAPORE - At least 4 million health care professionals are urgently needed around the world, with especially dire shortfalls in AIDS-ravaged parts of Africa, the head of the World Health Organization said Tuesday, urging nations to train more workers. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the manpower crisis was mo
PHOENIX - Behind the county hospital s tall cinderblock walls, a 27-year-old tuberculosis patient sits in a jail cell equipped with a ventilation system that keeps germs from escaping. Robert Daniels has been locked up indefinitely, perhaps for the rest of his life, since last July. But he has not been charged with a c
CHICAGO - The American Academy of Pediatrics says more child-friendly HIV drugs are needed, including smaller pills and three-in-one tablets for kids, to help address a crisis affecting more than 2 million youngsters globally. In a new policy statement endorsed by 19 international groups including the W
CHICAGO - The names of people infected with HIV will be tracked in all 50 states by the end of 2007, marking a victory for federal health officials and a quiet defeat for AIDS advocates who wanted to keep patients names out of state databases. Vermont, Maryland and Hawaii, the last states not tracking the names of HIV-
WASHINGTON - The U.S. global AIDS initiative has provided therapy and brought testing and counseling to millions around the world. Now the challenge is to move from emergency to sustained efforts, the Institute of Medicine said Friday. Launched three years ago, the President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is active i
MANILA - The number of people in Asia infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS could more than double to 20 million over the next five years without a better government response and more funding, officials warned Friday. At the current level of inadequate response, it is expected this number will rise to about 20 m
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Mary McGeein has been named director of the Presidential Advisory Council on AIDS and HIV. The council, established in 1995, advises the president and the secretary of HHS on government response to the
GENEVA - U.N. health agencies recommended Wednesday that heterosexual men undergo circumcision because of compelling evidence that it can reduce their chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent. But World Health Organization and UNAIDS experts said men need to be aware that circumcision is only partial protection a
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is back in New Hampshire and back embracing straight talk. And talk. And talk. And talk. Aboard his campaign bus, the Arizona senator entertains reporters with stories, answers their questions and heckles bloggers. He s by far the most accessible of the can
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Some Virginia Tech engineering students are combining academic know how with the sun s power to bring a healthier future to an African village. The nine Tech seniors have designed a system that will use solar panels to channel sunlight into electricity powering a clinic in southwestern
OLYMPIA, Wash. - Some medical marijuana advocates and patients are protesting a measure they supported at the beginning of the legislative session, saying it has been watered down by the process and is now useless. There s nothing left in the bill worth keeping, said Steve Sarich, executive director of CannaCare, a med
WASHINGTON - When Susan Belfiore tells her story to a Senate committee, she will put a human face on an issue best illustrated by the people it affects: children getting medication not approved for them. Whether Sept. 11 heroes or Alzheimer s caregivers or consumers saddled with credit card debt, such people have tales
HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut s congressional delegation is lobbying federal health officials for more AIDS funding to blunt reductions imposed as part of a new payment formula. Earlier this month, Hartford and New Haven agencies that serve AIDS patients learned that this year s grant would be about half of what was ex
HONG KONG - A filmmaker who won an Oscar for a documentary about orphans of Chinese AIDS patients says Beijing is now more open about the disease after being accused of covering up the 2003 SARS outbreak. Since 2003, after SARS, they re open about it. I would say they re not doing it for show, said Ruby Yang, who won a
Religious investors in Abbott Laboratories stock have criticized the drugmaker s decision not to introduce new products in Thailand , saying the move risks the health of Thais, and asked the company to reconsider its decision. Abbott announced the move earlier this month after Thailand said it was going to break the pa
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey would become the first state in the United States to require both pregnant women and newborns to be tested for HIV, under a proposal unveiled Thursday by an influential lawmaker. Senate President Richard J. Codey said he will introduce legislation to require the testing unless the mother spec
DALLAS - State regulators have removed 18 children from a center recognized for its care of babies with HIV and other young patients after an infant was injured. Authorities took the children from Bryan s House after an X-ray last week showed a 5-month-old boy sustained a broken clavicle, or collarbone, David C. Thomas
LONDON - Health experts see a glimmer of hope in the fight against tuberculosis for the first time since the disease s spread was declared a global emergency more than a decade ago. But although global tuberculosis rates are leveling off, the emergence of drug-resistant versions of the disease - combined with the AIDS
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. Ted Strickland s proposed budget strips funding for programs that focus on teaching schoolchildren abstinence from sex until they re married. The removal of $1 million in state aid to abstinence-only education marks a shift in state support for programs that advocates say serve as a national model
SOFIA, Bulgaria - A civil group said Thursday it would nominate five nurses who are sentenced to death in Libya as candidates to run in Bulgaria s elections to European Parliament. The group said it hoped the nominations would lead to the nurses release. They have been in Libyan custody since February 1999, when they
UNITED NATIONS - Asian medical experts appealed for global action to help curb the growing HIV/AIDS crisis in their region, home to more than 8.5 million infected people. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia is often overlooked, compared to Africa ... how many infections do we need before taking action? Baatar Choisuren, Mong
BANGKOK - Health groups in Thailand called on Tuesday for a boycott of U.S. drug maker Abbott Laboratories (ABT) after it announced it won t introduce any new medicines in the country because of the government s decision to allow generic versions of its patented AIDS-fighting drug. What they did is synonymous with
As they court the evangelicals who have become so crucial to their party, Republican presidential candidates are stepping into the middle of a family fight. Christian conservative activists are more split than ever over whether to keep the movement s focus on abortion, marriage and sexual chastity -- or scrap that appr
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - After finally accepting that her son had a protein allergy that kept him from taking her breast milk, Ruth Weinberger faced another issue: What to do with the three months supply in her freezer? She knew that the vitamins and nutrients in breast milk boost a baby s immune system. So the Broward
Nearly every working day, Dr. Elizabeth Poynor encounters anxious young women who come to her New York City office with an HPV diagnosis. The human papillomavirus is the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases - so common that researchers estimate most people will have some form of it in their lifetime. Young adul
ALMATY, Kazakhstan - The number of children who contracted HIV in southern Kazakhstan in an outbreak blamed on doctors negligence has reached 96, health authorities said Thursday. The two most recent victims, aged 3 and 4, were diagnosed with HIV in the Sairam district and the city of Turkestan respectively, said regio
LONDON - Billionaire George Soros pledged $3 million Wednesday to fight a deadly strain of tuberculosis in Africa. Since an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB was identified in South Africa last year, health experts have repeatedly issued dire warnings about the disease s spread across the c
BANGKOK - U.S. drug maker Abbott Laboratories (ABT) said Wednesday it has decided not to launch new medicines in Thailand in response to the military-installed government s decision not to honor the company s patent for its AIDS-fighting drug. Thailand has revoked the patent on our medicine, ignoring the patent sy
JOHANNESBURG - The South African government proposed a five-year plan Wednesday to reduce the number of new HIV infections by 50%, saying it had failed to persuade young people to change their sexual habits. In a report, the government also said the country needed to better address the stigma associated with the diseas
NEW HAVEN, Conn - With her greyish hair and pink sweater, retired teacher Joanne Iannotti looks like a typical grandmother as she emerges slowly from her home with a little bag of dirty hypodermic needles. She shuffles to a van and exchanges her bag for clean needles for her adult sons, who she says shoot heroin with t
HELENA, Mont. - People passing through the Port of Chief Mountain on Montana s northern edge often are vacationers traveling between Glacier National Park and the neighboring Waterton Lakes park in Canada . U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspections of cars and people at the port, which is about 55 miles from the n
WASHINGTON - Gao Yaojie shakes her head, stabbing hard at the air with her forefinger, when asked if the Chinese government is helping fund her efforts to expose the country s AIDS problems. Not even a dime, the 79-year-old AIDS activist said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. This is a message some Chin
MUMBAI, India - Helping women to understand their rights is crucial in the fight against HIV/AIDS, said Ashley Judd in an interview published Monday. Grass-roots prevention programs that target women work well, the 38-year-old Hollywood actress told the Mumbai-based DNA newspaper. Judd is representing Population Se
SUN CITY, Ariz. - A 65-year-old salesman from Sun City walks into his doctor s office complaining of fever, headaches, swollen glands and general feelings of weakness. He s checked for the flu, Valley fever and strep throat but every test comes back negative. His doctor, Amardeep Sodhi, then asks him if he can recall h
LOS ANGELES - Federal agents trailed Sparky Rose as he drove a Porsche Carrera convertible to his medical marijuana clinic. Under California law, clinics are supposed to dispense marijuana just to seriously ill people and clinic owners are to get only reasonable compensation. But to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administra
ALBANY, N.Y. - Schools, homes and workplaces will become the site of new efforts to make New York the the healthiest state, under proposals by Gov. Eliot Spitzer scheduled for release Monday. The efforts, backed by $200 million in Spitzer s 2007-08 budget proposal, include: -Requiring body mass index reporting in schoo
-Records dealing with the prevention or response to criminal terrorist acts. where the disclosure would create a substantial likelihood of threatening public safety. -Information regarding security systems, like access codes and passwords. -Records dealing with ongoing criminal investigations, until a referral is made
SAN FRANCISCO - Even on a weekday in winter, the Castro district vibrates with energy, most of it male. Men holding hands, walking dogs and lounging at cafes have long been the main attraction in a neighborhood known as a gay mecca the world over. Yet where visitors see a living monument to gay pride, longtime communit
SEATTLE - King County jails are plagued by medical care problems that have resulted in three deaths since 2003 and could expose the state s most populous county to costly lawsuits, The Seattle Times reported Friday. Out of 614 errors logged in 2005 by the health staff at the downtown jail and the Regional Justice Cente
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. has halted payments to clinics that treat AIDS patients in Puerto Rico, forcing hundreds of poor people to go without free medicine in a U.S. territory with an AIDS rate nearly double that of the mainland. Puerto Rican officials blame the FBI, saying agents investigating fraud seized do
OLYMPIA, Wash. - Medically accurate sex education would be mandatory in public schools that choose to teach sex education under a measure that passed the state Senate. After more than three hours of debate, the bill was approved on a 30-19 vote Wednesday and now heads to the House. Each Republican walked off the floor
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that sex education is the best way to combat AIDS and teenage pregnancy, taking a swipe at the church in this predominantly Catholic country. Silva said that 30 percent of Brazilian girls aged 15 to 17 leave school due to pregnancy and argued t
NEW YORK - First daughter Jenna Bush is writing a nonfiction book for young adults, Ana s Story: A Journey of Hope, that will center on a 17-year-old single mother who is HIV positive. Based on her time working for UNICEF, the book will be published this fall by HarperCollins. I have been inspired by my work with adole
LONDON - Circumcision may reduce men s chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent - but early results suggest the procedure may put women at increased risk of infection, according to preliminary data presented Tuesday. Early results announced at a U.N. consultation in Switzerland on the potential impact of male
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Bob Hattoy, an advocate for gay and lesbian issues who accused the former President Bush of doing nothing about AIDS during a nationally televised speech at the Democratic National Convention, has died. He was 56. Hattoy, president of the California Fish and Game Commission, died Sunday of complica
New York - Rock star and activist Bono is adding another title to his resume: first-ever guest editor of Vanity Fair. The U2 frontman will edit the magazine s Africa-themed July issue, on newsstands in early June, on behalf of his Project RED campaign, it was announced Tuesday. We ve talked about doing a special issue
CINCINNATI - Almost four years ago, six eighth grade girls set up shop in their cafeteria and raised $2,000 selling T-shirts to buy shoes for South African children. The project they began, Helping Other People Endure (H.O.P.E.), took hold and recently surpassed $500,000 in fundraising. It has provided clothing and dai
MADISON, Wis. - Gov. Jim Doyle has turned down about $600,000 in federal abstinence education money because new rules would limit how much recipients could talk about contraception or sexually transmitted diseases this year. Doyle asked the Department of Health and Family Services to notify federal authorities of his d
UNITED NATIONS - A 16-year-old Nepalese girl burst into tears describing her work in a match factory to help support her mother. A Jordanian teen spoke out about violence against girls in rural areas. A former child soldier from Congo cried when she recalled her suffering as a sex slave. The three are among more than 2
SACRAMENTO - A new employee at the state Department of Health Services inadvertently mixed up letters containing personal information that were sent to 54 patients enrolled in an AIDS drug program, state officials said Friday. The staffer thought the letters, which contained information about people enrolled in the Cal
LOS ANGELES - A majority of primary care providers in Los Angeles County failed to advise their Hispanic patients to get tested for HIV, according to a new study. The percentage of AIDS cases for Hispanics in the county has increased from 20 percent of all new cases in the 1980s, when the epidemic began, to 43 percent
ALER, Uganda - Telephone to Jesus. Hello? the children of Aler refugee camp sing, their bare feet thumping the ground as they dance wildly in their concrete chapel. Most camp residents have never used a phone, but they are learning about Jesus. The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, smiled as h
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - A bookmark distributed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services not only teaches teens and children about HIV and AIDS, it provides a phone number that patches them into a hardcore sex hot line. St. Joseph resident Lori Felzien said she found out about the hot line when her sixth-grade
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration can deny funding to nonprofit AIDS groups that don t publicly disavow prostitution and sex trafficking. Overturning a lower court s decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that the AIDS groups free speech right
MEXICO CITY - Mexico s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the armed forces cannot kick out HIV-positive members because doing so is discriminatory and unconstitutional. The court, with an 8-3 vote, ordered Mexico s Defense Department to return to duty four soldiers who were expelled from the armed forces for testing HIV-
REGINA, Saskatchewan, Canada - A former Canadian Football League player infected with HIV was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison Monday for knowingly exposing two women to the virus by having unprotected sex with them. Trevis Smith, a linebacker who attended Alabama and later played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, wa
NEW YORK - Trial data of several new products aimed at fighting HIV will be released this week in Los Angeles at a conference as the disease continues to spread. There are 40,000 new human immunodeficiency virus infections in the U.S. each year and 4.3 million new cases worldwide, according to the federal Centers for D
BEIJING - An 80-year-old AIDS activist whom Chinese authorities have repeatedly blocked from going abroad left Monday for the United States to receive an award from a group supported by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Gao Yaojie, a retired gynecologist, said she was still constrained by fears of reprisals when she returns
PASADENA, Calif. - Queen Latifah never does the expected. So when asked about the challenges of playing an HIV-positive wife and mother, as she does in HBO s Life Support, her answer was, indeed, surprising. The only challenge was trying to stay in character when you ve got people driving past you on the street going,
FOSTER CITY, Calif. - Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc. said Friday its developing HIV treatment GS-9137 met its goal in a midstage study. The drug candidate is an integrase inhibitor that aims to interfere with HIV replication by blocking the virus from integrating into cells. The Phase II clinical trial
CHICAGO - The Rev. Jesse Jackson visited the Cook County Jail on Friday, where he took an HIV test and encouraged inmates to do the same. You can help us attack a killer disease before a killer disease kills us, Jackson told the crowd of inmates, before dozens lined up to take the tests that involved rubbing a swab alo
NEW YORK - An AIDS organization has launched an ad campaign against Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY), demanding that it lower the prices on two of its AIDS treatments in Mexico. Ads with the headline AIDS Drug Prices to Die For began appearing on Thursday in LA Weekly, according to the campaign s sponsor, AIDS Healthcare
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - South Africa s health minister, the target of international criticism for espousing garlic and lemons for AIDS patients, is in intensive care with a lung ailment and acute anemia, her doctor said Friday. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who has voiced doubts about the safety and effectiveness of AIDS
LONDON - In an extraordinary development in the fight against AIDS, a medical journal article published Friday says that conclusive data shows there is no question circumcision reduces men s chances of catching HIV by up to 60 percent. The question now is how to put that fact to work to combat AIDS across Africa. T
CHESTER, W.Va. - That left hook still works all these years later for Tommy Morrison. The former WBO heavyweight champion stopped John Castle in the second round Thursday night in his return to the ring 11 years after testing positive for the virus that causes AIDS. The 38-year-old Morrison, who claims he has no trace
MOSCOW - The government Thursday approved a new program to fight diseases that contribute to Russia s plunging population, which President Vladimir Putin has singled out as a serious hindrance to its prosperity, news reports said. Approval of a five-year financing plan aimed to decrease mortality from diseases includin
ROME, Italy - Three patients at hospitals in Tuscany were mistakenly given organs from an HIV-positive donor, raising serious concerns about transplant procedures in Italy. A 41-year-old woman s kidneys and liver were taken after she died of a brain hemorrhage at Florence s Careggi hospital and were implanted due to a
MEDIA, Pa. - The trial of a woman who said she was HIV positive and was accused of having sex with Cheyney University students was been moved because the dormitory in which she was arrested is in a different county than the rest of the university s dorms. The Feb. 8 arrest of Sakinah Floyd, 35, prompted an HIV scare at
Treating genital herpes can also help keep the AIDS virus under control in women with both infections, and might reduce the spread of HIV, too, the first major study to test this strategy suggests. Many people with HIV are also infected with the herpes type 2 virus, and scientists have long known that herpes sores on t
BANJUL, Gambia - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh is causing a stir in the international medical community as he claims he has a cure for AIDS. The Gambia, formally known as Republic of the Gambia, is a small nation on the west coast of Africa, bordered on three sides by Senegal . The other si
OAKLAND, Calif. - Armed with a new study showing the drug can ease pain in some HIV patients, medical-marijuana advocates sued the federal government Wednesday over its claim that pot has no accepted medical uses. The lawsuit, filed in federal court by Americans for Safe Access, accuses the government of arbitrarily pr
NAIROBI, Kenya - A man wanted in at least 18 killings in Kenya -- including the deaths of a leading AIDS researcher and an American missionary -- was shot dead on Tuesday after a police raid on his house. Police surrounded the house and called on Simon Matheri Ikere to surrender; he was shot to death after he refused.
CHESTER, W.Va. - Former WBO heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison is staging a comeback, saying Tuesday that a positive HIV test that ended his career more than a decade ago was inaccurate. I m negative and I ve always been negative and that should be the end of it, Morrison said in a telephone interview with The Associa
ATLANTA - A random inspection by the Georgia Department of Agriculture at a supermarket in northeast Georgia led to the recall of more than 50,000 pounds of cooked chicken striips. State and federal officials say testing last week on a sample six-ounce package of ready-to-eat Oscar Meyer/Louis rich chicken breat strips
TORONTO - The Canadian government and Bill Gates announced an initiative Tuesday to establish a research institute to develop an AIDS vaccine, committing a total of $119 million to the project. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government has pledged $95.3 million to a new fund called the Canadian HIV Vaccine Init
TORONTO - The Canadian government and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates unveiled an initiative Tuesday to develop a vaccine that would combat the virus that causes AIDS. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government would commit up to C$111 million to a new fund called the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, while
* Carolina Culinary Foods, a West Columbia, S.C., firm, is recalling approximately 52,650 pounds of chicken that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Involved are six-ounce packages of grilled Oscar Mayer/Louis Rich chicken breast strips with rib meat, fully cooked and ready to eat. Inside the USDA mark of
TRIPLOLI, Libya - Five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya for infecting hundreds of children with the virus that causes AIDS have appealed against their convictions, their Libyan attorney said Sunday. Othman Bizanti said he lodged the appeal on their behalf Saturday at the court where they had been tried for
LAS GUARANAS, Dominican Republic - Leaving her tin-roofed brothel for the day, the 42-year-old prostitute journeys to the capital for an injection that might save not only her life, but possibly millions more around the world. Jacinta Julia Adams Fernandez, a mother of three, is one of 175 Dominican prostitutes lending
SAN FRANCISCO - It may be possible to battle AIDS into a low-rate of infection, but it will take a long time and elimination of the disease seems unlikely, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease said Saturday. It s a disease transmitted by sexual activity, which is a fun
EMPORIA, Kan. - An HIV-infected man already convicted in Douglas County of knowingly exposing women to the virus, and charged in western Missouri with doing the same thing, now faces trial in Lyon County as well. Robert Richardson II, 30, of Lawrence, was sentenced in November to 32 months in prison after being convict
NEW YORK - EMD Serono Inc. agreed to pay $24 million to settle a civil lawsuit that alleged it promoted the company s AIDS drug Serostim for unapproved uses. Earlier this week, the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts granted preliminary approval of the settlement, which would reimburse health plans, health insurance p
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Chinese officials signaled Friday they will allow a prominent AIDS activist who had been confined to her home to visit the United States next month, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said. Gao Yaojie, 80, was confined to her home, worrying fellow activists who said the measure was aimed at keeping her from
MEDIA, Pa. - A woman who said she was HIV positive and had sex with several Cheyney University students told a judge she is not getting medication to treat the condition in prison. Sakinah Floyd, 35, told District Judge Richard Cappelli at a preliminary hearing Thursday that she had been without her medication since he
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A preliminary hearing for an AIDS activist accused of feigning the illness was delayed for a third time when some of the witnesses, including two doctors, failed to appear. A judge said Thursday the hearing to determine whether charges against Cassey Weierbach, 28, should be sent to Lehigh County Court
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday signed a $464 billion spending bill that closes out last year s unfinished budget business but made clear he wasn t entirely happy about it. Bush said in a statement that he was pleased the bill sticks to his overall budget caps. But he said the Democratic-led Congress did so by
ATLANTA - Ponds and swamps are becoming eerily silent. The familiar melody of ribbits, croaks and chirps is disappearing as a mysterious killer fungus wipes out frog populations around the globe, a phenomenon likened to the extinction of dinosaurs. Scientists from around the world are meeting Thursday and Friday in Atl
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama s two years in the Senate have taken him around the world, from Russia to Iraq to Kenya - an itinerary more costly to taxpayers than any other senator who took office with him. The Illinois Democrat s travels in 2005 and 2006 co
Drug developer Merck & Co. said it is reducing the price of its HIV medicine Stocrin, or efavirenz , for the least developed countries and those hit hardest by the disease. The price of the 600-milligram formula was lowered 14.5 percent to 65 cents per day, or $237.25 per year per patient.
A U.S. congressman critical of rising drug costs on Wednesday urged Swiss pharmaceuticals maker Novartis AG to reconsider its patent lawsuit against the Indian government, saying it could chill the supply of affordable drugs in developing nations. Novartis (nyse: NVS - news - people ) has challenged India s decision to
WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday passed a $464 billion spending bill that closes out last year s unfinished budget business while providing clues about how the new Democratic Congress and President Bush will do business. The bill, passed 81 to 15, sticks to Mr. Bush s overall budget caps but finds numerous ways aro
The number of H-I-V cases rose nine percent in Wisconsin last year. The state Department of Health and Family Services says the number of cases climbed to 408 in 2006. More than half of the new cases are in southeastern Wisconsin. The state report says 73 percent of AIDS cases are among men who have had sex with other
NEW YORK - If you need to buy flowers or chocolate for your Valentine on Wednesday, you re on your own. The condoms, however, are free - courtesy of New York City. Taking advantage of the holiday for lovers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg s administration was to unveil the official city condom in midtown Manhattan, where volu
BARCELONA, Spain - The U.S. government and several mobile phone companies have announced a $10 million initiative that takes advantage of cell phone networks to improve heath care in the developing world. The partnership Phones-for-Health includes network operators, handset makers, technology companies, health groups a
SHANGHAI, China - China has praised a prominent AIDS activist days after the woman was confined to her home, a move fellow activists said was aimed at preventing her from accepting an award in the United States . In a Lunar New Year visit to Gao Yaojie s home on Monday, a Communist Party deputy secretary extolled the d
SAN FRANCISCO - Smoking marijuana eased HIV-related pain in some patients in a small study that nevertheless represented one of the few rigorous attempts to find out if the drug has medicinal benefits. The Bush administration s Office of National Drug Control Policy quickly sought to shoot holes in the experiment.
ATLANTA - Georgia researchers could make groundbreaking discoveries in the treatment of HIV and Alzheimer s disease but will need continued financial help from the Legislature to do so, university presidents told state lawmakers Monday. The presidents of the Georgia s four public research universities - Georgia Tech, G
SAO PAULO, Brazil : Brazil s Health Ministry will distribute 10 million condoms ahead of Carnival - a period of wild partying and lowered inhibitions - in an effort to fight AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in Latin America s largest country, the official government news agency said Sunday. The AIDS pre
High-risk pregnancies are on the rise in the United States and may be more common now than at any other time since modern obstetric care became available. Why? More fortysomething moms are having babies, and epidemics of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure are causing pregnancy and birth complications. But in
CHEYNEY, Pa. - A woman who said she is HIV-positive acknowledged having sex with at least 10 male students at Cheyney University, and could not confirm that all had used condoms, police said. University officials urged anyone who has had sexual contact with the woman to seek an HIV test immediately. University police r
URBANA, Ill. - Why did the cat cross Windsor Road? Illinois Natural History Survey and University of Illinois researchers don t think the answer is as simple as to get to the other side, in the words of that old joke about the chicken. So they re embarking on a study of free-ranging cats near the UI s South Farms. The
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The number of HIV infections in Malaysia could surge by more than fourfold to 300,000 by 2015 as the virus spreads rapidly from high-risk groups to the general public, a senior health official warned Sunday. Other than drug addicts, official statistics indicate the HIV virus that causes AIDS is
NEW DELHI, India - Nearly half of India s children are malnourished, putting the country in the same league as some of the world s poorest countries - even though fewer infants are dying and more pregnant Indian women are seeing doctors, according to government data released Friday. The figures from India s Nationa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - President Thabo Mbeki pledged in his annual state of the nation address Friday to increase police numbers, improve the private security industry and reduce court backlogs in an effort to reduce crime in South Africa. In his speech to the parliament, Mbeki sought to calm criticism that the gove
PORTLAND, Ore. - Teenaged gangsters in Kenya shot an Oregon woman in the mouth during an attack that left a top AIDS researcher dead. Carol Briggs, 64, of Tigard was in serious condition at a Nairobi hospital Wednesday, three days after the attack that killed Job Bwayo, who was in the same car. Bwayo s wife, Elizabeth,
WASHINGTON - Democrats controlling the Senate are pushing through a huge spending bill funding 13 Cabinet agencies as they wrap up the unfinished budget mess inherited from Republicans. The $463.5 billion measure debated Thursday would pay for about one-sixth of the budget, combining nine spending bills that failed to
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia : The U.N. s food agency said Thursday it will resume partial food distribution to many hungry and sick Cambodians after receiving aid from the United States and Spain . The United States has provided 5,500 tons (6,100 U.S. tons) tons of pulses, a group that includes peas and beans, and
WASHINGTON - A Food and Drug Administration panel in April will review a Pfizer HIV therapy that, if approved, would be the first in a new class of drugs to treat the virus that causes AIDS. The FDA said Thursday its antiviral drugs advisory committee will meet April 24 to assess the safety and effectiveness of Pfizer
CROWN POINT, Ind. - A Gary woman who allowed her HIV-positive boyfriend to molest her two children over two years was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Delores Warren, 25, had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent. She admitted leaving her daughter and son, then ages 7 and 6, with Robert Crocker
GENEVA - Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, France s ambassador for the international battle against the AIDS epidemic, was chosen Thursday to head the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an official said. Kazatchkine, a former director of the French National Agency for AIDS research, will succeed Briton Richard
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Hundreds of people gathered throughout the state Wednesday in observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which was marked with seminars and other events. Randy Jones with the state health department s disease prevention division, said educational events at campuses and health departments in
LOS ANGELES - Rocker James Blunt will perform at the 15th annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards celebration Feb. 25 at the Pacific Design Center, the foundation announced Wednesday. James is a truly talented singer-songwriter, Elton John said in a statement. His voice and expressive lyrics enchant audiences
NEW YORK - Victor Mooney plans to row up to 18 hours a day, crossing the Atlantic alone from Africa, to raise awareness about the high AIDS rate in the black community. I lost a brother to AIDS and I have a brother living with the virus, said the 41-year-old activist and college publicist from Brooklyn, who on Wednesda
TOKYO - The numbers of new infections of HIV and AIDS patients in Japan hit record highs in 2006, the Health Ministry said Wednesday, underscoring concerns over spreading infections. The number of new HIV infections last year was 914, up 9.9% from 832 cases in 2005, according to preliminary data released by the ministr
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A state disciplinary committee filed an ethics complaint Tuesday against a judge who refused to release a dying man from jail and then allegedly issued a misleading order apparently in response to a newspaper story about that case. The Investigative Panel of the Judicial Qualification Commission als
BEIJING - A U.S. women s advocacy group said Tuesday it hopes that an apparent travel ban imposed on a prominent Chinese AIDS activist can be lifted so she can be honored in Washington, D.C. next month. Dr. Gao Yaojie, an 80-year-old doctor who embarrassed Chinese leaders by exposing blood-selling schemes that infected
SOFIA, Bulgaria - The U.K. s Europe Minister Geoff Hoon said Tuesday that the Libyan AIDS case should not be linked to the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland. A Libyan court has sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for allegedly infecting more than 400 children with HIV/A
BEIJING - At a time when China s government has granted the foreign media greater freedom, it is tightening controls on Chinese who write about politically sensitive or embarrassing topics, human rights activists and journalists say. International PEN, a writer s organization that calls itself the world s oldest human
WASHINGTON - Michigan s House delegation was split over a spending bill covering about one-sixth of the federal budget, a measure which included increases for education, veterans and fighting AIDS in Africa. Michigan s six Democrats last week voted for the $463.5 billion spending bill, along with Republicans Thaddeus M
BEIJING - A retired Chinese doctor who helped expose blood-buying schemes that infected thousands with HIV has been put under house arrest to stop her from traveling to Washington to be honored by a charity backed by Sen. Hillary Clinton, a friend said Monday. Gao Yaojie is among China s most prominent and tenacious AI
WASHINGTON - The District of Columbia s health director has launched a campaign to address what has been called an AIDS/HIV crisis in the nation s capital. Today, one in 20 District residents is infected with the human immunodeficiency virus - the virus that causes AIDS - and about one in 15 residents is living with AI
Convicts coming into Texas prisons can look forward to likely mandatory testing for HIV and AIDS. Under current regulations, state inmates can be tested at any time but may decline to be tested. Statistics show about 80 percent agree to the tests, with less than 2 percent of them identified as HIV-positive. Under legis
SEATTLE - A hard-to-treat strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been found in four gay men in King County, and authorities fear it could spread to more. There is no evidence that the troublesome strain of HIV is spreading rapidly, but its appearance underscores the need for renewed emphasis on safe sex practices, of
SOFIA, Bulgaria - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Friday expressed his country s support for the five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya . Their suffering should be put soonest to an end, Villepin said at a joint news conference with his Bulgarian counterpart, Sergei Stanishev.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - HIV infection in black Floridians dropped by an average of more than 8 percent per year for men and more than 10 percent a year for women between 1999 and 2004, according to a study released Thursday by federal officials. The analysis of new HIV diagnoses by the Florida Department of Health and rele
ABUJA, Nigeria - Health officials reported Nigeria s first cases of bird flu in humans Wednesday, saying one woman had died and a family member had been infected but was responding to treatment. The 22-year-old woman died Jan. 17 in Lagos, Information Minister Frank Nweke said. He added that the government was boosting
Researchers have halted two studies of an anti-AIDS vaginal gel in Africa and India after early results suggested it might raise the risk of HIV infection instead of lowering it. It was a disappointing and unexpected setback to efforts to get a simple tool to protect women from the risk of AIDS through sex, the
MUMBAI, India - Ralph Fiennes, who s spent the last five days traveling to villages in western India as a UNICEF ambassador, said Wednesday that he was moved by the spirit of India s HIV-infected rural populace in the face of social ostracism. What has moved me is not the tragedy or the shadow over these people, but th
WASHINGTON - The House passed a $463.5 billion spending bill Wednesday that covers about one-sixth of the federal budget as Democrats cleared away the financial mess they inherited from Republicans. Before the 286-140 vote, Republicans made modest objections to Democrats spending decisions but protested greatly over ho
WASHINGTON - Democrats have unveiled a massive spending bill combining the budgets of 13 Cabinet agencies with increases in aid for lower-income college students, while cutting President Bush s funding requests for foreign aid and closing military bases. House Republicans such as party whip Roy Blunt of Missouri slamme
ST. LOUIS - Health officials in St. Louis County are seeking potentially hundreds of customers of an unlicensed tattoo parlor over concerns that they could have been exposed to HIV and forms of hepatitis due to nonsterile equipment. The unlicensed parlor was operated out of a house in Jennings. The operator was arreste
GENEVA - The body representing Red Cross societies around the world appealed Tuesday for 358 million Swiss francs ($286 million) to fund its work this year, especially to tackle the effects of climate change and fighting HIV/AIDS. The figure is about CHF147 million higher than the amount the International Federation of
NEW DELHI: Hundreds of Indian activists protested in New Delhi on Monday against a challenge to the country s patent law by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, saying the move could leave millions without access to affordable medicine. Novartis, which makes the popular leukemia drug Gleevec - known in Europe and India
SOFIA, Bulgaria - The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor condemned to death by a Libyan court had received unjust verdicts and they won t be executed, a Bulgarian newspaper reported Monday. We don t want to see executions in Libya, of Libyans or Bulgarians. We don t
DAVOS, Switzerland - Melinda Gates has traveled the world with her husband, meeting with the rich and powerful and visiting its poorest in remote African villages. She and her husband share top-billing at the world s richest foundation, but Bill Gates always dominated the spotlight - until this year. Taking the sta
DAVOS, Switzerland - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and musician Bono on Friday urged countries and companies that have pledged to aid Africa to keep their promises and their helping hands extended. A failure to do so would nullify the efforts made so far, said Blair, who made debt relief for Africa the platform of
OSLO, Norway - Norway s government on Friday proposed lifting a national ban on using human embryonic stem cells for research, saying the change might help find cures to a broad range of diseases. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to become any tissue in the body, leading scientists to see them as a possible source
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Thursday he will ask Senate leaders to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in additional financial aid for college students, but he cautioned university leaders will have to agree to hold tuition rates steady. Lawmakers must also try to find a way to improve four- and six-year graduatio
NEW YORK - Available soon from City Hall: an official New York condom in a jazzy wrapper, perhaps one printed with a colorful subway map or some other city theme. New York City hands out 1.5 million free condoms a month in ordinary wrappers, and health officials figure people would be more likely to actually use them i
LONDON - Doctors have recommended forcibly detaining people in South Africa who refuse treatment for a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, an extreme measure meant to keep the infected away from others to curb the spread of the disease, according to a paper published Monday in an international medical journal. Sin
CHRISTIANSTED, U.S. Virgin Islands : Widespread ignorance about HIV/AIDS is undermining efforts to fight the spread of the virus in the Caribbean, which has the second highest rate of infection after sub-Saharan Africa, health officials said Sunday. Discrimination by employers and others is so pervasive that infected p
TRIPOLI, Libya - The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi warned European Parliament members Saturday against politicizing the case of five Bulgarian nurses convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV and sentenced to death. The message from Seif al-Islam Gadhafi came in response to European Commission threats that
MIAMI - The former president of a firm that sold investments based on death benefits of elderly people, AIDS patients and other terminally ill individuals was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for fraud totaling nearly $1 billion. Peter Lombardi, 56, told U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck he was assisting in the co
NEW YORK - Pfizer Inc. (PFE) may announce $2 billion in cost cuts including plant closings and slashing up to 10% of the work force when new chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Kindler announces his plan next week for a strategic overhaul of the world s largest drug maker, analysts say. They also want to hear how
ALMATY, Kazakhstan - Twenty-one doctors and health officials accused of causing an HIV outbreak went on trial in Kazakhstan Friday, local authorities said. Blood transfusions from unchecked donors or contaminated needles have been blamed for the infections among 87 children, most under the age of three. Twelve mothers
LOS ANGELES - Federal drug agents raided nearly a dozen medical marijuana clinics, seizing several thousand pounds of processed marijuana, along with weapons and money, authorities said. Several people were detained, although no arrests were made after five dispensaries in West Hollywood and six others in Venice, Holly
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - State Health Officer Don Williamson knows that many will probably remember 2006 as the year when problems in Alabama s abortion clinics were exposed and the state saw its first increase in infant deaths since 1998. He s hoping to turn those low points into some of the highlights of 2007, with plans t
COLUMBIA, Mo. - University of Missouri Health Care is submitting a joint bid with a private company for a state contract to provide thousands of state prison inmates with medical care over an electronic network. The university health care system and Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources Inc. are bidding for a Departm
GENEVA - Despite progress in preventing HIV transmission from pregnant mothers to their babies, more than 1,000 children around the world were infected with the disease each day in 2006, according to a U.N. report. Some sub-Saharan African countries - such as Namibia , Swaziland ,
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Wednesday pledged to continue to make every effort to win the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with HIV. I will use every tool that seems necessary and useful to reach our goal, and our g
ELYRIA, Ohio - A state prisoner who has AIDS has been charged with performing a sex act on his sleeping cellmate at the Lorain Correctional Institution, a prosecutor said. Michael Gross, 32, of Cleveland, was indicted on sexual battery and felonious assault charges. The felonious assault charge was filed because Gross
SEATTLE - Nearly a third of Washington s school districts do not allow teachers to discuss condoms or any other form of contraception except for abstinence in their sex education classes, according to a new report paid for by a coalition working to reduce pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among teens. Two hun
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Millions of Bulgarians have joined a nationwide campaign calling for the release of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya after they were convicted of infecting children with AIDS, pollsters said Monday. A court in Tripoli last month convicted the nurses and a Palestinian doctor of intenti
WASHINGTON - The Washington Free Clinic, a pioneer in free and low-cost health care, will see its final patients this week. The clinic was the first of its kind on the East Coast when it opened in 1968, treating people in the basement of a Georgetown church. But in recent years, it has struggled financially and nearly
CEBU, Philippines - Southeast Asian leaders must do more to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS, the United Nations said Friday, calling for increased funding for treatment and programs targeting high-risk groups. Asia has the second-largest number of people living with HIV after Africa, and for the first time, leaders of t
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Programs designed to prevent new HIV infections in Coconino County have been cut after the county Health Department lost its grant funding. The department ran the programs aimed at preventing new infections in the gay and bisexual community for more than a decade using state grants. But the money wen
WASHINGTON - The tiny parasite undulates under the microscope like some creature from a sci-fi movie, but this one is all too real, latching onto the sexually unwary with tentacle-like probes. Now scientists have mapped the genes of the nasty little bug that causes one of the world s most common, and arguably least rec
MUMBAI, India - Richard Gere urged thousands of sex workers in Mumbai on Wednesday to insist their clients use condoms to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. No condoms, no sex! the 57-year-old actor shouted at an AIDS awareness event in Mumbai, the country s financial and entertainment hub. Gere urged the crowd of mo
BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Libya to free five Bulgarian nurses accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV, and the head of the European Commission warned that the case could hurt Europe s relations with Tripoli. Germany , which holds the rotating EU presidency, and the EU commission will do ever
DURHAM, N.C. - Detecting whether patients with HIV/AIDS are infected with even small amounts of drug-resistant forms of the virus can be done with a test developed by researchers at Duke University Medical Center. While other tests only pick up drug-resistant strains when they represent a significant portion of the vir
For just the third year since 1985, no babies were born with AIDS virus in Wisconsin. The state Department of Health and Family Services records show that from 1994 to 2005, 22 babies born to H-I-V-positive mothers in Wisconsin got the virus during or near the time of delivery. From 1985 to 1994, 31 babies were infecte
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - A pastor who formed a charity to build group homes for HIV-positive substance abusers has raided its accounts for personal expenses, a report Sunday said. An investigation by The Journal Gazette found the governing board of the Archey AIDS Foundation is essentially nonexistent and that the founder, t
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Oprah Winfrey took an HIV test Saturday and encouraged students at her new school and their loved ones to follow suit, in a bid to inspire more openness about the disease that is devastating South Africa s youth. At an open day for families at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, th
TRENTON, N.J. - A small biotech company developing drugs that use antibodies to target nasty germs has partnered with Pfizer Inc. to create medicines to treat life-threatening infections, starting with drug-resistant staph cases. Elusys Therapeutics Inc. of Montville, which has been developing an anthrax treatment for
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Oprah Winfrey opened a school Tuesday for disadvantaged girls, fulfilling a promise she made to former President Nelson Mandela six years ago and giving more than 150 students a chance for a better future. I wanted to give this opportunity to girls who had a light so bright that not even po
SOFIA, Bulgaria - Bulgaria and Romania -- two former communist nations from one of the poorest corners of Europe -- joined the European Union on Monday to bring the bloc s membership to 27 nations. The two, which bring 30 million new members to the union, officially joined the EU at midnight to joyous fireworks celebra
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