CLOSE your eyes and think of someone who has hurt you. The offense may be profound or small but deeply painful, a single arrow to your heart or a thousand wounding slights. The perpetrator may be a stranger -- the guy who caused your accident, the gang-banger who took your child. More likely, it will be someone close a
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE - There are long lines in Zimbabwe for everything from food to money, but the queue that defeated Alexander Mudewe and his wife, Perpetual, could end up killing them: the one for HIV drugs at the government hospital here. When Alexander became ill three months ago, the couple decided to get tested; b
Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, robyn.dixon@latimes.com
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE - There are long lines in Zimbabwe for everything from food to money, but the queue that defeated Alexander Mudewe and his wife, Perpetual, could end up killing them: the one for HIV drugs at the government hospital here. When Alexander became ill three months ago, the couple decided to get tested; b
The busy Arizona doctor was idly rummaging through photos of a recent Los Angeles visit when one snapshot made him stop. It had been the most apprehensive click of the trip. It had been a dreaded intrusion into the life of a famous man on a famous street. The doctor was scared to ask for it, scared to snap it, and even
Charles Piller, charles.piller@latimes.com and Doug Smith, doug.smith@latimes.com
In a statement posted on its website, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has challenged portions of a Los Angeles Times article about Global Fund efforts in Africa. The Times report, published Sunday, said the Global Fund and other programs supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have
POLOKWANE, SOUTH AFRICA -- Populist Jacob Zuma overcame allegations of corruption and rape to win the leadership of South Africa s governing party Tuesday, putting the candidate of the country s poor and angry townships on course to become the next president. The vote represents a dramatic shift for South Africa, where
Maseru, Lesotho -- A neighbor shaved Matsepang Nyoba s head with an antiquated razor. Blood beaded on her scalp. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but not because of the pain. She was in mourning, and this was a ritual. Two days earlier, her newborn baby girl had died in the roach-infested maternity ward of Queen Elizabe
HA NOHANA, LESOTHO - Teboho mahate was shivering. He had trouble keeping his balance. He couldn t talk, and he had bitten his tongue. A seizure. Any pain anywhere? asked Dr. Jennifer Furin. Teboho, 14, held his head. Furin looked into his eyes, checking for dilated pupils. She turned him on his side and, in English alo
By Charles Piller and Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
MASERU, LESOTHO - A neighbor shaved Matsepang Nyoba s head with an antiquated razor. Blood beaded on her scalp. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but not because of the pain. She was in mourning, and this was a ritual. Two days earlier, her newborn baby girl had died in the roach-infested maternity ward of Queen Elizabet
The disease is better understood than in 1992, when he called for isolating AIDS patients. Ryan White s mother is alarmed by his words. VAN METER, IOWA -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee defended himself Tuesday against continuing criticism of statements he made about AIDS 15 years ago, when he called f
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security provides inadequate care and treatment of illegal immigrant detainees with HIV/AIDS, according to a new survey by a civil rights group that was prompted by the July death of a transgender inmate at a San Pedro facility. Human Rights Watch issued a 71-page report Friday to encour
MOUNT AIRY, MD. -- President Bush urged Congress on Friday to renew his program to fund anti-AIDS efforts around the world and said he would visit sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is the leading cause of death, early next year. As the White House displayed a 28-foot red ribbon at the front door to mark World AIDS
Christian Berthelsen, christian.berthelsen@ latimes.com
In an address that melded her personal faith and her campaign vow to battle AIDS, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday said that if elected, she would boost U.S. spending on the disease and encourage abstinence and the use of condoms to eradicate it. AIDS remains a plague of biblical proportion
This Saturday is World AIDS Day and as a tribute, theater artist-activist Michael Kearns is premiering his spoken memoir Going In: Once Upon a Time in South Africa , chronicling a month he spent in Johannesburg with his daughter, Tia (pictured), working at an orphanage, assistant-teaching high school and learning about
Dr. Merle Sande, an infectious-disease specialist who helped turn San Francisco General Hospital into a model for AIDS and HIV care in the early years of the health crisis and later devoted himself to building an infrastructure to prevent and treat AIDS in Africa, died Nov. 14 of multiple myeloma at his home in Seattle
For years, critics have accused the United Nations of artificially inflating its estimates on the number of people with AIDS worldwide as a way of making the epidemic appear more widespread than it really is and thus wringing more money out of donor nations to fight it. They were feeling vindicated last week, when the
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Jane Fowler thinks it s about time college students had the talk with their grandparents. She doesn t mean grandmothers and grandfathers explaining the facts of life. She wants kids to explain safe sex to their elders. It s part of a broader message the 72-year-old has advocated for more than a decad
Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
The United Nations on Monday radically lowered years of estimates of the number of people worldwide infected by the AIDS virus, revealing that the growth of the AIDS pandemic is waning for the first time since HIV was discovered 26 years ago. The revised figures, which were the result of much more sophisticated samplin
From a distance, their relationship is hard to peg. There s a sense of intimacy in their body language, as the tall, broad-shouldered white man and his young black female companion stroll across the park toward me. He adjusts his gait to match her speed; they brush against each other comfortably. I recognize their fami
Susannah Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles County supervisors are poised to approve a program that will identify the 50 most vulnerable homeless people on downtown s skid row and move them within 100 days into apartments with readily accessible support services. The program, patterned after projects underway in New York City and elsewhere, is not on
HARARE, Zimbabwe - The stage was a small room in the Harare Central Police Station. The audience, about 20 bored policemen and plainclothes intelligence officers. The two actors were shaking, not with stage fright but the real thing. Anthony Tongani stammered and forgot his lines. Silvanos Mudzvova was so afraid that h
WASHINGTON -- In the fall of 1992, Kanatjan Alibekov defected from Russia to the United States , bringing detailed, and chilling, descriptions of his role in making biological weapons for the former Soviet Union. As a doctor of microbiology, a physician and a colonel in the Red Army, he helped lead the Soviet effort.
The number of newly diagnosed cases of the three most common sexually transmitted diseases rose for the second year in a row in the U.S., driven in part by an increase in risky sexual behavior, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. Increases in all three of these STDs. . . underscore the need
Risks wax and wane across the life cycle. Here are the 10 leading causes of death by age group in the United States based on 2004 data, the most recent available: Ages 1-4 1. Unintentional injury 2. Birth defects 3. Cancer 4. Homicide 5. Heart disease 6. Influenza, pneumonia 7. Septic infections 8. Perinatal pe
Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, elaine.woo@latimes.com
R. Scott Hitt, a specialist on AIDS and HIV who was the first openly gay person to head a presidential advisory council, died of metastatic colon cancer Thursday in West Hollywood. He was 49. Hitt was a Democratic activist and highly regarded Los Angeles physician when President Clinton named him chairman of the Presid
CEDAR FALLS, IOWA - Natalie Sugira usually reserves Friday nights for family. But recently, she abandoned her husband and three children for the evening and drove 120 miles to spend less than two minutes with presidential hopeful John Edwards. She wanted to discuss world hunger and Africa and its miseries, subjects tha
A genetic analysis of 25-year-old blood samples has outlined a new map of the AIDS virus journey out of Africa, showing that today s most widespread subtype first emerged in Haiti in the 1960s and arrived in the United States a few years later. The analysis fills in a gap in the history of the virus, whose migration ha
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - 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 governmen
Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
SACRAMENTO - Acting on the last batch of bills from what experts called a disappointing regular legislative year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday signed into law a controversial increase in motorists fees that is intended to raise millions to develop alternative fuel and clean-air technology. Consumer advocates co
Risks wax and wane across the life cycle. Here are the 10 leading causes of death by age group in the United States based on 2004 data, the most recent available: -- Ages1-4 Unintentional injury....1,641 Birth defects.... 569 Cancer.... 399 Homicide.... 377 Heart disease.... 187 Influenza and pneumonia.... 119
Europe has a drug problem, and knows it. But the Europeans approach to it is quite different from the American war on drugs. I spend 120 days a year in Europe as a travel writer, so I decided to see for myself how it s working. I talked with locals, researched European drug policies and even visited a smoky marijuana
It was not a banner year for the Legislature, which missed its budget deadline by more than two months and descended into partisan bickering. It may be because lawmakers had fewer dollars to work with than expected. Or, perhaps, the unusually high turnover last year, spurred by term limits, turned into a large class of
Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, thomas.maugh@latimes.com
An estimated 1 million young Californians had a sexually transmitted disease in 2005, including 1 in every 4 or 5 young people in Los Angeles County, researchers said Tuesday. We were expecting high numbers . . . even to us, said epidemiologist Petra Jerman of the Public Health Institute in Oakland, who led the new stu
Carla Hall, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, carla.hall@latimes.com
You might wonder whether a doctor with a history that includes a felony conviction in 1995, a public reprimand and a one-year term of probation from the Medical Board of California in 1996 has trouble keeping patients and attracting new ones. But Dr. Paul Fleiss, a 74-year-old Los Feliz pediatrician and father of the i
Europeans are purposely infecting Africans with AIDS -- or that s what a Roman Catholic archbishop in Mozambique alleged earlier this week. Francisco Chimoio, archbishop of Maputo, accused European condom makers of sending wares to Africa that they had deliberately contaminated with HIV. They are doing this, Chimoio as
Because hope is a treasure, a lot of people felt robbed by last week s surprising announcement that the trial of an experimental AIDS vaccine developed by Merck & Co. had been cut short. Many had hoped Merck s candidate would be the first to prove at least partly effective. That it didn t was disappointing. What wo
Diane Haithman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, diane.haithman@latimes.com
For 12-year-old Teddy Namuddu of Uganda , the perfect Hollywood movie would star pop princess Beyonce Knowles and action hero Chuck Norris. She picks Knowles because she can sing and Norris because he can kick. I like the kicks, she said the other night, to screams of laughter from her friends. When he acts in a movie
The court-appointed receiver placed in charge of state prison healthcare found that many deaths in 2006 could have been prevented with proper care. Of 381 prison deaths studied by the receiver s office, 18 were determined to have been preventable and 48 others were judged to possibly have been preventable. -- Top 3 cau
Nancy Vogel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, nancy.vogel@latimes.com
SACRAMENTO - Before adjourning Wednesday, the Legislature passed 962 bills and sent them to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has acted on some and has until Oct. 21 to sign or veto the rest. Lawmakers rejected hundreds of other measures, although many of them could be revived next year. For more information about legisla
Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, jia-rui.chong@latimes.com
Worldwide deaths for children younger than 5 dropped to an estimated 9.7 million last year, the lowest level since record-keeping began in 1960, the United Nations Children s Fund announced Wednesday. Even as the world population has grown, the number of early childhood deaths has shrunk to less than half its modern pe
Patrick McGreevy and Nancy Vogel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers, patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com, nancy.vogel@latimes.com
SACRAMENTO - Entertainment conglomerate Anschutz Entertainment Group, a major political contributor, would be eligible for millions of dollars in state housing funds under a measure lawmakers approved early today as they moved toward adjournment for the year. The controversial last-minute act at the urging of the compa
Jordan Rau, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, jordan.rau@latimes.com
SACRAMENTO -- The Legislature on Monday passed a Democratic plan to overhaul California s healthcare system, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would veto it and call a special session this fall to work out a compromise. Lawmakers also approved measures that would permit more routine testing for the virus that
Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
SACRAMENTO -- State senators on Thursday approved measures that would provide condoms to prison inmates, legalize the import of shoes made from kangaroo skin, require children to use car seats until they are 8 and require guns to stamp codes on ammunition. The condom bill, was vetoed by the governor last year. But supp
Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, jia-rui.chong@latimes.com
A federal advisory panel on Wednesday unanimously recommended accelerated approval for a new AIDS drug designed to treat the increasing number of patients with drug-resistant strains of the virus. Isentress, developed by Merck & Co. , is the first in a class known as integrase inhibitors, which prevent HIV from mer
Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, thomas.maugh@latimes.com
Dr. Edward N. Brandt Jr., the Oklahoma physician who oversaw the federal government s first response to the AIDS epidemic and who initiated requirements for tamper-proof drug packaging after a highly publicized Tylenol poisoning incident, died Aug. 26 at his home in Oklahoma City. He was 74 and had been suffering from
Mary Engel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, mary.engel@latimes.com
In the blood business, Labor Day is the last hurdle of the donor-dry summer. Soon, college and corporate blood drives will get underway to replenish reserves. All that s needed is to get through the holiday weekend with no chain-reaction freeway crashes or major train wrecks. But a dwindling pool of donors nationwide c
Mary Engel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, mary.engel@latimes.com
Thanks to an array of tests for HIV, Chagas disease and other conditions, the current blood supply is extremely safe, said Brick Bunch, laboratory manager at Downey Regional Medical Center. It is also extremely expensive. From 1979 to 2000, the average price that hospitals nationwide paid for a unit of red blood cells
Mary Engel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, mary.engel@latimes.com
White men in California can expect to live an average of seven more years than black men, according to a new study that echoes national surveys of the long-documented black-white gap. Heart disease and homicides account for much of the difference in life expectancies. White women in California live on average about fiv
Greg Krikorian and Francisco Vara-Orta, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
Two civil rights groups have urged the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the death of a transgender inmate at a San Pedro immigration detention center on grounds that the 23-year-old with AIDS was denied vital medical treatment. In a letter sent to the department s Office of Inspector General on Monday, th
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking into the death of Victor Arellano, a 23-year-old AIDS patient who died last month at a detention center in San Pedro. The agency referred the case to its Office of Professional Responsibility, a routine step whenever a detainee dies, said spokeswoman Virginia Kice. Ar
Patients Cry is loud and clear I am a woman I am an artist But I sing no victim s song I am a woman I am an artist And I know where my voice belongs. This refrain opens Sometimes I Cry with an incantatory wail that transfixes the Hayworth Theatre. Writer-performer Sheryl Lee Ralph s solo show about women battling HIV a
China announced the launch of a broad crackdown on false news reports and illegal publications Wednesday as authorities struggle with a spate of embarrassing scandals and look ahead to the most important event on the country s political calendar. Although China s one-party leaders face no popular election, they are e
Greg Krikorian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, greg.krikorian@latimes.com
The family of a 23-year-old AIDS patient who died in custody at an immigration detention center in San Pedro will file a wrongful death claim against the U.S. government on grounds that Victor Arrelano was improperly denied vital medical treatment. The allegation of mistreatment comes three weeks to the day after Arrel
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 response. A Google e
Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer, jia-rui.chong@latimes.com
Providing a new alternative to AIDS patients who have developed resistance to multiple drugs, the Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first-ever pill that works by defending human immune cells instead of attacking the deadly virus. The drug, which will be sold in the United States under the trade na
Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, melissa.healy@latimes.com
AS guardians of the nation s prescription pads, doctors are the gatekeepers that stand between American patients and the pharmaceutical companies that have drugs to sell them. Physicians choices -- whether to medicate, with which medication, generic vs. brand-name drug, and for how long -- profoundly affect sales of a
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer, ricardo.alonso-zaldivar@latimes.com
WASHINGTON - As then-Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona was preparing a report on world health problems, he received a detailed outline from officials at the Department of Health and Human Services. It suggested that he praise President Bush s initiative against AIDS in poor countries, and highlight American efforts to
Christian Berthelsen, Times Staff Writer, christian.berthelsen@latimes.com
Orange County will begin licensing medical marijuana use and issuing identification cards to patients who are entitled to it under a plan approved by county supervisors Tuesday. The decision marked a surprise turnabout from just three months ago, when the proposal initially seemed doomed to failure. Under the plan, the
Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer, wilkinson@latimes.com
ROME - Libya s top judicial authority on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of intentionally infecting more than 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS. The sentences were reduced to life imprisonment after the children s families were paid millions of
Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer, maggie.farley@latimes.com
TRIPOLI, LIBYA - The fate of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for allegedly infecting children with the virus that causes AIDS remained in the hands of Libya s top judicial body Monday. The controversial case has galvanized international scientists, politicians and human rights groups w
Eric Bailey, Times Staff Writer, eric.bailey@latimes.com
Raising the stakes in the federal government s war against medical marijuana, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has warned more than 150 Los Angeles landlords that they risk arrest and the loss of their properties if they continue renting to cannabis dispensaries. The two-page letter sent last week by Timothy J.
Teresa Watanabe, Times Staff Writer, teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
The American and Australian met in London. They fell madly in love. They got together, got a dog, got a house near Venice Beach. But there is no happy ending in sight for Tim Miller and Alistair McCartney. That s because the couple is gay, and U.S. immigration law does not allow the Whittier-born Miller to sponsor McCa
At least 33 infants were infected in the 1980s by HIV-tainted transfusions at Cedars-Sinai. Many died, some lived. All got lost in the larger AIDS crisis.
Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writer, charles.ornstein@latimes.com
DO I have AIDS? Sixteen-year-old Alexander Ghaffari was eating breakfast, getting ready for school, when he put the question to his mother. It wasn t a charged or dreaded moment. He can t even remember what prompted him to ask. Maybe he d overheard someone talking about it, although he doesn t think so. More likely it
From Times Staff and Wire Reports Using diaphragms in addition to condoms provides no extra protection against the AIDS virus, researchers reported Friday in the journal Lancet. Researchers gave 5,045 women in South Africa and Zimbabwe an HIV-prevention package that included condoms; some received diaphragms as well.
Amy Kaufman, Times Staff Writer, amy.kaufman@latimes.com
Mitzy Hernandez is sitting quietly at her kitchen table, nibbling on a confetti-speckled strawberry Pop Tart. She s shy at first, advises her father, Jose, as he rests on a nearby stationary exercise bicycle. Mitzy smiles, her black dangly earrings grazing her shoulders as she nods her head. The two share a glance acro
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer, ricardo.alonso-zaldivar@latimes.com
WASHINGTON - President Bush s candidate for surgeon general, facing an uphill struggle to win confirmation, told the Senate on Thursday that he s committed to science and would resign if pressured to slant his recommendations for ideological reasons. I would use the science to attempt to educate the policymakers, said
Elaine Woo, Times Staff Writer, elaine.woo@latimes.com
Ferd Eggan, whose innovative efforts as city AIDS coordinator included sponsoring Los Angeles first needle exchange program to reduce the transmission of AIDS through contaminated syringes, died Saturday of liver cancer at his home in Hollywood. He was 60. Eggan was the city s third AIDS coordinator, a position created
Ching-Ching Ni, Times Staff Writer, chingching.ni@latimes.com
BEIJING - The Chinese government shut down an influential publication that had helped promote the country s burgeoning nonprofit sector, the newsletter s founder said Wednesday. The Beijing-based China Development Brief tracked politically sensitive issues such as HIV/AIDS and the environment as well as serving as a cr
We re not exactly sure when it happened, but somewhere between Ren and Stimpy and the Ugly Doll craze, someone decided that gross is cute. Stuffed versions of microscopic creatures that make us sick are one part of this Blech Is Beautiful movement. Giant Microbes started producing plush versions of infectious diseases
Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer, jia-rui.chong@latimes.com
A new United Nations estimate cuts in half the number of people living with AIDS and HIV in India , which was once ranked as having the largest infected population in the world. The numbers do not represent an actual decline or a sudden triumph in managing the epidemic, said Karen Stanecki, a
WILLIAM EASTERLY is a professor of economics at New York University, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of The White Man s Burden: How the West s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good JUST WHEN IT SEEMED that Western images of Africa could not get any weirder, the Jul
Mary Engel, Times Staff Writer, mary.engel@latimes.com
The medical community has a new warning for HIV-positive gay and bisexual men. With syphilis rates in that population increasing dramatically, a study has found that, if left untreated, the sexually transmitted disease leads to mental confusion, blurred vision, difficulty walking or other serious neurological complicat
Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer, jia-rui.chong@latimes.com
An experimental AIDS drug taken in combination with a recently approved medication dramatically reduced the amount of virus in the blood of patients with a history of drug resistance, according to two international studies published today. The studies reported that up to 18% more drug-resistant patients saw the amount
Chelsea Martinez, Times Staff Writer, chelsea.martinez@latimes.com
DOCTORS in training put themselves at risk every time they are stuck with a needle and don t report it, and new research suggests these unreported injuries happen surprisingly often. In a Johns Hopkins University study of nearly 700 surgical residents, 99% of those surveyed said they had experienced a needle injury som
Michael Finnegan, michael.finnegan@latimes.com and Peter Nicholas, peter.nicholas@latimes.com - Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON - Setting aside their discord on the Iraq war, eight Democratic presidential candidates presented a largely united front in their third debate Thursday night, vowing to fight racial bias and improve day-to-day living conditions for all Americans. The debate at Howard University on issues considered key t
Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance.
FIRST LADY Laura Bush is visiting four African countries this week, including Zambia , where I worked in HIV/AIDS programs for six years in the 1990s. We can count on the news media to show us Mrs. Bush touring AIDS programs, welcomed by singing children. My refusal to cheer along may seem churlish, to say the least. A
Mary Engel, Times Staff Writer, mary.engel@latimes.com
To combat rising rates of syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea, Los Angeles County officials will launch a public health campaign today that uses drink coasters, murals, sidewalk chalk art and other unconventional approaches to advertise the need to get tested. The bilingual campaign is aimed at gay and bisexual men, Afri
Humans may lack resistance to HIV in part because a potentially defensive protein is still guarding against a long-extinct virus, scientists reported Friday. Researchers have known that some primates, such as macaques, can fight off HIV with an antiviral protein called TRIM5-alpha, whereas the human version, though onl
IN June 1988, Chuck Stallard showed up to photograph a demonstration by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, on Copa De Oro Road in Bel-Air. The activist group, which became known for theatrical street protests that were infused with wit but fueled by anger, had gathered 70 protesters in front of a house whe
Christian Retzlaff, christian.retzlaff@latimes.com and Jeffrey Fleishman, jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com, Times Staff Writers
HEILIGENDAMM, GERMANY - The world s leading industrialized nations Friday pledged $60 billion to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis mainly in Africa, a gesture that drew criticism from human rights groups who termed it an insufficient commitment and part of a pattern of unfulfilled promises. The agreement on African
Maura Dolan, Times Staff Writer, maura.dolan@latimes.com
Criminal defense lawyers said Thursday that it was unusual and even extraordinary for the Los Angeles County Sheriff s Department to have released Paris Hilton to home confinement because of a medical condition. There are people in custody who have cancer and AIDS and severe heart problems, and they remain in custody,
Maura Reynolds, Times Staff Writer, maura.reynolds@latimes.com
WASHINGTON - For a lame duck, President Bush looked remarkably spry last week, announcing a series of policy initiatives that caught many in Washington off guard. Ever since Democrats took control of Congress in January, the White House has seemed in something of a funk - acting petulant when confronted with Democratic
*D.T. Max is the author most recently of The Family That Couldn t Sleep, a scientific and cultural history of mad cow, familial insomnia and other prion diseases. ONE death is a tragedy. A million are a statistic. Most of us live the truth of this awful adage, a buffer that enables us to go about our business. We all h
Erika Hayasaki, Times Staff Writer, erika.hayasaki@latimes.com
New York - THE young gays and lesbians stream from subway stops dressed in their flashiest gear: rainbow sunglasses, 6-inch-high gold wedge sandals, a fatigue-printed hoodie, a rhinestone-studded pink Playboy bunny bag. Hundreds of them make their way through the West Village - home of the gay liberation movement of th
Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer, stephanie.simon@latimes.com
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist preacher who transformed American politics by rallying the religious right into an electoral force, died Tuesday of apparent heart failure shortly after collapsing in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He was 73. Falwell had suffered several cardiac and respira
Former President Clinton announced agreements with drug companies to lower the price of 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 to first-line treatment and cost
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took steps to let Brazil buy or produce an inexpensive generic version of an AIDS drug made by Merck despite the U.S. company s patent. Silva issued a compulsory license that would bypass the patent on the drug efavirenz , a day after the Brazilia
Jessica Garrison, Times Staff Writer, jessica.garrison@latimes.com
In a region with the largest homeless population in the nation, the city of Los Angeles is not promptly using more than a quarter of the federal money intended to house ailing homeless people, according to a city report. By contrast, San Francisco leaves just 12% unused and Berkeley uses all of it, according to officia
Charles Piller, Times Staff Writer, charles.piller@latimes.com
Omaha - THE janjaweed militia charged into Hayffa Ahmed s village in Darfur on horseback - rifles raised, swords glinting, kicking up clouds of dust. First they killed her grandfather, the village chief. Janjaweed warriors, said to be allies of the Sudanese government, continued to kill everyone, Ahmed, 30, declared in
FRIDAY S HASTY resignation of Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias, prompted by revelations that he was a regular customer of services provided by the D.C. Madam, is a lesson in the perils of mixing moralizing with foreign policy. It is easy to judge the Tobias case as an example of being hoisted on one s own pe
Faye Fiore, faye.fiore@latimes.com and Adam Schreck, adam.schreck@latimes.com, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON - Deborah Jeane Palfrey ran her high-end sexual fantasy business in a way she carefully designed to keep the feds at bay. (She didn t take a year of law school for nothing.) In quintessential Washington style, the woman dubbed the D.C. Madam solicited male clients who paid up to $300 an hour and hired some 1
The Times pop music critics take on American Idol : The most palpable emotion inside Walt Disney Concert Hall during Wednesday s two-hour Idol Gives Back special was the collective gasp from the 1,600 onlookers when Ryan Seacrest told Chris Richardson he was safe after America cast some 70 million votes following Tuesd
German researchers have found a peptide in human blood that blocks HIV and have identified a synthetic variant that is 100 times more potent, they reported Friday in the journal Cell. The synthetic version has been shown to be safe in animals and the team hopes to begin trials in humans this year, they said. The peptid
For more than 20 years, Dr. John M. Robertson has seen patients religious beliefs influence the outcome of their surgery. Patients with strong spiritual beliefs, he says, often go through their treatment not with fear, but with a sense of peace. Robertson isn t alone in his observations. A nationwide study released ear
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was always a genre-busting anomaly, combining elements of horror, gothic romance, soap opera, satire, even slapstick. But Buffy went to show-stopping lengths in its Nov. 6, 2001, episode: Once More With Feeling featured the cult hit s assortment of slayers and demons breaking into song (11 in
CHICAGO - Arguing that Illinois lawmakers have a moral duty to legalize medical use of marijuana, dozens of pastors and church leaders are urging them to allow doctors to recommend the drug for seriously ill patients. The religious leaders say they feel compelled to support doctors who want to use whatever tools necess
Christian Berthelsen, christian.berthelsen@latimes.com
After one failed vote, Orange County supervisors Tuesday agreed to move ahead on a plan to regulate medical marijuana use, though its ultimate passage remains in doubt. The proposal, if adopted, would create a system to issue identification cards to patients eligible to use marijuana, as well as validate prescriptions
Christian Berthelsen, christian.berthelsen@latimes.com
Orange County supervisors are poised to vote today on a plan to regulate medical marijuana use, wading into a controversial - and emotionally charged - area of unsettled law. The proposal, if adopted, would create a system to issue identification cards to patients eligible to use marijuana, as well as validate prescrip
In 12th century China , a Taoist monk known as Chang San-Feng is said to have studied the physical movements of five animals and concluded that two - the snake and the crane - were best suited to overpower opponents who were fierce and tenacious. From that ancient observation, the slow, graceful movements of tai chi we
I VE BEEN REPORTING on AIDS in Africa for nearly 15 years, but on a 2005 visit to KwaZulu-Natal, the province with South Africa s highest HIV infection rate, the hush surrounding the epidemic was so spooky that it surprised even me. The Catholic Church had been running an AIDS treatment program for more than a year at
SEX! MONEY! FAME! POWER! Ha ha: Tricked you. You probably thought I was going to tell you who really fathered Anna Nicole Smith s baby, or share a new tidbit about the Duke lacrosse scandal, or maybe just pretend to be Joel Stein for a day. Nope. Actually, I want to talk about the federal international affairs budget.
Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer, jia-rui.chong@latimes.com
Highly drug-resistant gonorrhea has been spreading rapidly across the U.S. and accounts for 13% of all cases of the sexually transmitted disease, federal researchers said Thursday. In a survey of 26 areas around the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found particularly high rates of drug-resistance
Susannah Rosenblatt, Times Staff Writer, susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com
Crystal meth use among gay men has spiked since 2005, according to preliminary data collected by a Los Angeles nonprofit agency, with those using the drug in the last year five times more likely to test positive for HIV. Of the 6,360 gay men the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center tested for HIV or other sexually tran
Francisco Vara-Orta, Times Staff Writer, francisco.varaorta@latimes.com
The growing battle over genetically engineered plants is slowly taking root in California, most recently with a proposed Assembly bill that would allow farmers to sue bio-crop manufacturers for cross-contamination of organic and traditionally grown plants, which could hurt their marketability. Freshman Assemblyman Jare
By P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writer, p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com
In an emerging revolt against abstinence-only sex education, states are turning down millions of dollars in federal grants, unwilling to accept White House dictates that the money be used for classes focused almost exclusively on teaching chastity. In Ohio, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland said that regardless of the sta
Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writer, robyn.dixon@latimes.com
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE - For Zimbabwe s legions of the sick, the most common treatment is nothing more than hope and prayer. Life here is dominated by the downward spiral into illness and death. To save the sick, families already struggling with the world s highest inflation rate scramble to sell what little they have left
A new AIDS drug that received accelerated federal approval last summer is significantly better at attacking highly resistant HIV than existing drugs, according to a study of 230 patients published Wednesday. Darunavir, part of the decade-old class of drugs known as protease inhibitors , lowered virus levels to the u
SACRAMENTO - A widely touted law that was supposed to provide medical care for poor, uninsured Californians infected with HIV has yet to be put into practice by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger s administration, leaving thousands without the health coverage lawmakers promised more than four years ago. The 2003 law was endors
WASHINGTON - From the day the new Medicare drug plan was introduced, critics warned that it had a big loophole - the doughnut hole - a coverage gap that leaves some recipients with $3,000 in costs to pick up themselves. The private sector was supposed to help. And last year, Sierra Health Services, an insurer based in
The World Health Organization recommended Wednesday that circumcision immediately become part of the frontline strategy to combat AIDS - a move that the group said could save millions of lives. The benefit would be greatest in countries with widespread epidemics and low rates of circumcision, such as those in southern
Susan Brink, Times Staff Writer, susan.brink@latimes.com
FOR as long as anyone has kept statistics, and with a range of speculative explanations, what has always been irrefutable is that white people in America live longer than black people. Called the black-white life expectancy gap, it has widened, narrowed and widened again during the last 100 years. Now that gap has narr
Thomas H. Maugh II, thomas.maugh@latimes.com and Jia-Rui Chong, jia-rui.chong@latimes.com
For the first time in modern history, the rate of infections in the global tuberculosis epidemic has leveled off and may be on the threshold of decline, the World Health Organization announced today. The percentage of the world s population struck by TB peaked in 2004 and then held steady or even declined in 2005, acco
With human papillomavirus, girls and women have been getting all the attention. Parents across the nation have rushed to have their daughters vaccinated against the virus. States are wrestling with whether to require that adolescents get the vaccine. And recent research found that many more girls and women are infected
Gonorrhea cases are rising at an alarming pace across the western United States , even while declining in the rest of the country, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. The number of cases in California and seven other western states increased 42% from 2000 to 2005 while declining 10
A growing movement of activist videogame designers is showing that not only can you make good games about problems like global warming, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the childhood obesity epidemic but that gaming itself can be a powerful medium for spreading awareness and getting people involved. These game make
Len Cariou, Nancy Dussault, Sally Ann Howes, Michael Nouri, Cathy Rigby and Betty Garrett are among more than two dozen performers scheduled to appear this weekend at By Side by Side by Side by Side by Stephen Sondheim, a musical revue to raise money for AIDS Project Los Angeles. The 23rd annual Southland Theatre Artis
Jenna Bush, daughter of President Bush, will write Ana s Story: A Journey of Hope, drawing on her experiences as a UNICEF worker in Central America, HarperCollins announced today. Her book, to be published in fall 2007, will tell the story of a 17-year-old single mother with HIV. Bush, 24, has been an intern with UNICE
BEIJING - Wang Xingzui is trying to take the go out of his gongo. Step by methodical step, the executive director of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation is weaning it from the things that have made his group an oxymoron: a government-organized nongovernmental organization, or gongo. The foundation, one of Chin
Bob Hattoy, a brash, often brutally witty environmental advocate and political consultant who made headlines in 1992 as the first openly gay person with AIDS to address a national political convention, died Sunday at UC Davis Medical Center. He was 56. Hattoy died of complications of AIDS, said Adrianna Shea of the Cal
BEIJING - Trainer Ma Guohui has just introduced a roomful of young hairstylists to the chemistry of hair. Next up: HIV/AIDS. Ma is on the front line of an international business campaign aimed at helping stop the spread of the deadly disease. In addition to promoting L Oreal products, the immaculately coiffed Ma hopes
The state Department of Health Services inadvertently revealed the names and addresses of up to 53 Californians enrolled in an AIDS drug assistance program to other enrollees by putting benefit notification letters in the wrong envelopes, officials said Friday. The letters went out Tuesday to recipients in 16 counties,
Francisco Vara-Orta, francisco.varaorta@latimes.com
A majority of Los Angeles County primary care practitioners are failing to advise their Latino patients - who are at high risk for HIV infection - to get tested, according to a UCLA study released Thursday. Only 41% of the 85 surveyed primary care providers - including doctors, nurses and physician assistants - had reg
ABOUT two weeks ago, Whitney Pierce and Hanni Rosenfeld spent a weekend with their new friend Pam Coffey in South-Central Los Angeles. During their three days together they ran errands, got their hair braided and went to a pizzeria. Although this may not sound unusual, for Pierce and Rosenfeld it was a foray into new t
Two experimental AIDS drugs designed to fight resistant HIV strains are showing promising preliminary results, researchers said Wednesday. One, called elvitegravir, is part of a new class of drugs known as integrase inhibitors and has shown evidence of being more potent than currently used drugs. The second, called TMC
In what some are hailing as the most important development in HIV therapy in a decade, two new classes of drugs have been found to block virus replication in patients resistant to existing drugs, researchers said Tuesday. The two new classes, called integrase inhibitors and CCR5 inhibitors, doubled the number of patien
Three new studies indicate that it may be possible to avoid many of the fat-distribution problems associated with HIV drug therapy, giving patients a better quality of life and minimizing risk to their hearts, researchers said Monday. The introduction of powerful drug cocktails in the 1990s was a major breakthrough in
A highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis has killed about 85% of South African HIV patients who have become infected, presenting one of the most worrisome problems in HIV and tuberculosis control, researchers reported Sunday. About 330 cases of so-called extensively drug-resistant, or XDR, tuberculosis have been ve
SACRAMENTO - A patient advocacy group sued the federal government Wednesday to try to force U.S. health agencies to acknowledge that marijuana has merit as a medicine. The lawsuit by Americans for Safe Access follows a two-year effort to reverse what it calls a misinformation campaign by U.S. health agencies. American
A group that fights disease in Africa needs to tighten controls on its expense accounts. ALMOST NOBODY, until this week, said a bad word about the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A darling of royalty and rock stars, it has been seen as one of the world s most effective and important anti-poverty or
The fight to stop the spread of AIDS suffered a serious setback this week when researchers shuttered two high-profile trials of one of the most promising anti-AIDS compounds. Researchers had hoped that the so-called microbicide, a topical gel designed to block the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus during
EVERYONE KNOWS THAT male prisoners are one of the highest-risk populations for HIV/AIDS, spreading the virus not just behind bars but out in the community upon release. Yet few public officials have done anything about it. Until now. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) is about to introduce legislation to make HIV testi
DAVOS, Switzerland - A multinational health group announced here today that it would commit $500 million over three years to strengthen healthcare systems and train health workers in developing nations, addressing a key problem for implementing its vaccination programs. The GAVI Alliance, formerly called the Global All
Giving selenium, an antioxidant mineral sold as a dietary supplement, to HIV patients modestly reduced the amount of virus in their blood, according to a study published Monday. Patients taking 200 micrograms of high selenium yeast daily saw an average 12% drop in blood virus levels, according to the study in the Archi
A day after agents raided 11 Los Angeles County marijuana dispensaries, local officials and residents complained Thursday that the federal government was trampling on state laws that allow the cultivation and sale of marijuana for medical uses. The raids Wednesday, part of an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
About 100 people demonstrated outside West Hollywood City Hall this morning, protesting a series of federal raids that shut 11 outlets for medical marijuana in the county. According to William Dolphin, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, the demonstration began about 8:30 a.m. and lasted for some 30 minutes.
A coalition of public interest law firms and civil rights groups Tuesday filed a class-action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Housing Authority, charging that the city agency broke the law when it effectively raised the rent for more than 20,000 poor residents. In 2004, reeling from financial mismanagement that include
Concerned by a 2,350% increase in the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles in a one-year period, Police Chief William J. Bratton is calling for a moratorium on new facilities until strict rules can be adopted governing them. In a report to the Police Commission, Bratton said he wants to ban existing
In a significant change, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it would review its investments to determine whether its holdings were socially responsible. In addition to what it called a continuing review of our approach to investments, the foundation said on its website, we will review othe
An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it the cough. People blame fumes and soot
Henry Chu, Times Staff Writer, henry.chu@latimes.com
Vadodara, India - As a maharajah s son, Manvendra Singh Gohil grew up in a bubble of prestige and privilege, surrounded by hangers-on who treated him so reverentially that he was 15 before he crossed a street by himself. So the public snubs and rejection of the last nine months have been a new experience. Yet the mild-
2006 was destined to be the year Warren Ratcliffe lost his desperate race to survive AIDS, and the year Mark McClelland appeared, finally, poised to win his. The two Bay Area men were among an estimated 40,000 Americans whose illness could not be controlled by modern HIV drugs because they d developed a bedeviling resi
SAN FRANCISCO - In a consultation room at San Francisco General Hospital, Warren Ratcliffe rolls up the leg of his jeans to display an anachronism. Purplish brown, leech-shaped splotches cover his left shin and calf. They exist also, he says, on his stomach and chest, and he fears they might appear on his hands and fac
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.