-- Genetic analysis of tissue specimen recently discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo leads researchers to believe the virus that causes AIDS has been present for more than a century. A genetic analysis of a biopsy sample recently discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has led researchers to co
Jordan Rau, jordan.rau@latimes.com and Patrick McGreevy, patrick.mcgreevy@ latimes.com
SACRAMENTO -- Hospitals and other health facilities will face harsh new penalties if their employees snoop in the medical records of patients, under legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after privacy was breached on celebrities files -- including his wife s -- at UCLA Medical Center. Schwarzenegger
-- As he considers 10 bills passed by the Legislature that would expand what insurers must pay for, he must balance improved coverage with the risk of driving costs so high that people can t afford it. SACRAMENTO -- Garrett Warren, 14, needs braces to fix the gaps in his teeth caused by a severe cleft lip and palate th
Another obstacle to routine screening for HIV is about to fall, this time for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the nation s largest provider of HIV care. You may recall that in 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued revised recommendations for testing adults, adolescents and pregnant women for t
Chinese had shrugged off previous problems as Western hysteria, but tainted milk has many wondering what else poses a risk. Even professed patriots seek out products not made in China . BEIJING -- Even after regulators assured the public that all contaminated baby formula was off the shelves, B.X. Wei wasn t going to f
-- Kgalema Motlanthe, called a uniting figure, is viewed as a caretaker until elections next year, when ANC chief Jacob Zuma is expected to take over. JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- A low-key former mining union official, Kgalema Motlanthe, was sworn in as president of South Africa on Thursday, widely seen as a care
-- A federal push to let healthcare workers refuse services is really an assault on reproductive rights. Here comes another sneak attack on family planning by the Bush administration. Masquerading as a measure to protect healthcare providers from morally coercive or discriminatory practices, a rule change proposed by t
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - President Thabo Mbeki was forced from office Saturday, paving the way for rival Jacob Zuma to take power and leaving AIDS-plagued South Africa in a state of political and economic uncertainty. Mr. Zuma, expected to take over after parliamentary elections next year, has come back from near p
WASHINGTON -- The HIV epidemic in the United States is a crisis, federal health officials told a House panel Tuesday, urging additional programs to specifically protect and educate African Americans, Latinos and gay and bisexual men -- the groups hardest hit by the virus that causes AIDS. Their testimony before the
-- Zapiro defends his cartoon depicting ANC chief and presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma as about to rape the justice system, which has drawn criticism from his supporters. JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- Zapiro, as one of South Africa s most controversial cartoonists calls himself, is a liberal pro-Palestinian Jew who was
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- The blogger calls himself a fat white man and jokes about the right way to approach a cordon of Zimbabwean riot police: Don t wear an opposition T-shirt, or ask for the results of the recent one-man presidential runoff. Instead, greet them with a breezy Good morning! How are you, sirs?
-- The man who tended to a plot that became the resting place of many in the once-thriving gay community is himself fighting the disease. The small patch of flowers serves as a reminder. It commemorates lives lost and souls remembered. The ashes of 50 or so are scattered or buried there. But the freshly turned topsoil
The Republican vice presidential candidate says students should be taught about condoms. Her running mate -- and the party platform -- disagree. Teen pregnancy and sex education were thrust into the spotlight this week when Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin revealed that her 17-year-old daughter is five
-- The United Nations report says an ambitious goal embraced by wealthy countries to cut extreme global poverty by 2015 is in jeopardy. UNITED NATIONS -- Development aid from the United States and other wealthy countries has declined since the middle of this decade, jeopardizing the ambitious U.N. goal they had embrace
A call for abstinence Here is the portion of the Republican platform that deals with abstinence and education: We renew our call for replacing family planning programs for teens with increased funding for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and expected standard of behavior.
The discovery marks a technical advance but has a long way to go before it can be considered an alternative to donor blood. Scientists said Tuesday that they had devised a way to grow large quantities of blood in the lab using human embryonic stem cells, potentially making blood drives a thing of the past. But experts
-- Visitors to the traveling World Vision display walk through a replica of an African village, view four children s pictures and listen on headsets to their harrowing tales. It is a chilling statistic: 12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa have been orphaned by AIDS. But the figure alone cannot begin to convey the
Just over 40% of the adult U.S. population has been screened at least once for HIV, but a quarter of a million people are infected and don t know it, government researchers said Thursday. About 10% of the population gets an HIV test each year -- a figure that has remained stable since 2000 despite efforts to increase t
Deborah Bonello in Mexico City, LA Times correspondent
Oscar is 10 years old and his favorite subject at school is math. He wants to be a lawyer when he grows up. Oscar also is HIV-positive, and he lost his parents to complications with the virus two years ago. He lives in a community of children here at La Casa de la Sal (the House of Salt) in Mexico City. All of the 25 c
Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, thomas.maugh@latimes.com
Disheartened by the failures of vaccines and microbicides in blocking HIV transmission, some AIDS researchers are now touting a third possibility: using existing HIV drugs prophylactically. By next year, as many as 15,000 people worldwide will be enrolled in trials to test the concept -- more than are enrolled in all v
Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Low doses of human growth hormone can reverse some of the abnormal fat distribution caused by HIV therapy, lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease, but the treatment may produce unnecessary risk for those who have early stages of diabetes, researchers said Sunday. The hormone produced good results but would have to
The 17th International AIDS Conference opens today in Mexico City, and all the big pharmaceutical and medical supply companies will be there, including Merck; Pfizer ; Becton, Dickinson and Co.; Glaxo- SmithKline; Abbott Laboratories and many others. With each passing year, this meeting has been looking increasingly li
Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, thomas.maugh@latimes.com
Federal officials have been underestimating the number of new HIV infections in the United States by 40% every year for more than a decade, a finding that indicates the U.S. epidemic is much worse than thought, researchers said Saturday. Using sophisticated testing to identify new infections, the Centers for Disease Co
Global health advocates can come off as a pretty crabby bunch. When the United Nations released its annual report on the worldwide AIDS epidemic this week, the reaction was mostly a lot of sniping about rich countries slow response to the problem, or the political factors that prevent money from being spent appropriate
-- President Bush signs a measure that repeals the congressional restriction, but the Department of Health and Human Services still lists the virus among diseases barring entry. WASHINGTON -- President Bush signed a sweeping measure Wednesday that provides $48 billion to combat AIDS and other diseases globally and that
New infections in children also declined, a U.N. report says. Greater access to treatment is cited. The number of AIDS deaths worldwide dropped 10% in 2007 because of increasing access to treatment, as did the number of new infections in children, the United Nations reported Tuesday. Condom use and prevention efforts i
-- Bipartisan support of President Bush s 2003 foreign policy initiative comes after intense debate about its cost, and $48 billion is authorized to carry the program through 2013. WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Wednesday approved a $48-billion program to treat and prevent AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, tripling the amou
Thomas H. Maugh II, thomas.maugh@latimes.com and Karen Kaplan, karen.kaplan@latimes.com
The discovery offers a partial explanation for the disproportionate spread of the virus among Africans and African Americans, researchers say. A genetic mutation that originally protected Africans from a virulent form of malaria now renders them 40% more susceptible to HIV infections, offering a partial explanation for
NAIROBI, KENYA -- Election-related meltdowns in Zimbabwe and Kenya are stark reminders of democracy s fragile foothold in Africa, experts say, despite years of financial and diplomatic investment by the United States and other Western nations. A combination of challenges unique to the continent, including
Funded largely by West Hollywood, the racy Web show promotes safe sex at a time when diagnoses of AIDS and HIV are rising. The target is men too young to recall the disease s early devastation. A young, muscled man named Edgar is flat on his back under a tree, clad only in camouflage-print underwear. The sun is well ab
OASIS facility will begin a Saturday program for adolescents. Newly diagnosed cases among young gay men have jumped nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a worrisome report late last month on a jump in newly diagnosed HIV cases among young gay men. From 2001 to 2006, such cases among all g
Ladies, said Cookie Johnson, looking straight into the camera, her husband s arm draped across her shoulders. Have you been tested . . . . . . for HIV? finished Lakers basketball legend Earvin Magic Johnson. As the most prominent African American face of HIV, Johnson, who is now a businessman and philanthropist, has l
Ateam of international researchers bought anti-malaria drugs from pharmacies in six cities in Africa s malaria belt, tested the products and despaired. More than a third of the alleged medicines flunked the field tests for clinical efficacy. And 48% of the drugs manufactured in Africa -- the best hope for affordable me
This is the time of year when Vegas turns inward and events created by locals gain prominence. That in part is because things are slow historically leading up to July 4 weekend. For locals, it s now easy to buy two-for-one tickets to production shows or to get a local s rate for a staycation room on the Strip. In fact,
-- The two are closely identified with Bush s national security policy, the campaign against terrorism and the war in Iraq . WASHINGTON -- President Bush will award the nation s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to a veteran federal judge, Laurence H. Silberman, whose controversial role in nati
In tearful testimony, the woman known in court documents as Bridget B. choked up as she described the first time she met her ex-husband, the man she is now suing for infecting her with HIV. After a six-year legal battle that has thrust the couple s sexual history into the public record and taken them before the Califor
Nearly 3 million people in developing countries are now receiving antiretroviral drugs to treat AIDS, a treatment goal that health authorities had hoped to meet two years ago, according to a new report released Monday. About 1 million people received the life-saving drugs for the first time during 2007, according to th
Tim Reiterman, tim.reiterman@latimes.com and Eric Bailey, eric.bailey@latimes.com
About $55,000 in damage was caused in this rental house in Arcata, Calif., where marijuana was being grown and a piece of equipment started a fire. The owner didn t know how the house was being used. Officials estimate as many as 1,000 of the 7,500 homes in town are used for pot, reducing housing stock and creating bui
-- Sex and the City benefit screening Actress Kristin Davis and director Michael Patrick King will field questions from the audience after a charity screening of their Sex and the City film May 29. The 7:30 p.m. screening at the ArcLight Hollywood will benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles. Tickets are $50 and $100. For
Sometimes I can t believe how Californian California is. Women walk around half-naked, waiters call patrons dude, and medical marijuana is legal. But I wondered just how legal. Could anyone buy it? Even me, who doesn t have cancer, AIDS, arthritis, glaucoma or even any previous pot-smoking experience? Medical marijuana
SEATTLE -- Should using doctor-prescribed marijuana be a deal-breaker for someone needing an organ transplant? It is not a theoretical question but a pressing and emotional one confronting hospitals and patients in states where medical use of marijuana is legal. This month, Timothy Garon, 56, a Seattle musician, died a
When a patient tests HIV-positive, a doctor has to navigate state law and medical ethics. It can be a rocky path. My patient, a 26-year-old native of the Dominican Republic , had been seeing me for only a few months when I determined that he had been infected with HIV. He didn t seem surprised but was close-mouthed abo
-- One activist has taken an invisible minority in the conservative land out of the shadows, having secured a Supreme Court ruling affirming gay and transgender rights. KATMANDU, NEPAL -- Just eight years ago, Sunil Pant wondered whether there was anyone else in this Himalayan land like him. To his engineer s mind, it
God bless the Rev. Jeremiah Wright! After Barack Obama gave his big race speech in mid-March, many critics noted that the Illinois senator had thrown his own grandmother under the bus to defend his controversial pastor. Well, Wright proved over the last few days that he would not be outdone. He not only threw Obama und
The search for an AIDS vaccine has lost its scientific purpose and turned into a self-serving quest. How else to explain the remarks found in David Baltimore and Seth Berkley s Keep funding the AIDS vaccine ? Saying simply that AIDS vaccine development is hard is not a credible response to recent criticism leveled at t
In his Blowback, Stop AIDS vaccine research, Michael Weinstein suggested that U.S. government funding for AIDS vaccine research should stop and the money now being used to this end be redeployed to treatment. This very pessimistic view of the possibility of success in the vaccine quest is a misreading of the situation.
A firm that has donated to the president s charity is accused of collaborating with the government in its crackdown on Tibetan activists. Hillary Clinton has spoken out against China s actions. NEW YORK - As Chinese authorities have clamped down on unrest in Tibet and jailed dissidents in advance of the 2008 Olympics,
Some experts and community members fear Pacific Hospital is too small for the task. Some health experts and community leaders have criticized news that a small private hospital is the prime -- and perhaps only -- candidate for the contract to reopen Martin Luther King-Harbor Hospital, signaling possible continuing hurd
A $50-billion bill to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa and elsewhere gives us reason to cheer. President Bush is going partway toward atoning for his sins in the Middle East by rebuilding Africa. His leadership in fighting disease and poverty on the continent culminated Wednesday with a breathtaking gesture from
As the catalyst for the call to halt U.S. government funding of AIDS vaccine research, I was somewhat dismayed by The Times recent editorial, Revamping AIDS vaccine research, which took issue with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation s position without fully understanding it. Our position is this: In light of over 20 years o
Concessions are made as both sides authorize $50 billion through 2013 to greatly expand the president s initiative. WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan coalition in the House voted Wednesday to significantly expand a popular program aimed at combating HIV and AIDS around the world, renewing the President s Emergency Plan for AI
Clinica Romero reaches a community that has generally been reluctant to seek Western treatment. The Maya women sit patiently in the lobby of Clinica Oscar Romero, playing with their children and speaking in their native dialects of Kanjobal and Quiche. Idalia Xuncax knows all of the women. She is their guide, translato
At a downtown facility near skid row, the VA can swab a person s mouth and get almost instant results. The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System began offering 20-minute HIV tests at its downtown ambulatory care center Tuesday -- part of a campaign to encourage more veterans to get tested and treated for the virus.
Large-scale trials of potential AIDS vaccines have come up short. A narrower approach is better. The failure of a promising AIDS vaccine -- which not only didn t prevent HIV infection but may have increased susceptibility to the virus -- led to two conflicting calls for action, neither of which got it right. Recipients
As the practice grows less common in the U.S., parents weigh the medical, social and religious pros and cons. FOR nearly all of Nada Mouallem s pregnancy, she and her husband, Tony, had a running argument. She wanted to have their son circumcised. He didn t. Many days, I d go off and research all the pros. He d go and
The pharmaceutical industry says its needs more time to gear up for a novel state plan to fight counterfeiting. SACRAMENTO -- News of as many as 19 deaths in the United States linked to contaminated blood thinner heparin from China has generated new concerns about how to keep bad drugs from finding their way into the m
These are the prepared remarks that the Illinois senator delivered today at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. We the people, in order to form a more perfect union. Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched A
LAS VEGAS -- Health officials here sensed something was wrong. It was January, and two acute cases of hepatitis C had been reported to authorities -- the number Clark County averages in a year. The patients, they soon discovered, had one thing in common: Both had undergone procedures at the same clinic. When investigat
California is spending $11 million to discourage use of the drug, which increases the risk of spreading HIV. California drug officials launched an $11-million barrage of billboards, bus wraps, cable TV ads and a website Thursday aimed at discouraging gay men from using methamphetamine, an illegal stimulant linked to ri
Drug-resistant forms of the disease are widespread, and time and money to fight it are short. In the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, most Americans were aware of the arrival of a horrible new disease that was spreading rapidly. But they weren t particularly afraid, because the victims were mostly outside the mainstr
A dangerous form of drug-resistant tuberculosis has reached its highest levels ever, accounting for at least 5 percent of all new TB cases worldwide, and 15 to 22 percent of new cases in parts of the former Soviet Union and China , the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The WHO report, the first new survey
Los Angeles largest nonprofit AIDS services agency is suing to stop the city from foreclosing on a onetime AIDS hospice that was built with a city housing loan and is now being used as offices for HIV case managers. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation opened Linn House, its third hospice, on donated land near West Hollywood
President Bush s Africa plan doesn t acknowledge that often it s husbands who infect wives. President Bush returns from Africa, where he justifiably touted the success of his AIDS relief initiative, to face a battle with Congress over that laudable program. Bush wants to nearly double funding, to $30 billion over the n
It wasn t long ago that the pharmaceutical industry viewed HIV drugs as more of a public service than possible bestsellers. Unlike in the case of cancer or heart disease, where drugs for patients in richer markets such as the United States and Europe can be instantly and startlingly profitable, two-thirds of people inf
ACCRA, GHANA -- After crossing Africa from west to east and back, the central issues that followed President Bush on his tour all came together Wednesday in the white stucco Osu Castle here on the Atlantic shoreline. With gusto, the president declared that s baloney to the notion that the United States was pre
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania -- With old and young providing testament to the success of a U.S.-funded effort to fight AIDS, President Bush on Sunday call for Congress to renew the program quickly and said that helping Africa is in the national and moral interests of the United States . The program pro
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania -- President Bush defended his decision to avoid Africa s most-troubled quarters on his trip across the continent s midsection Saturday, saying the United States is ready to help countries that make the right choices. For Bush, the trip underscores an effort over seven years to shift the way the
President Bush is to visit Africa for a look at U.S.-sponsored HIV/AIDS programs. Here are some key details about AIDS in the region: AIDS in Africa * 68% of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than three-fourths of all AIDS-related deaths in 2007 occurred. * 1.7 million people in sub-Sa
Thanks to U.S. funding, antiviral drugs are available to those too poor to afford them. The results are dramatic. URANGA, KENYA - This western Kenya village was slowly dying five years ago. One in three people was HIV-positive, then a virtual death sentence. Coffin-makers couldn t work fast enough and the nearby hospit
Bush announces the move on the eve of his Africa trip, which will skirt the continent s trouble spots. WASHINGTON -- President Bush said today that he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya to try to bring an end to postelection violence, as he laid out a U.S. agenda in Africa to promote economic and p
BOSTON -- Several promising, large-scale trials trying to prevent the spread of HIV have produced sobering results, as researchers discussed at a meeting last week, but longer-term data on new treatments are proving encouraging. Much of the buzz at the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, the l
BOSTON -- The use of antiretroviral drugs by mother or baby for several months after delivery can significantly reduce the risk of transmitting the AIDS virus during breast-feeding, researchers reported this week. Public health officials have had great success blocking HIV transmission to newborns using the drugs
Many gained years of life through drug cocktails, but the ailments of aging are showing up earlier. Larry Gibson first spotted Dennis Golay outside West Hollywood s French Market Place. By the time he was halfway across Santa Monica Boulevard, he d fallen in love. It was Nov. 14, 1981 -- Golay s 34th birthday. Seve
SAN ANTONIO -- Bill Day doesn t fancy himself an outlaw -- and with his Mr. Rogers demeanor, he definitely doesn t look the part. But soon the 73-year-old lay chaplain could spend up to a year in jail for breaking a law that he considers immoral. Day hands out clean needles to drug addicts on some of the seediest stree
The group seeks to recruit 1 million people to vote for candidates who support its agenda -- including abortion rights and birth control. The political wing of Planned Parenthood on Tuesday announced an unprecedented voter-mobilization effort targeting the young, often low-income women who rely on the group s clinics f
In a near-empty exhibition room in a Santa Monica hotel, Dorothy Tarro packed up her table of unsold jewelry, purses and statues Monday afternoon for the long trip back home to Kenya . She had come to the World Women Trade Fair at the Doubletree expecting to find thousands of enthusiastic, free-spending shoppers in 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
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger s ambitious policy agenda collided with fiscal reality Thursday as he rolled out a proposed budget that threatens to unravel his investment in schools, healthcare and criminal justice programs. At the same time he is pushing a $14-billion expansion of healthcare to nearly all Cal
SACRAMENTO - Returning to policies he advanced without success early in his tenure, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Tuesday for state government to permanently rein in spending and vowed not to raise taxes next year -- even as he prepared a budget that would increase insurance fees for millions of property owners.
Los Angeles 50 most at risk transients have been identified. Today, the county votes on a program to house them. Social service volunteers identified a 65-year-old homeless veteran as one of the people most likely to die on skid row in downtown Los Angeles. The man, who suffers from kidney and liver disease and has liv
AIDS archives Online summaries of the three AIDS archives are, or soon will be, available at the Online Archive of California at www.oac.cdlib.org. For more information on the individual archives, contact: www.onearchives.org or (213) 741-0094 www.glbthistory.org or (415) 777-5455 www.library.ucsf.edu/collres/archives/
Twelve years after a Silver Lake man died, his pharmacy receipts and medical bills sit in a Los Angeles archive with a hand-written message declaring: The Cost of AIDS. In a San Francisco library, a massive photo collection capturing the exuberance of gay liberation in the 1970s and its tragic collision with AIDS fills
Gloria Reuben raised more than a few eyebrows in 2000 when she went from the front lines of NBC s acclaimed ER to the back line of Tina Turner s rock n roll tour. Now she s starting the new year by stepping forward into her past. Reuben, who won accolades for her groundbreaking portrayal of Jeanie Boulet, a physician s
He used to be one of them. Now an attorney, he s dedicated to helping drug addicts and skid row residents. Legal aid lawyer Louis Rafti was leading a group of law students on a tour of skid row when he saw it in the corner of a homeless shelter. The cot. The very one, he could swear it was, that he had slept on during
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.