Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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mpetrelis.blogspot.com
Michael Petrelis
(San Juan Capistrano, CA) - After twelve years of requests from AIDS activists, The New York Times on March 24 reached agreement to make available its entire 24-years of AIDS news coverage to AEGIS, the world's largest free-access AIDS information website. (AEGIS is an acronym for the AIDS Education Global Information System).
From the July 3, 1981, story about a rare cancer manifesting in homosexuals to articles in the past two months about a mutant drug-resistant HIV strain detected in New York City, dozens of Times stories are available now at http://www.aegis.org/news/nyt/, and additional articles will be loaded to the AEGiS archive over the next couple of months.
"I'm grateful to the Times's executives for their humanitarian gesture," said Sister Mary Elizabeth, founder and publisher of the nonprofit site. "Visitors to AEGiS will be able to search twenty-four years of AIDS stories, analyses and editorials for free. The Times joins other mainstream newspapers and wire services that have contributed their archives to us, such as Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, Reuters, the United Press International, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal."
Since 1990, AEGiS has provided a comprehensive history of the AIDS pandemic, and has been nominated to UNESCO's "Memory of the World".
This donation from The New York Times comes after 12 years of requests from Sister Mary Elizabeth, which the newspaper continually refused. Then, last year, longtime activist and person with AIDS Michael Petrelis bought a single share in The Times, so he could attend the annual shareholders meeting. There, he echoed Sister Mary Elizabeth's plea to publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., and the board of directors. While Petrelis was also refused, Sister Mary Elizabeth's father also purchased shares in the company and continued to press The Times to provide AEGiS with free access to their AIDS/HIV stories. Finally in early March 2005, The Times changed its mind and agreed to provide its AIDS/HIV archive free of charge to AEGIS.ORG.
Activist Petrelis applauds the development. "The Times is doing the AIDS community a great favor with its decision to share their archive. By having free access to Times stories, scientists, journalists, activists and people with AIDS/HIV will have crucial information at their fingertips."
Petrelis plans to attend The Times' annual shareholders meeting on April 26 at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York to thank publisher Sulzberger for sharing his paper's AIDS archive. Petrelis will also press for improvement in AIDS coverage especially related to research and epidemiology.
Michael Petrelis, Advocate
mpetrelis.blogspot.com
415-621-6267
MPetrelis@aol.com
050328
AE050301
Copyright © 2005 - Reproduced courtesy of copyright owner - listed on source line.
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted funding from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Pacific Life Foundation and donations from users like you.
Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2005. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
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