Four years ago, rumors of a massive AIDS epidemic in Uganda leaked into the western press and were adamantly denied by the government. When President Yoweri Museveni took power in January, 1986, he not only acknowledged Uganda s epidemic, but also initiated the world s most ambitious blood survey, testing three-quarter
AIDS appears to have become another weapon in the propaganda war of Afrikaner South Africans, and one of the targets is Zambia . Lusaka is headquarters for the African National Congress and SWAPO, resistance organizations for South Africa and Namibia , respectively. And Zambia is the leader of the Frontline States,
OFTEN HAILED as the only effective weapon in the war on AIDS being fought from San Francisco to Zambia , public education has failed to live up to its promise and sometimes may even have backfired. Despite the expenditure of millions of dollars around the world to teach people about the dangers of AIDS, few education e
EVER SINCE the second species of AIDS virus, known as HIV-2, was discovered, scientists have puzzled over its significance and the danger it may pose. No one knows whether HIV-2 will prove as lethal as its cousin, the common AIDS virus, or HIV-1. Although it shares some genetic similarity with HIV-1, HIV-2 is clearly a
Roots and leaves lay on screens outside his home, drying in the equatorial sun. A nearby brick shed was well stocked with sacks and jars full of powders and dried plants. As patients entered his consultation room in search of treatment for AIDS, the healer asked them to remove their shoes. Pelts of antelopes, leopards
DRESSED IN their finest, members of Zambia s young elite strolled into the elegant Maykusu Nightclub for a Saturday evening of dining and dancing to the hot rhumba rhythms of Zaire s Lumbumbashi Stars. Mosi beer flowed liberally and the dancers reveled into the morning hours. But the joy peaked as musicians shimmied th
WHEN THE FIRST published case reports of AIDS in Africa appeared in the medical literature in 1983, researchers in the West immediately assumed that the disease here was somehow linked to homosexual behavior or the sharing of dirty needles, as it appeared to be in the United States and in Europe. There were uninfor
In the winter of 1983, Dr. Nathan Clumeck was having difficulty treating three women and two men at the Hopital Universitaire Saint-Pierre in Brussels. He was puzzled because all had the same symptoms: relentless diarrhea, major weight loss and the inability to fight off infections. But the five had more than just thei
THREE men struggled to push an old bicycle up a muddy road beneath a gloomy African sky thick with clouds. Wrapped in white cloth and elephant grass, a 5 1/2-foot bundle stretched across the handlebars made it almost impossible to negotiate the rutted road past grim pedestrians. The bundled mass was the body of a 32-ye
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced approval of a drug for treatment of Kaposi s sarcoma, an AIDS-related cancer. The drug, known as alpha interferon, diminishes, and in some cases eliminates, Kaposi s sarcoma skin tumors that often accompany AIDS, according to a study conducted by Dr. Clifford Lane of
Antibodies that are supposed to block infection by the virus that causes AIDS actually may promote the spread of the disease, according to a study to be published today. In the study, appearing in today s Science magazine, Dr. Francis Ennis of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and two colleagues say a part
Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda says many Western scientists and drug companies view Africans as mere guinea pigs in the fight against AIDS. In a recent interview with Newsday, Kaunda charged that Africans all too often are being looked upon either as potential recipients of untested drugs and vaccines or as the subje
Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda yesterday denied rumors of a meeting between the leaders of the African front-line states and South African President Pieter Botha. The rumors began after Zaire s president, Mobuto Sese Seko, met with Botha on Saturday and told the British Broadcasting Company that Botha would come to L
Scientists may have found an explanation of why AIDS is more often transmitted among heterosexuals in Africa than it is in North America and Europe, where the epidemic is largely linked to homosexuality and intravenous drug abuse. At the Third International Conference on AIDS and Related Cancers held here last week, Dr
Scientists may have found an explanation of why AIDS is more often transmitted among heterosexuals in Africa than it is in North America and Europe, where the epidemic is largely linked to homosexuality and intravenous drug abuse. At the Third International Conference on AIDS and Related Cancers held here last week, Dr
Controversy over the idea of testing potential AIDS vaccines in Africa - before they are accepted as safe in the countries where they originate - broke into the open here yesterday at the first day of the Third International Conference on AIDS and Related Cancers in Africa. Robert Gallo of the U.S. National Cancer Inst
President Ronald Reagan, sidestepping the central recommendations of his own AIDS commission, yesterday released a plan of action for the AIDS epidemic that fails to support national antidiscrimination laws aimed at protecting the growing number of people hit by the deadly disease. Instead, he referred proposals for an
AMERICANS ARE responding to the AIDS epidemic through very personal sets of political and psychological attitudes, and many, if not most, will not generally respond to advertising or other education campaigns about AIDS, according to a new study from the University of Michigan and the U. S. Centers for Disease Control.
Within six weeks Massachusetts General Hospital will begin human trials on a new genetically engineered AIDS treatment, according to Harvard University s Dr. Jerome Groopman. Addressing the second international Gay and Lesbian Health Conference in Boston yesterday, Groopman detailed recent development of a decoy drug
The cost of treating AIDS patients is so high that it strains the resources of even the best managed health-care delivery systems, a congressional study has concluded. According to the report commissioned by the Office of Technology Assessment, the cost of treatment for only 940 AIDS patients since 1981 is potentially
The recreational drug known as Ecstasy causes extensive brain damage in laboratory monkeys, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The so-called designer drug MDMA was outlawed in 1985, following a study that showed small doses produced brain damage in rats and mice, although some experts say i
Expensive detective work can find and track people infected with the AIDS virus, in most cases prompting them to change their sexual behavior, public health officials reported today in the Journal of the American Medical Association . The Journal report said that such contact tracing is an effective means of controlli
ACCORDING TO A report in today s issue of Ms. magazine, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women in the United States have died of AIDS but have been incorrectly diagnosed as suffering from other diseases. And, says the author of the article, thousands of women may now be unaware they are suffering from AIDS. Feminist
Two new strains of African AIDS viruses have been found that cause disease without killing the cells they infect, according to two reports in today s Science magazine. The dozens of other known strains kill human cells, particularly the cells of the body s immune system. AIDS researchers have generally believed that su
The federal government is spending tens of millions of dollars on AIDS educational efforts without knowing whether any of the campaigns are working, according to a new study by the Office of Technology Assessment, a support arm of Congress. The report said that while state and federal agencies disseminated information
Like all epidemics it began with a whisper. Michael Gottlieb at UCLA heard the whisper, but what he heard was so obvious that at first it seemed meaningless: Homosexual men were suffering from a number of diseases rarely seen in the general heterosexual population. On June 5, 1981, the UCLA researcher published word of
America is stymied in its fight against AIDS, in large part because of a lack of guidance in federal policy making a panel of the National Academy of Sciences charged yesterday. The panel said that little progress has been made since it issued an initial study two years ago in which it also attacked federal anti-AIDS e
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