EVER SINCE the AIDS epidemic began, it has sparked conspiracy theories. The latest, reincarnated from an idea forwarded in 1992, asserts that African polio vaccines of the 1950s were contaminated with the animal version of HIV and that a subsequent cover-up has hidden the evidence. Pushing the theory that HIV was sprea
Think the number of AIDS deaths has shrunk in the past few years because of new drugs and ongoing education programs? Think again, says the United Nations AIDS Programme. While deaths in the United States are down, UN AIDS reported yesterday that 2.6 million people will have died of AIDS globally by the end of 1999, th
Using sophisticated new technology, scientists have discovered that HIV not only remains hidden and latent in the body, it continues to reproduce and spread within seemingly successfully treated patients. Coming on the heels of other disturbing findings regarding the limits of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAAR
Three different research teams-one working in New York City-have discovered proof that drug-resistant strains of HIV are now spreading among sexually active people in the United States and Europe. The findings, some of which are published today, raise troubling concerns for both HIV treatment and public health control
Atlanta-Despite remarkable improvements in HIV treatment and a dramatic drop in AIDS death rates between 1996 and 1997, the latest data, released yesterday, show a slowdown in mortality declines, indicating benefits of new medications may be waning. Meanwhile, the number of people getting infected with HIV in the
San Francisco - Amid troubling evidence of a resurgence of dangerous sexual practices in gay communities in several American cities, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to urge the institution of new national HIV testing procedures designed to pinpoint when - and possibly by whom - people are gett
In the wake of alleged security leaks from a national laboratory, government agencies are considering unprecedented restrictions on basic biological research. The fear is that a research discovery could fall into the wrong hands, resulting in a weapon of devastating epidemic power. Unlike nuclear physics, bomb engineer
Researchers at the New York Blood Center in Manhattan yesterday announced discovery of what they say is a safe compound that may stop sexual infection with HIV, herpes viruses, gonorrhea, chlamydia and several other venereal diseases. The announcement, which was timed to coincide with publication of the details in a Br
Two research teams have independently discovered that HIV continues to reproduce itself and mutate in people who otherwise appear to be successfully undergoing drug treatment. The findings call into question the long-term effectiveness of the best HIV therapy now available. Since 1996, hundreds of thousands of HIV pati
THE ANNOUNCEMENT early this year that the ancestral mother of HIV-1 had been found in a species of West African chimpanzee is now seen as just one of several findings that suggest mankind and monkeys are strongly linked by the viruses they carry, researchers say. In a meeting here of an elite group of about 150 experts
When the AIDS epidemic began back in 1981, the doctors and scientists who were in the middle of it thought that a cure or vaccine would be discovered within five to 10 years. Certainly they never imagined that the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, would still plague humanity a full generation later. If you are unde
WHILE SCIENCE broaches foreseeable responses in the next millennium to cancer and heart problems, genetic disease and even mental illness, infectious diseases - the No. 1 killers worldwide and No. 3 in the United States - remain a major sticking point within the so-called Biological Revolution. There are no crucial
Chicago - When HIV patients take medicines that control the virus, their immune systems begin to recuperate in ways that are puzzling and controversial, doctors are finding. For example, patients recover immunity to some deadly opportunistic infections but appear unable to fight diseases for which they were vaccinated
Chicago - HIV patients who use heroin, methadone or the recreational drug Ecstacy risk complications with their medicines that could be life threatening, scientists said yesterday. Because these drugs are metabolized in the liver through some of the same chemical pathways involved in processing commonly used anti-HIV m
Chicago - The virus that causes AIDS is constantly evolving, becoming more and more difficult to conquer with available drug cocktails, scientists said this week in several reports highlighted at the sixth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. The virus can evolve resistance to members of each class
Chicago - About 20 percent of African-Americans carry a genetic mutation that puts them at six times greater risk than whites of being infected with HIV once they re exposed to the disease, New York scientists announced yesterday. The finding is one of three highlighted at the sixth Conference on Retroviruses and Oppor
Chicago - The immune systems of HIV-infected individuals do successful battle for years on end with the virus, and yesterday several researchers delineated CD8 cells as the key players in that struggle. CD8 cells, a type of white blood cell, prevent the virus from killing an individual immediately after infection. And
Chicago - The number of viruses made every day in the body of an HIV-positive individual is far more than previously estimated - on the order of more than 40 billion viruses per day, according to presentations yesterday at the sixth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Furthermore, treatment with Hi
Chicago - Scientists say they ve discovered the missing link in HIV s chain of transmission from animal to man, a link that helped spur the deadly 20-year pandemic in which more than 33 million people have been infected worldwide. But while the finding could be a potential gold mine for those seeking a vaccine or cure,
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