2005

Tradition binds African women, despite laws: The New York Times - December 30, 2005; Sharon LaFraniere; LAMONTVILLE, South Africa In theory, what happened to 14-year-old Sibongile in this hilly, crowded township outside Durban in November could not happen today - at least, not legally. On a broiling Saturday morning, as more than a dozen women looked on, Sibongile joined 56 other Zulu girls outside a red-and-white stripe
Picturing Some Shocks That Flesh Is Heir To: The New York Times - December 26, 2005; Grace Glueck; With war photographs confronting us daily, do we need an exhibition to remind us of the body s vulnerability? But the havoc caused by war is only one aspect of it. There is disease, domestic violence, environmental pollution, the enfeeblement of old age, starvation, drug addiction and more - much more. It s a gloomy pi
Libyan Court Orders a Retrial for 6 Workers in H.I.V. Case: The New York Times - Monday, December 26, 2005; Craig S. Smith; PARIS - The Libyan Supreme Court on Sunday overturned the convictions of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been sentenced to death on charges of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with H.I.V. The politically charged case was sent back to a lower court for a retrial. The action, which came on the
Fund Set up for Libyan Children Infected with H.I.V.: The New York Times - December 23, 2005; Craig S. Smith; PARIS - Libya , Bulgaria , the United States and the European Union have agreed to set up a fund to support hundreds of Libyan children infected with H.I.V., Bulgarian officials said today. While the agreement made no mention of six Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been sentenced to death
Chronically Ill Patients Turn to Yoga for Relief: The New York Times - December 15, 2005; Carol E. Lee; JACK WATERS credits yoga with saving his life four years ago. Riding the subway in Paris, he began experiencing chest pain. He knew that signaled a heart attack because he d had two already, side effects of an H.I.V. medicine that raised his cholesterol. He needed to get to a hospital, but first he wanted to do a yoga
A New Law in Tijuana Regulates the Oldest Profession: The New York Times - December 13, 2005; James C. Mckinley Jr.; TIJUANA, Mexico - She arrived at the clinic at noon, dark sunglasses covering her eyes and a baseball cap pulled down low. She clutched a small pink book with her picture stapled inside. The dates of her examinations for venereal diseases were stamped in inks of various colors, like a passport. Her name is Olga, an
Editorial: Who Murdered Steve Harvey?: The New York Times - December 13, 2005; Jamaica has a well-earned reputation for homophobia and murderous violence against gay people, most recently the murder of an internationally known AIDS outreach worker, Steve Harvey, after he was abducted from his home at gunpoint. The killing of Mr. Harvey has drawn condemnation from international organizations lik
The Rich, Sometimes, Are the Best Medicine: The New York Times - December 11, 2005; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; THE Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced that it would give $450 million toward eclectic inventions to aid the world s poor: more nutritious bananas, easier-to-use vaccines and chemicals that leave mosquitoes unable to smell their would-be victims, for example. In the six years since its creation, the f
False Positives From H.I.V. Test: The New York Times - December 10, 2005; Denise Grady; Health officials in New York and San Francisco said yesterday that a widely used rapid test for the virus that causes AIDS had been producing too many false-positive results, frightening healthy people into thinking they might be infected. The test, called the OraQuick Advance H.I.V. test, is the same one the Food and
Better Bananas, Nicer Mosquitoes: The New York Times - December 6, 2005; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; SEATTLE - Addressing 275 of the world s most brilliant scientists, Bill Gates cracked a joke: I ve been applying my imagination to the synergies of this, he said. We could have sorghum that cures latent tuberculosis. We could have mosquitoes that spread vitamin A. And most important, we could have bananas that never ne
On India's Roads, Cargo and a Deadly Passenger: The New York Times - December 6, 2005; Amy Waldman; NELAMANGALA, India - Hot water: 10 rupees. Cold water: 8 rupees. Toilet: 5 rupees. Sex: no price specified on the bathhouse wall, but, as the condom painted there suggests, safe. Sangeetha Hamam, a bathhouse, sits on the national highway near this gritty truck stop about nine miles north of Bangalore. Its mistress is R
Editorial: The State of AIDS: The New York Times - December 1, 2005; AIDS is outrunning us. The annual report of the United Nations AIDS agency, released last week to mark World AIDS Day today, informs us that this year there will be 5 million new infections, a record, and more than 3.1 million deaths, another record. The most troubling aspect of the report by the agency, Unaids, is its
From Kenneth Cole, a New Solidarity: The New York Times - December 1, 2005; Eric Wilson; KENNETH COLE, who sometimes pushes the boundaries of good taste in his pun-laden, socially conscious advertising, will introduce a public service campaign tied to World AIDS Day today. It is one he anticipates will elicit more attention, and probably controversy, than any of his prior statements. The message of Mr. Col
Television Review - 'Orphans of Nkandla': Wanting to Help in Africa but Asking if It's Possible: The New York Times - December 1, 2005; Ginia Bellafante; Watching Orphans of Nkandla, a documentary this evening on Cinemax about the impact of AIDS on rural families in South Africa , will prompt your charitable impulses. It may make you want to seek out the sort of charitable organization that can guarantee that a contribution of two or three dollars a day - and don t you
Aggressive H.I.V. Monitoring Is Urged by City Health Chief: The New York Times - December 1, 2005; Richard Perez-Pena; New York City s health commissioner says government should become much more aggressive about monitoring and caring for people infected with H.I.V. and preventing the spread of the virus - in short, treating H.I.V. more like other dangerous infectious diseases. In an article in the current issue of The New England Journ
EDITORIAL: AIDS, and Homophobia, in Jamaica: The New York Times - November 30, 2005; Jamaica took a tentative step in the right direction recently when two government officials suggested that the country actually debate longstanding laws that criminalize gay sex among consenting adults. The suggestion, by Health Minister John Junor and Deputy Education Minister Donald Rhodd, may seem no big deal to t
Brave Spirit Under the Unsheltering Sky: The New York Times - November 28, 2005; Alessandra Stanley; Trailers for the HBO film Yesterday are both true and totally misleading. Blurbs describing the transcendent power of one woman s courage and compassion conjure Oprah Winfrey Presents or worse, the movie Beaches. And while Yesterday is, in fact, a tribute to the transcendent power of one rural South African woman who c
Test Adds New Twist to the Dating Game: The New York Times - November 27, 2005; Gardiner Harris; THE two young single women, attractive and confident, were sitting at the bar of a popular Washington after-hours spot when they were asked how a relatively quick do-it-yourself H.I.V. test might affect their dating life. One of them, Julie Powers, 23, laughed. I would definitely make someone take it, she said, hopeful
Forced to Marry Before Puberty, African Girls Pay Lasting Price: The New York Times - November 27, 2005; Sharon LaFraniere; CHIKUTU, Malawi - Mapendo Simbeye s problems began early last year when the barren hills along Malawi s northern border with Tanzania rejected his attempts to grow even cassava, the hardiest crop of all. So to feed his wife and five children, he said, he went to his neighbor, Anderson Kalabo, and asked for a loan.
MOVIE REVIEW: 'RENT' - New Tenants in Tinseltown: The New York Times - November 23, 2005; A. O. Scott; Ever since it opened in 1996, Rent, Jonathan Larson s rock n roll updating of La Boheme, has inspired passionate adoration, as well as its share of derision. The lyrics to one of its frenetic, show-stopping songs celebrate the idea of being an us - for once - instead of a them, and the world around Rent may be similarl
Editorial: AIDS Testing at Home: November 19, 2005; Rapid AIDS tests that yield results in 20 minutes have revolutionized outreach counseling and greatly improved efforts aimed at slowing the spread of infection. With the older test, which required two weeks, about a third of the people tested at AIDS clinics never returned to pick up their results. Those who never lear
H.I.V. Debate Emerges in Canada: The New York Times - November 15, 2005; Rick Westhead; Nearly a decade after Magic Johnson made a highly publicized comeback to the National Basketball Association five years after testing positive for H.I.V., a similar controversy has engulfed an infected player in the Canadian Football League. It has rekindled debate over whether athletes who contract H.I.V., the virus t
F.D.A. Reports Reduced Risks With Condoms: The New York Times - November 11, 2005; Gardiner Harris; Used correctly, latex condoms greatly reduce the risks of pregnancy and disease, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday in a 63-page report. Prepared in response to a five-year-old law, the report is to form the basis for labels for condom packaging and provide more up-to-date information about effectiveness.
At This Sample Sale, No Flying Elbows: The New York Times - November 10, 2005; Eric Wilson; LAST Friday, in the very gray Vogue conference room at 4 Times Square, Anna Wintour met with a group of fashion industry executives for what would be the last of a series of weekly meetings to coordinate the construction of a store that will be open for less than 24 hours. Ms. Wintour had assembled the group to discuss
An Enduring Ribbon of Stars: The New York Times - November 10, 2005; Shadi Rahimi; Celebrities can be fickle, drifting from trend to trend, adopting charity causes as though they were tiny dogs, a new religion or a fad diet, abandoning interest in New York City s firefighters, starvation in Africa or colon cancer once the news media attention wanes. Nonetheless, a smorgasbord of health causes continu
Officials Report Mixed Picture on S.T.D. Rates: The New York Times - November 9, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman; Gonorrhea rates in the United States have fallen to their lowest level on record, but rates of two other sexually transmitted diseases, syphilis and chlamydia, are rising, federal health officials said yesterday. The rates, though of concern, are low compared with years ago. Still, an estimated 19 million new infection
U.S. Weighs Whether to Open an Era of Rapid H.I.V. Detection in the Home: The New York Times - November 5, 2005; John Leland; At a free clinic in Philadelphia, Jennifer Brown, 26, spent a recent lunch hour talking to a counselor and waiting anxiously for a small white strip to tell her whether she had the AIDS virus. Ms. Brown said she and her partner had stopped using condoms, and she recently discovered that he had been unfaithful. How wou
Movie Review: A Bargain With a Hollywood Devil, Followed by a Computer Date With an Archangel: The New York Times - November 4, 2005; Stephen Holden; You can do anything you want as long as you don t call it what it is, announces Jeffrey (Campbell Scott), a beady-eyed Hollywood studio executive in Craig Lucas s sublimely acted film The Dying Gaul. Spewed with the slippery charm of a master of spin, his Orwellian double talk could stand as a cynical prophecy for our
TV Review - 'Rx for Survival': Diseases Now in the Past, and New Ones Up Ahead: The New York Times - November 1, 2005; Anita Gates; We owe it all to the milkmaids. In 1796, when smallpox was rampant, Edward Jenner noticed that the women who milked cows for a living contracted cowpox on their hands but seemed never to come down with deadly smallpox. He wondered if the milder illness protected them from the killer disease, and the idea for vaccines w
H.I.V. Drugs Not at Fault for Causing Gain in Girth: The New York Times - October 31, 2005; David Tuller; SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 31 - The new class of drugs called protease inhibitors revolutionized the care of H.I.V. patients in 1996. But many people who took the drugs began to lose fat tissue in their cheeks, arms, legs and buttocks. Many also developed a paunch - nicknamed Crix belly after
H.I.V. Drugs Not at Fault for Causing Gain in Girth: The New York Times - October 31, 2005; David Tuller; SAN FRANCISCO - The new class of drugs called protease inhibitors revolutionized the care of H.I.V. patients in 1996. But many people who took the drugs began to lose fat tissue in their cheeks, arms, legs and buttocks. Many also developed a paunch - nicknamed Crix belly after
U.N. Puts Children in Forefront of AIDS Effort: The New York Times - October 26, 2005; Celia W. Dugger; UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 25 - Only one in 20 of the H.I.V.-infected children worldwide who need life-prolonging drugs gets them. Only one out of 100 gets a cheap antibiotic that can nearly halve death rates from secondary infections like diarrhea and malaria. Less than one in 10 mothers infected with the H.I.V. virus are g
Potential Conflicts Cited in Process for New Drugs: The New York Times - October 25, 2005; Nicholas Bakalar; The authors of the guidelines widely used to establish standards for prescribing medicines are often paid by the drug companies whose products they discuss, a new survey has found. The study, by the journal Nature and published in its Oct. 20 issue, found that more than one-third of the guideline authors acknowledged s
U.N. Envoy Sharply Criticizes South Africa's AIDS Program: The New York Times - October 24, 2005; Sharon LaFraniere; JOHANNESBURG - A new book by the United Nations special envoy to Africa on AIDS brings to light an extraordinary breach between the organization and South Africa over the crisis, under which the government has effectively banned the envoy from carrying out his duties here for the past year. The book, written by Ste
Codey Announces Change to Aid Stem Cell Research: The New York Times - October 18, 2005; Tina Kelley; PARAMUS, N.J., Oct. 18 - Continuing his effort to make New Jersey a leader in stem cell research, Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey announced on Tuesday the creation of what he called the nation s first statewide public bank for umbilical and placental blood to be used both by stem cell researchers and patients in need of t
Bayer Offers New Antibiotic With Promise in Fight on TB: The New York Times - October 18, 2005; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, who treats tuberculosis patients in central Harlem and in Durban, South Africa , believes that a new drug for tuberculosis is needed absolutely desperately. No new medication has been registered for 40 years, she points out. And one of the four drugs she prescribes for new patients clashes with an im
Settlement in Marketing of a Drug for AIDS: The New York Times - October 17, 2005; Eric Lichtblau; WASHINGTON - A Swiss biotechnology company agreed on Monday to pay more than $700 million to settle federal charges that it illegally marketed an AIDS drug by concocting a dubious medical test for those with the disease and offering doctors an all-expenses-paid trip to France to prescribe the drug. The agreement be
Time Is Short for Bulgarian Nurses Facing Death in Libya: The New York Times - October 17, 2005; Elisabeth Rosenthal; SOFIA, Bulgaria - In 1998, at a time when her country was mired in hyperinflation, Valya Chervenyashka left her rural Bulgarian village and went to work as a nurse in Benghazi, Libya , for $250 a month, to pay for her daughters college educations. Today, Ms. Chervenyashka and four other Bulgarian nurses, as well as
In Lincoln Tunnel, Tires Yield to Feet in Rally to End AIDS: The New York Times - October 16, 2005; Damien Cave; Drivers entering Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel yesterday grimaced with dismay. Were all those people really walking into the tunnel s central tube? Indeed they were - for a cause. Carrying signs calling for an end to AIDS, more than 500 activists strolled and shouted their way under the Hudson River in what orga
LeRoy Whitfield, 36, Dies; Wrote of AIDS Battle: The New York Times - October 16, 2005; LeRoy Whitfield, a journalist who used a magazine column to chronicle the everyday struggles of people with H.I.V., died last Sunday at North General Hospital in Harlem. He was 36. The cause was AIDS-related complications, said his brother, Crofton Whitfield. Mr. Whitfield had written a column titled Native Tongue sin
Editorial: Preventing the Spread of AIDS: The New York Times - October 15, 2005; For years, doctors and policy makers have suspected that male circumcision is a powerful protector against AIDS. Now a new study in South Africa has found that circumcision reduces men s risk of H.I.V. infection by more than 65 percent. If the results are confirmed by two similar studies in progress, circumcision may o
U2 Moves to Distance Itself From Concert Fund-Raising: The New York Times - October 14, 2005; Patrick D. Healy; Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton may be holding a $2,500-a-person fund-raiser at a U2 concert on Wednesday, and her husband may be best buds with Bono, but do not assume that the band s political celebrity is endorsing New York s celebrity politician. A close associate of Bono s took the unusual step this week of disasso
F.D.A. to Weigh At-Home Testing for AIDS Virus: The New York Times - October 13, 2005; Gardiner Harris; Federal drug regulators have agreed to consider allowing a Pennsylvania company to sell the first rapid, at-home AIDS test that would make testing for the virus about as easy and accessible as a pregnancy screen. The move could put to rest 18 years of controversy. Officials at the Food and Drug Administration and AIDS
Brazil Near Deal With Abbott for Price Cut on AIDS Drug: The New York Times - October 4, 2005; Paulo Prada; RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil said on Tuesday that it was close to completing an agreement with Abbott Laboratories that would almost halve the price it pays for Kaletra , a drug used to treat AIDS patients. The pending agreement, which would lower the drug s price to 63 cents a pill
Different Forms of Low-Cost Housing: The New York Times - October 2, 2005; Eleanor Charles; IN Fairfield County, where there is no shortage of multimillion-dollar homes, officials of numerous nonprofit organizations and city and state agencies are pursuing creative solutions for people stuck in old-fashioned warehouse housing that screams subsidized. Two recent examples, utterly different from each other, pre
Putting Women's Faces on the Grim Statistics About AIDS: The New York Times - October 1, 2005; Felicia R. Lee; Danai Gurira, the daughter of professionals, grew up mostly in Zimbabwe . Nikkole Salter was reared in a struggling Los Angeles neighborhood. They met in the graduate acting program at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where it turned out that each was planning a one-woman show about AIDS. Their teac
AIDS Drugs for Africa: The New York Times - September 28, 2005; The United States has awarded a $77 million contract to a consortium that will help manage the flow of AIDS drugs to Africa, American aid officials announced yesterday. The consortium includes 15 companies and charities, including nonprofit medical groups, British and South African specialists, and corporations like No
Serge Lang -- Yale mathematician, dissenter: The New York Times - September 25, 2005; Kenneth Chang, Warren Leary; Serge Lang, a leading mathematical theorist who became better known for his academic jousts with nonmathematicians on social and political issues than for his work in geometry and the properties of numbers, died Sept. 12 in Berkeley. He was 78. The Yale University mathematics department, where Professor Lang taught for
Turning African Danger Into Safe Entertainment: The New York Times - September 21, 2005; Caryn James; Hollywood has a formula, not foolproof but entrenched, for turning a political message into a commercial film: take a likable hero, add a romance, then telegraph an unobjectionable idea, something like, Let s feed starving children. Lately, a new twist has been added: latch on to Africa. The subject may be arms dealing
Editorial: Angelina and Jeff's Excellent Ideas: The New York Times - September 19, 2005; MTV, which pokes its toe into the news fairly regularly, is airing a program called The Diary of Angelina Jolie and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa. The hope is that the combination of A-list superstar and A-list economics geek can spark American interest in ending global poverty. The short film features Ms. Jolie and Mr.
Serving Gays Who Serve God: The New York Times - September 16, 2005; Andy Newman; This spring, Brenda Oliver, depressed and desperate for spiritual sustenance, visited the church near her home in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She lasted until the minister started talking about the men of Sodom who demanded that Lot let them have sex with his houseguests. He looked straight at Ms. Oliver, a sturdy, dreadlocked
When Timing Is Everything, Mayor Praises Own Record: The New York Times - September 13, 2005; Mike Mcintire; Lest his opponents have any doubt about what they are up against in November, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg chose the day before the Democratic primary to release a glowing report card on his administration s performance. The Mayor s Management Report, an annual accounting that is sure to draw more scrutiny than usual in
OPINION: Meet the Fakers: The New York Times - September 13, 2005; Nicholas D. Kristof, nicholas@nytimes.com; The biggest gathering of leaders in history unfolds this week at the United Nations, as they preen and boast about how much they re helping the world s poor. In short, it may be the greatest assembly in history - of hypocrites. The fact is that with just a few exceptions, the presidents and prime ministers coming to th
A Chinese University Removes a Topic From the Closet: The New York Times - September 7, 2005; Howard W. French; SHANGHAI, Sept. 7 - As the class got under way, the diminutive teacher standing before an overcrowded lecture hall in this city s most exclusive university handed out a survey. The first of several multiple-choice questions asked students what their feelings would be if they encountered two male lovers: total acceptanc
EDITORIAL: The Missing Condoms: The New York Times - Sunday, September 4, 2005; Uganda became Africa s leader in fighting AIDS by waging an all-fronts war. In 1991, 15 percent of Uganda s adults were infected with the virus. Ten years later the figure was 5 percent. Ugandan officials achieved this drop by bringing the disease out into the open and encouraging people to protect themselves. Presid
U.S. Blamed for Condom Shortage in Fighting AIDS in Uganda: New York Times - August 30, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman; A top U.N. official and a number of advocacy groups for AIDS patients charged Monday that Bush administration policy had led to a shortage of condoms in Uganda , increasing the risk of infection for many people, particularly married women and adolescents. But the charges were disputed by the Ugandan government and an o
Rights Agency Urges U.S. Not to Deport AIDS Patient: The New York Times - August 27, 2005; Nina Bernstein; Correction Appended The human rights arm of the Organization of American States is asking the United States not to deport a terminally ill AIDS patient from the Bronx while it reviews her claim that deportation would violate her basic right to life. The patient, Andrea Marie Mortlock, 41, is a legal permanent resident
EDITORIAL: What? Condoms Can Prevent AIDS? No Way!: The New York Times - August 26, 2005; Helene Cooper; Six years ago, former prostitutes in several Central American countries began going to brothels, beer halls, bars and discos from Tegucigalpa to Managua and Mexico City. Every night, these women walked out of their homes and into the red-light districts in the poorest parts of these very poor cities. They carried over
Health Grants to Uganda Halted Over Allegations: The New York Times - August 25, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman; A global health organization said yesterday that it had suspended more than $150 million in grants to Uganda because of serious mismanagement. Officials of the agency, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said they had taken the action to warn Uganda and other countries that they needed to manage th
Scientists Speak Up on Mix of God and Science: New York Times - August 23, 2005; Cornelia Dean; At a recent scientific conference at City College of New York, a student in the audience rose to ask the panelists an unexpected question: Can you be a good scientist and believe in God? Reaction from one of the panelists, all Nobel laureates, was quick and sharp. No! declared Herbert A. Hauptman, who shared the chemis
Private-Sector Mercy: The New York Times - August 19, 2005; Victoria Hale, San Francisco; By almost every measure - the spreading disaster of H.I.V. infection and AIDS, the vast suffering caused by malaria - the world is failing to meet the health needs of its poorest people. Yet in the world of public health, there is a growing mood of cautious optimism and commitment based on a novel way of approaching th
Brazil Again Seeks to Cut Cost of AIDS Drug: The New York Times - August 19, 2005; Paulo Prada; BRASILIA - After an impasse last month, Brazil s health ministry said Thursday that it was once more pressing Abbott Laboratories to lower the price of Kaletra , an important AIDS medicine, or risk having Brazilian manufacturers break the drug s patent and produce it at a lower cost.
HIV infections decline: Some theorize widespread knowledge of disease status helps contain spread in San Francisco.: New York Times - August 18, 2005; Dean E. Murphy; SAN FRANCISCO - The conversation over salad, dinner rolls and iced tea was about dating. Mostly predictable stuff, like where to meet guys and the hottest men-seeking-men Web sites. But the gathering last week at a coffee shop in the largely gay Castro district was not a casual pickup session. The dozen or so men were
Nominee's Early Files Show Many Cautions for Top Officials, Including Reagan: The New York Times - August 18, 2005; Todd S. Purdum and John M. Broder; WASHINGTON - As a young lawyer in the Reagan White House, it was John G. Roberts Jr. who often found himself urging caution on his elders - including the president himself - in an effort to shield them from not only legal errors but also political blunders and public relations missteps, great and small. Newly released
EDITORIAL: Guarding the Fight Against AIDS: The New York Times - Thursday, August 18, 2005; It doesn t take a degree in public administration to know that the government should not be in the business of punishing the places that try hardest. That s what the Bush administration is planning to do when it comes to money to fight AIDS. In its proposal to reauthorize the Ryan White Care Act, the Health and Human S
A Good Report on AIDS, and Some Credit the Web: The New York Times - August 17, 2005; Dean E. Murphy; SAN FRANCISCO - The conversation over tossed salad, dinner rolls and iced tea was about dating. Mostly predictable stuff, like where to meet guys and the hottest men-seeking-men Web sites. A study has found that new H.I.V. infections in San Francisco are fewer than local health officials thought. Why do you think there
H.I.V.- Positive Man Admits To Spitting Blood at Officers: The New York Times - August 9, 2005; Corey Kilgannon; William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting for this article.; An H.I.V.-positive man admitted yesterday that he tried to kill four police detectives by spitting saliva and blood in their faces at a Harlem police station in 2003, the authorities said. He also admitted to biting a psychiatric orderly a year later at a hospital where he was held after his arrest. Jury selection was
Acting Like There's No Tomorrow When There May Be Many Tomorrows Left: The New York Times - August 8, 2005; David Leonhardt; TRYING to figure out how many years you have left to live is not the most enjoyable way to spend a summer day. But it does have its benefits. It can help you decide how to invest, what kind of insurance policy to buy and, if you are old enough, whether to splurge on a grand vacation or make do with another trip to the
A Company's Troubled Answer for Prisoners With H.I.V.: The New York Times - August 1, 2005; Paul von Zielbauer; HARVEST, Ala. - If there was ever a prison that needed help, it was Limestone Correctional Facility. Even within the troubled Alabama penal system, this state compound near Huntsville was notorious for cruel punishment and medical neglect. In one drafty, rat-infested warehouse once reserved for chain gangs, the state q
Desperately Painting the Plague: The New York Times - July 29, 2005; Holland Cotter; WORCESTER, Mass. - Some of us thought the end of a world had come when AIDS started picking off friends and lovers in the 1980 s, and in a sense it had. A certain world really did end. Yet even that experience left us unequipped to imagine the kind of despair today blanketing parts of Africa, where the disease has spre
Prostitution Puts U.S. and Brazil at Odds on AIDS Policy: The New York Times - July 24, 2005; Larry Rohter; RIO DE JANEIRO - In their baseball caps and T-shirts adorned with a rose in the shape of a heart, they are a familiar and welcome presence in the red-light district on the outskirts of downtown here. For years now, they have been distributing condoms to the prostitutes who work the streets, part of the Brazilian govern
EDITORIAL: Fighting AIDS Behind Bars: The New York Times - July 22, 2005; The United States has done relatively little to curtail the AIDS epidemic that rages within the prison system, where the H.I.V. infection rates are many times as high as in the world outside. Strategies for fighting disease behind bars are better developed in Europe, where the World Health Organ
U.N. Cites Lag in Educating Peacekeepers About AIDS: The New York Times - July 18, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman; UNITED NATIONS - United Nations officials said Monday that despite progress in fulfilling a mandate five years ago to better educate peacekeeping forces about AIDS, they had not fully met their goal. The effort began in 2000, amid concern that peacekeepers could be helping to spread H.I.V. in countries they were assign
New York Medicaid Fraud May Reach Into Billions: The New York Times - July 18, 2005; Clifford J. Levy and Michael Luo; It was created 40 years ago to provide health care for the poorest New Yorkers, offering a lifeline to those who could not afford to have a baby or a heart attack. But in the decades since, New York State s Medicaid program has also become a $44.5 billion target for the unscrupulous and the opportunistic. It has drawn
Belated Charge Ignites Furor Over AIDS Drug Trial: The New York Times - July 17, 2005; Janny Scott and Leslie Kaufman; It was seen as one of the great successes of AIDS treatment. In the late 1980 s and early 1990 s, hundreds of children in New York City were dying of AIDS. The only approved drugs were for adults, and many of the patients were foster children. So doctors obtained permission to include foster children in what they regar
No deal on Abbott drug, Brazil's health chief says: The New York Times - July 16, 2005; SAO PAULO, Brazil - Just one week after Brazil announced an agreement with Abbott Laboratories to get a lower price for an important AIDS drug, the country s new health minister said that the deal had not been completed and that the government could still break Abbott s patent and produce a copycat version of the medic
Six Injections and What They Do: The New York Times - July 14, 2005; DOCTORS started filling in facial wrinkles with collagen almost 25 years ago. Since then, they have started using a variety of other injectable substances that can flatten or fill lines and furrows. All of the following have been approved as safe by the Food and Drug Administration, though not necessarily for treating
Southampton Chic: As Seen on TV: The New York Times - July 14, 2005; Eric Wilson; OF all the fashion designers who are not household names, Steven Stolman has happily, and almost entirely, confined his celebrity to elite resort enclaves. Mr. Stolman s bright nautilus prints and swimsuits made of decorator s fabrics might not be for everyone, but they are catnip for the die-hard preppies who were wea
Brazil and U.S. Maker Reach Deal on AIDS Drug: The New York Times - July 9, 2005; Todd Benson; SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil reached an agreement late Friday with the American pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories that will lower the price it pays for the AIDS drug Kaletra while refraining from breaking the company s patent to produce a generic version of the medicine.
Bush and conservatives have made progress, but more can be done: The New York Times - July 7, 2005; Nicholas Kristof, nicholas@nytimes.com.; Those who care about Africa tend to think that the appropriate attitude toward President Bush is a medley of fury and contempt. But the fact is that Mr. Bush has done much more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever did, increasing the money actually spent for aid there by two-thirds so far, and setting in motion an eventua
The Latest in Fitness: Millions for Charity: The New York Times - July 7, 2005; Camille Sweeney; BEFORE Sharla Phernetton began training with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society s Team in Training program, she hardly ever made it to the gym. Twice a week, if that. Now, even after five months of organized runs, swims and bike rides, she still doesn t consider herself a real triathlete. I m amazed at what I ve done,
St. Vincent Medical Centers System Files for Bankruptcy: The New York Times - July 6, 2005; Marc Santora; St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, the largest Catholic hospital system in New York State, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday morning, citing years of mounting debts and falling revenues. St. Vincent s Hospital Manhattan is the flagship of a group of Catholic hospitals in serious financial trouble. St. Vincen
EDITORIAL: Saving Lives in Africa: The New York Times - July 1, 2005; With President Bush s announcement yesterday of $1.2 billion for a five-year campaign against malaria in Africa, this mosquito-borne disease is finally getting the high-level attention it deserves. The wonder is that it took so long. This ancient scourge is so deadly and pervasive, and effective remedies are so cheap,
Health Groups Expect to Miss AIDS Target: The New York Times - June 30, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman and Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; The World Health Organization and the United Nations AIDS program said yesterday that they would not reach their heavily promoted 3 by 5 goal of treating three million H.I.V.-infected poor people by the end of 2005. Officials of several health agencies fighting AIDS blamed problems in the drug supply chain and shortage
EDITORIAL: Playing AIDS Games in New Jersey: The New York Times - June 30, 2005; The New Jersey State Senate is placing politics above public safety - and tacitly promoting the spread of H.I.V. and AIDS - by failing to pass a desperately needed needle exchange bill that was approved by the State Assembly last year. Without access to clean needles, or to treatment programs, which are now overcrowded
Medical Marijuana? Rhode Island Says Yes: The New York Times - June 29, 2005; The Rhode Island legislature passed a bill yesterday allowing the use of medical marijuana, three weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that federal authorities could prosecute those who use the drug for medicinal purposes, even in states with laws allowing it. The bill passed the State Senate by a vote of 33 to 1 last e
New Ideas in Global Health Get a $437 Million Assist: The New York Times - June 28, 2005; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; A better banana and a less-toxic cassava, childhood vaccines hidden in spores and drunk with fruit juice, mice that develop AIDS and many other exotic dreams of public health scientists will share $437 million in grant money, the William and Melinda Gates Foundation announced yesterday. The 43 projects were the winners
Gates fund to bankroll 43 health pursuits: The New York Times - June 28, 2005; Donald G. McNeil Jr; A better banana and a less toxic cassava, childhood vaccines hidden in spores and drunk with fruit juice and many other exotic dreams of public health scientists will share $437 million in grant money, the William and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Monday. The 43 projects were the winners of a competition announced
EDITORIAL: America Giveth, America Taketh Away: The New York Times - June 27, 2005; In the battle against AIDS, the Bush administration is both savior and scoundrel. Washington is the single largest financier of AIDS programs in poor countries. But the administration uses its muscle to extinguish necessary and successful programs it finds politically objectionable, and to carry out ineffective ideolog
Brazil to Copy AIDS Drug Made by Abbott: The New York Times - Saturday, June 25, 2005; Todd Benson; SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil announced late Friday that it would start copying an AIDS drug made by the American pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories to provide a cheaper version for its AIDS treatment program, becoming the first country to break the patent of an antiretroviral medicine. The Brazilian governmen
A.M.A. to Study Effect of Marketing Drugs to Consumers: The New York Times - June 22, 2005; Stephanie Saul; ADD another voice to the list of groups questioning how drugs are pitched to consumers. The American Medical Association , the nation s largest organization of physicians, agreed yesterday to study whether consumer drug advertising leads to unnecessary prescriptions, potentially harming patients and driving up health c
A Groovy Little Thing Called AIDS Prevention: The New York Times - June 19, 2005; Claire Dederer; ON June 1, a condom commercial appeared in prime time, the first of its kind to run in those hours on network television. The ad, titled Forty Percent, is part of a new Trojan campaign that highlights sobering statistics about sexually transmitted diseases. As befits a commercial of the sobering-statistics school, Fort
Drug Trials on Children Broke Rules, Officials Say: The New York Times - June 17, 2005; Janny Scott; Federal officials have found that a Columbia University Medical Center committee that oversees the use of patients as subjects in medical research violated federal regulations in the 1990 s in the case of four research projects. In the projects, experimental drugs were tested in children, including foster children, wit
Locker Room Trysts Bedevil Health Clubs: The New York Times - June 16, 2005; Carol E. Lee; A FEW months ago Timothy Young, a comedian and puppeteer, headed to the steam room of a Y.M.C.A. in Brooklyn to relax after working out. When he opened the door, he saw two men kissing and fondling each other. Go ahead, I don t care, Mr. Young, 31, told them. But he did leave the room. Not all gymgoers are blase when t
City Emerges as Model in China's Effort to Reverse AIDS Record: The New York Times - June 16, 2005; Jim Yardley; GEJIU, China - The storefront looks like just another downtown shop. But inside, health workers offer tests for H.I.V. and dispense methadone to drug users. Upstairs, a nonprofit group offers counseling and support for anyone with H.I.V. or AIDS. Not far away, another group has opened a drop-in center for parents of dr
Letter to the Editor: How to Defeat AIDS: The New York Times - June 16, 2005; To the Editor: David Brooks s column from Namibia ( In Africa, Life After AIDS, June 9) underscores a vital point about the war on AIDS: unless people are tested, there is no way to stop the spread of the disease. The people whose progress he celebrates are alive because they got tested. Yet according to Unaids, more
Bush Urges African Leaders to Press Reforms: The New York Times - June 13, 2005; Maria Newman; President Bush, meeting in Washington with the leaders of five African nations, said today that democratic reforms and free trade were the best ways to help poor nations. Mr. Bush s remarks follow an announcement on Saturday that the world s wealthiest nations would cancel at least $40 billion of debt owed to internati
The Wisdom We Need to Fight AIDS: The New York Times - June 12, 2005; David Brooks, dabrooks@nytimes.com; Xai-Xai, Mozambique - There s a church in southern Mozambique that is about 10 yards long, with a tin roof and walls made of sticks. Women gather there to sing and pray and look after the orphans of AIDS victims. When you ask those women and their pastor what they tell people to prevent the spread of AIDS, the first th
EDITORIAL: Fighting AIDS Behind Bars: The New York Times - June 10, 2005; The United States will never contain deadly diseases like AIDS and hepatitis C until it prevents them from spreading behind bars, where infection levels are many times as high as in the world outside and the diseases spread easily, thanks in part to unprotected sex among inmates. Routine testing and education programs
In Africa, Life After AIDS: The New York Times - June 9, 2005; David Brooks, dabrooks@nytimes.com; Bobwalla is a black woman born in Cape Town and raised under apartheid. She lived in a shack with her husband, who drank and beat her for the first nine years of their marriage. Then she tested positive for H.I.V., and cried for days. It was a death sentence. But she was lucky enough to find a clinic that could give he
From Broken Bones to Decayed Buildings: The New York Times - June 8, 2005; Sandeep Junnarkar; TO his tools of the trade - surgical navigation equipment, intramedullary nails and plate and screw sets - Dr. Steven A. Olson, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Duke University Medical Center, has added a simple two-megapixel camera. When a patient is brought into the emergency room with, say, severe skeletal trauma, ca
H.I.V. Tests Pose Choice of Breakthroughs: The New York Times - June 6, 2005; Richard P�rez-Pe�a; For almost two decades, H.I.V. tests had two glaring flaws. They did not detect the earliest stage of infection, when people are more likely to spread the virus. And they took days to produce results, and many people never returned to learn whether they were infected. Now, technology has put public health officials in
AIDS, Pregnancy and Poverty Trap Ever More African Girls: The New York Times - June 3, 2005; Sharon Lafraniere; PATRICE LUMUMBA, Mozambique - They met a year ago on the dirt road outside her aunt s house, in this struggling township where houses are built from bound-together reeds and the only water comes from wells. Flora Muchave was 14. Elario Novunga was 22, nicely dressed and, Flora said, full of promises. One stood out:
AIDS epidemic not under control, U.N. report says: Annan says efforts not keeping up with infection rate: The New York Times - June 3, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman; United Nations -- Although a small but growing number of countries is beginning to contain the spread of the AIDS virus, the epidemic is expanding in all areas of the world, outpacing the response, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday. It is clear that the epidemic continues to outrun our efforts to contain
Gains Made to Contain AIDS, but Its Global Spread Goes On, U.N.: The New York Times - June 2, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman; UNITED NATIONS - Although a small but growing number of countries are beginning to contain the spread of the AIDS virus, the epidemic is expanding in all areas of the world, outpacing the response, the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said here on Thursday. It is clear that the epidemic continues to outrun
Bush Maintains Opposition to Doubling Aid for Africa: The New York Times - June 2, 2005; Elizabeth Becker and David E. Sanger; WASHINGTON - President Bush refused on Wednesday to budge on his administration s opposition to doubling aid for Africa, a major proposal on the agenda for a summit meeting of industrial nations next month in Scotland. The long-simmering dispute could culminate next week when Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, who h
City to Pay AIDS Group in Settlement: The New York Times - May 27, 2005; Jim Dwyer; The city has agreed to pay almost $5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Housing Works, an advocacy and housing organization for people with AIDS that claimed it had lost government contracts as punishment for disparaging former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, his aides and their policies. The payment, announced yesterda
Spread of AIDS in India Outpaces Scant Treatment Effort: The New York Times - May 27, 2005; Somini Sengupta; MUMBAI, India - On an ordinary Thursday morning at the city s largest public hospital, an ordinary group of Indians sat around a table, exchanging advice on life and death. A middle-aged man in a button-down shirt said he had long ago stopped having sex with his wife. A wisp of a woman sat quietly in a black burqa, her
New York Proposes Measures to Slow the Spread of AIDS: The New York Times - May 24, 2005; Andrew Jacobs; A commission appointed by the city s health department has proposed a set of measures to increase condom distribution vastly in prisons, schools and nightclubs, expand needle exchange for intravenous drug users and make H.I.V. testing a routine part of every emergency room visit. The draft report, issued by the New Yor
Editorial: Preserving the Global AIDS Fund: The New York Times - May 19, 2005; The world has two big programs that fight AIDS in poor countries. One, created by President Bush, will spend more than a billion dollars in 15 hard-hit nations this year. It is a very important lifesaving initiative, but it could do even more. The pharmaceutical industry has kept it from buying cheap generic versions o
AIDS Now Compels Africa to Challenge Widows' 'Cleansing': The New York Times - Wednesday, May 11, 2005; Sharon LaFraniere; MCHINJI, Malawi - In the hours after James Mbewe was laid to rest three years ago, in an unmarked grave not far from here, his 23-year-old wife, Fanny, neither mourned him nor accepted visits from sympathizers. Instead, she hid in his sister s hut, hoping that the rest of her in-laws would not find her. But they hu
Op-Ed: Catholic Devotion, and Doubts: The New York Times - May 10, 2005; Nicholas D. Kristof, nicholas@nytimes.com; Sao Paulo, Brazil - Here in Latin America, the great remaining heartland of Roman Catholicism, some Catholics have a blunt warning for Pope Benedict XVI: unless the Catholic Church changes course, it may come close to committing suicide. Latin America sometimes feels a bit like Martin Luther s Wittenberg in 1517, on th
Helping to Heal, Spiritually: The New York Times - May 9, 2005; Christine Hauser; In an unadorned room with a panoramic view of the East River, doctors at Bellevue Hospital Center had toiled for days trying to cure Dennis Barcelona of a neurological illness. But Mr. Barcelona had also been struggling privately with a condition that science could not remedy and stethoscopes could not detect: his fear
Op-Ed: The Pope and AIDS: The New York Times - May 8, 2005; Nicholas D. Kristof, nicholas@nytimes.com; Sao Paulo, Brazil - Let s hope that Pope Benedict XVI quickly realizes that the worst sex scandal in the Catholic Church doesn t involve predatory priests. Rather, it involves the Vatican s hostility to condoms, which is creating more AIDS orphans every day. Nobody does nobler work throughout the developing world than
Stuck in a moment he can't get out of: Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has enough problems without U2 singer Bono blasting him onstage: The New York Times - May 4, 2005; Clifford Krauss, New York Times; TORONTO - The last thing Prime Minister Paul Martin needed was to have a public brouhaha with Bono, the crusading rock star. While navigating through a Liberal Party scandal, an increasingly rebellious Parliament and stiffening resistance from Quebec separatists the last year or so, Martin could always depend on his fr
The Inexplicable Survivors of a Widespread Epidemic: The New York Times - Tuesday, May 3, 2005; Carol Pogash; SAN FRANCISCO - Before powerful antiviral medicines became available, Kai Brothers lost his partner and many friends to AIDS. Thinking he was next, he quit his job, emptied his 401(k) and waited to die. Nothing happened. It has been 16 years since Mr. Brothers learned he was H.I.V. positive. Since then, he has never ta
Dr. Alvin Novick, Biologist and Advocate for AIDS Victims, Dies at 79: The New York Times - Sunday, May 1, 2005; Jeremy Pearce; Dr. Alvin Novick, a Yale biologist who closed his laboratory in 1982 and curtailed his 25-year study of the sonar systems of bats to confront a widening international health crisis brought on by AIDS, died on April 10 at Yale University Health Services in New Haven. He was 79. The cause was prostate cancer, said a clos
EDITORIAL: A Simple Way to Fight H.I.V. and AIDS: The New York Times - April 29, 2005; In any given year, perhaps a third of the people infected with hepatitis C and more than 15 percent of those with AIDS spend time behind bars. With infection levels far higher than in the outside world, the jails and prisons are a potential public health menace. Officials have a special duty to curb the spread of disea
Private Firm to Investigate AIDS Charges Against City: The New York Times - April 23, 2005; Leslie Kaufman; The city s Administration for Children s Services has hired an outside research firm to investigate allegations that the city inappropriately put foster children into medical trials for AIDS drugs in the 1980 s and 1990 s and that foster parents who objected to the trials lost custody of the children. The agency also s
Serono Sets Aside Big Sum as U.S. Inquiries Continue: The New York Times - Saturday, April 23, 2005; Stephanie Saul; The setting aside of $725 million by Serono, Europe s biggest biotechnology company, to settle investigations involving its AIDS drug Serostim seems to suggest that the company is preparing to pay one of the largest settlements ever in a government pharmaceutical inquiry. But the lack of specifics from Serono executive
OP-ED: Help for Children With AIDS: The New York Times - April 18, 2005; Of all the people in poor countries who suffer from AIDS, children are the least likely to get treatment. About 2.2 million children have the AIDS virus, and more than half a million die every year, virtually all of them in poor countries. Yet only 15,000 to 25,000 children in these nations are taking the antiretrovira
Gay Republicans Soldier On, One Skirmish at a Time: The New York Times - April 17, 2005; Patrick D. Healy; BEING a gay Republican has never been easy. But it seems to grow more complicated with every passing marriage. Just over a week ago, a well-connected Republican strategist, Arthur J. Finkelstein, acknowledged that he had wed his partner of 40 years. Mr. Finkelstein guards his private life carefully (the wedding was in
Clinton Starts AIDS Drug Plan: The New York Times - Tuesday, April 12, 2005; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Former President Bill Clinton said yesterday that 10,000 children in 10 countries would get inexpensive AIDS drugs under a plan negotiated by his foundation. He also announced that with the foundation s help, a well-known program treating rural Haitians will move to Africa for the first time, opening a pilot project in
AIDS Fighters Face a Resistant Form of Apathy: The New York Times - April 3, 2005; Andrew Jacobs; Where have all the condoms gone? Don t try looking at the Monster, the Hangar, Starlight or Barracuda. On a recent evening, these and more than a dozen other Manhattan gay bars were well stocked with free going-out guides, but not a scrap of literature about H.I.V. prevention or the perils of crystal meth. As for condo
Gay-Themed Film Tests Sensibilities in India: The New York Times - April 2, 2005; Somini Sengupta; MUMBAI, India - Late last month, a low-budget drama called My Brother Nikhil opened in movie theaters across India, telling the story of a gay man s struggle with his family and his country after contracting the virus that causes AIDS. Quietly, gently, My Brother Nikhil has tested the limits of the Indian cinemagoer s
OP-ED COLUMNIST: When Marriage Kills: The New York Times - March 30, 2005; Nicholas D. Kristof; Livingstone, Zambia -- Sex kills all the time, particularly here in Africa. But prudishness can be just as lethal. President Bush is focusing his program against AIDS in Africa on sexual abstinence and marital fidelity, relegating condoms to a distant third. It s the kind of well-meaning policy that bubbles up out of a
Tests Pending in Cases Tied to Fierce H.I.V.: The New York Times - March 30, 2005; Marc Santora; Investigators looking into the possible spread of a virulent strain of H.I.V. detected in a New York City man have identified several patients who may have a related strain of the virus, but the investigators have cautioned that they cannot yet say if the cases are connected, health officials said yesterday. Because of
Medicinal Marijuana on Trial: The New York Times - March 29, 2005; Dan Hurley; Medical marijuana is now legal in 11 states, and bills to legalize it are pending in at least 7 more. The drug is also at the heart of a case being considered by the United States Supreme Court. Yet there remains much confusion over whether marijuana in fact has any significant medical effect. People subjectively
India Alters Law on Drug Patents: The New York Times - March 24, 2005; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; India , a major source of inexpensive AIDS drugs, passed a new patent law yesterday that groups providing drugs to the world s poorest patients fear will choke off their supply of new treatments. The new law, amending India s 1970 Patent Act, affects everything from electronics to software to medicines, and has been
Opinion: A Morsel of Goat Meat: The New York Times - March 23, 2005; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; Binga, Zimbabwe The hungry children and the families dying of AIDS here are gut-wrenching, but somehow what I find even more depressing is this: Many, many ordinary black Zimbabweans wish that they could get back the white racist government that oppressed them in the 1970 s. If we had the chance to go back to whit
India Tightens Patent Law, Alarming Advocates for AIDS Patients: The New York Times - March 23, 2005; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; India , a source of inexpensive drugs for AIDS patients in many poor countries, passed a patent law today that critics said would eventually choke off that supply. The new law, amending India s 1970 Patent Act, affects an array of products, including electronics and software as well as medicines, and has been expecte
Rare AIDS Strain Is Very Aggressive, Study Says: The New York Times - March 18, 2005; Marc Santora; A genetic study of a rare strain of AIDS that led New York City health officials to issue a public warning last month will be published today, allowing experts from around the world to more accurately evaluate the scientific basis of the alert. The study, appearing in The Lancet, a medical journal, shows the virus to b
Testing: Gel for Safer Sex Shows Promise: The New York Times - March 8, 2005; Nicholas Bakalar; Doctors at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine have tested a gel that when applied topically in the vagina, may help prevent infection by both H.I.V. and herpes simplex virus. AIDS researchers have long sought such a microbicide. Dr. Marla J. Keller, a professor of medicine and the lead author on the study, presented th
A U.N. Report Takes a Hard Look at Fighting AIDS in Africa: The New York Times - March 5, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman; Billions more dollars will be needed to curb the spread of AIDS in Africa, but as countries increase their donations, the amounts will be less important than how well they are spent and in what context, a new report from the United Nations AIDS program said yesterday. Pouring more money into programs to combat AIDS cou
EDITORIAL: AIDS Drugs Threatened: The New York Times - March 5, 2005; India s Parliament is about to take up a bill that could affect sick people the world over. India is the leading supplier of low-cost generic AIDS medicine. The country s huge generic industry has been able to copy antiretrovirals and other medicines because India grants patents for the process of making drugs, rather
EDITORIAL: Long-Term Help for the Poor: The New York Times - Friday, February 25, 2005; Recently, an alliance dedicated to vaccines for children in poor countries has received two staggering pledges: $750 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and $1.8 billion from Britain. Both donors said they had chosen that group, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, because it offers a mos
Study Challenges Abstinence As Crucial to AIDS Strategy: New York Times - February 24, 2005; Lawrence K. Altman; Warren E. Leary contributed reporting from Washington for this article.; BOSTON - A new study in Uganda challenges the importance of abstinence as a centerpiece of the Bush administration s international AIDS prevention strategy. The study was conducted by Ugandan scientists in collaboration with researchers from Columbia and Johns Hopkins. Health officials around the world have pointed to
EDITORIAL: Children and AIDS: The New York Times - Tuesday, February 22, 2005; We are thrilled to hear that mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus has been nearly wiped out in America and Western Europe, thanks to early H.I.V. testing for pregnant women and the widespread use of antiretroviral therapy, which inhibits the passage of the virus to babies. Bizarrely, this could be bad news fo
Alarm Over Single AIDS Case Is Challenged by Questioners: The New York Times - February 21, 2005; Marc Santora and Lawrence K. Altman; Andrew Pollack in Los Angeles and Carol Pogash in San Francisco Contributed Reporting for this Article; New York City s health commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden, had barely stepped away from the microphone on Feb. 11 after announcing the discovery of a possibly new and deadly H.I.V. strain when the storm started. More than a week later, it has not abated. One group of scientists not involved in the research was quick to di
EDITORIAL: Risky Sex Is Back: The New York Times - February 18, 2005; Gay Americans who watched their friends and neighbors die in large numbers in the AIDS epidemic of the 1980 s learned a tragic lesson about disease transmission and the dangers of unprotected sex. But the lesson seems not to have endured: young people are returning to dangerous sexual behavior. Public health officials
AIDS and Custom Leave African Families Nothing: The New York Times - Friday, February 18, 2005; Sharon LaFraniere; BLANTYRE, Malawi - There are two reasons 11-year-old Chikumbutso Zuze never sees his three sisters, why he seldom has a full belly, why he sleeps packed sardinelike with six cousins on the dirt floor of his aunt s thatched mud hut. One is AIDS, which claimed his father in 2000 and his mother in 2001. The other is his f
H.I.V. Strain Adds Urgency to Changes in City AIDS Program: The New York Times - February 16, 2005; Marc Santora and Lawrence K. Altman; Acting with added urgency after a rare and possibly virulent strain of H.I.V. was detected last week in New York, the city s health department is reorganizing its AIDS program to encourage more aggressive collection of crucial information about the treatment and the spread of the disease, the department s commissioner
Poor Lands Treating Far More AIDS Patients: The New York Times - January 27, 2005; Sharon LaFraniere; The number of AIDS patients receiving life-saving drug treatment in poor or middle-income nations rose 60 percent in the past six months, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, largely because of a huge influx of international aid funds and a growing determination by governments to confront the pandemic. The
A Path to Cheaper AIDS Drugs for Poor Nations: The New York Times - January 26, 2005; DonalD G. McNeil Jr.; The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first generic triple-therapy AIDS cocktail, opening the way for American taxpayer dollars to be used to buy cheaper medicines for use in poor countries. Assuming the drugs made by the approved company, Aspen Pharmacare of South Africa , are priced at a third to a hal
EDITORIAL: India's Choice: The New York Times - Tuesday, January 18, 2005; For an AIDS patient in a poor country lucky enough to get antiretroviral treatment, chances are that the pills that stave off death come from India . Generic knockoffs of AIDS drugs made by Indian manufacturers -- now treating patients in 200 countries -- have brought the price of antiretroviral therapy down to $140 a
Justices Refuse to Consider Law Banning Gay Adoption: The New York Times - Tuesday, January 11, 2005; Linda Greenhouse; WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear a challenge to a Florida law that prohibits gay men and lesbians from adopting children. Florida s is the only such statute in the country, and the prohibition is the only categorical adoption ban on the state s books. Florida evaluates adoption applications from
Gene May Foil AIDS Virus, Study Finds: The New York Times - Friday, January 7, 2005; Donald G. McNeil, Jr.; A new study by researchers in Texas has found a strong link between a gene that codes part of the immune system and susceptibility to the virus that causes AIDS. Researchers now know of 15 genetic traits that make people more or less susceptible to H.I.V., including one very rare one that makes them virtually immune.
Editorial: Nelson Mandela Loses a Son: The New York Times - Friday, January 7, 2005; Among the biggest obstacles to combating the global AIDS epidemic is the culture of silence and shame that continues to surround the disease, especially in hard-hit countries like South Africa , where the United Nations estimates that one in five adults have AIDS or are infected with H.I.V. Yesterday s announcement by
Mandela, Anti-AIDS Crusader, Says Son Died of Disease: The New York Times - Friday, January 7, 2005; Michael Wines, Foreign Desk; SALT ROCK, South Africa , Jan. 6 - Nelson Mandela, who has devoted much of his life after leaving South Africa s presidency to a campaign against AIDS, said Thursday that his son had died of the disease in a Johannesburg clinic. The son, Makgatho L. Mandela, 54, had been seriously ill for more than a month, but the nat
OP-ED: Land of Penny Pinchers: The New York Times - Wednesday, January 5, 2005; Nicholas D. Kristof; So is the U.S. stingy about helping poor countries? That accusation by a U.N. official, in veiled form, provoked indignation here. After all, we re the most generous people on earth aren t we? No, alas, we re not. And the tsunamis illustrate the problem: When grieving victims intrude onto our TV screens, we dig into ou

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