2006

Waiting List for AIDS Drugs Causes Dismay in South Carolina: The New York Times - December 29, 2006; Shaila Dewan; COLUMBIA, S.C. - More than 350 poor people infected with H.I.V. are on a waiting list for free life-saving drugs in South Carolina, by far the longest such list in the country. Four people waiting for drugs supplied by the state have died, said Lynda Kettinger, the director of the state health department s H.I.V. divis
At Axis of Episcopal Split, an Anti-Gay Nigerian: The New York Times - December 25, 2006; Lydia Polgreen and Laurie Goodstein; ABUJA, Nigeria , Dec. 20 - The way he tells the story, the first and only time Archbishop Peter J. Akinola knowingly shook a gay person s hand, he sprang backward the moment he realized what he had done. Archbishop Akinola, the conservative leader of Nigeria s Anglican Church who has emerged at the center of a schism o
Rifts Emerge on Push to End Written Consent for H.I.V. Tests: The New York Times - December 25, 2006; Sewell Chan; A yearlong effort by New York City s health commissioner to do away with a state requirement that patients give their written consent before being tested for H.I.V. has created a sharp rift among doctors and advocates for people with H.I.V. and AIDS. More than 1,400 people in the city died from AIDS-related illnesses l
EDITORIAL: Libya's Continuing Legal Farce: The New York Times - December 21, 2006; If Libya really wants to repair its tattered relations with the West, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi will need to intervene to prevent a terrible miscarriage of justice. This week, a Libyan court condemned to death six foreign medical workers on the widely discredited charge that they deliberately infected hundreds of childre
Libya Sentences 6 to Die in H.I.V. Case: The New York Times - December 20, 2006; Craig S. Smith; PARIS - A Libyan court on Tuesday again sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to be shot by a firing squad for deliberately infecting more than 400 children with H.I.V., more than 50 of whom have died. The decision complicates Libya s efforts to improve relations with the West. The verdict drew expre
Trenton: Needle Exchanges Approved: The New York Times - December 20, 2006; David W. Chen; New Jersey yesterday became the last state in the country to offer needle exchange programs for intravenous drug users, when Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed legislation authorizing a pilot program for up to six towns. The law allows drug users to exchange used syringes for new ones, and provides $10 million for drug treatme
Six Foreigners Face Death Sentence in Libyan H.I.V. Case: The New York Times - December 19, 2006; Craig Smith; PARIS - A Libyan court again sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to be shot by a firing squad for deliberately infecting 400 children with H.I.V., further complicating the country s efforts to improve relations with the West. Today s verdict drew expressions of anger and alarm from Bulgaria and its
OPINION: When Prudishness Costs Lives: The New York Times - December 19, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; This is an impoverished, authoritarian, war-ravaged country, but it offers an important lesson for President Bush and American school boards: Don t fear those lifesaving bits of latex known as condoms. Cambodia has become one of the world s few success stories in the struggle against AIDS, and it has achieved that succ
Editorial: The AIDS-Malaria Connection: The New York Times - December 18, 2006; December 18, 2006 AIDS prevention has seen two breakthroughs this month. The big news is the protective value of circumcision. But there is another important finding: AIDS and malaria feed on each other, with disastrous effects. In a paper published in the journal Science, researchers looked at health records from Kisu
Editorial: Rare Good News About AIDS: The New York Times - December 14, 2006; The announcement yesterday about the results in two African studies of male circumcision may be the most important development in AIDS research since the debut of antiretroviral drugs more than a decade ago. The National Institutes of Health halted studies in Uganda and Kenya when it became over
Circumcision Halves H.I.V. Risk, U.S. Agency Finds: The New York Times - December 14, 2006; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Circumcision appears to reduce a man s risk of contracting AIDS from heterosexual sex by half, United States government health officials said yesterday, and the directors of the two largest funds for fighting the disease said they would consider paying for circumcisions in high-risk countries. The announcement was
OPINION: A Cambodian Girl's Tragedy: Being Young and Pretty: The New York Times - December 12, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; PAILIN, Cambodia - Slavery seems like a remote part of history, until you see scholarly estimates that the slave trade in the 21st century - forced work in prostitution and some kinds of manual labor - is probably larger than it was in the 18th or 19th centuries. Or until you take a rutted dirt path in northwestern Cam
Editorial: To Save Lives in New Jersey: The New York Times - December 11, 2006; Intravenous drug addicts who become infected by sharing contaminated needles and then pass on the infections to spouses, lovers and their unborn children account for about half of the AIDS cases in New Jersey. The state s drug-related infection rate is said to be twice the national average. These tragic statistics cry
Walk-In Health Care: The New York Times - December 10, 2006; Rachel Donadio; With health-care costs soaring and an estimated 46 million Americans uninsured, many see cause for despair. Others see opportunity - for retail medical care. This year, a company called QuickHealth opened several clinics in Northern California - some in pharmacies, one inside a Wal-Mart - offering primary care on a pay
Health Hazard: Computers Spilling Your History: New York Times - December 3, 2006; Milt Freudenheim and Robert Pear; BILL CLINTON S identity was hidden behind a false name when he went to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital two years ago for heart surgery, but that didn t stop computer hackers, including people working at the hospital, from trying to get a peek at the electronic records of his medical charts. The same hospital thwarted 1,5
Editorial: Losing the Race Against AIDS: New York Times - December 3, 2006; Despite all the lofty goals set by world leaders, and billions of dollars thrown into the fight to quench the global AIDS pandemic in recent years, it is discouraging to learn the world is still falling behind. A recent update issued by the United Nations AIDS program and the World Health Organization found some en
Sex Abuse of Girls Is Stubborn Scourge in Africa: New York Times - December 1, 2006; Sharon LaFraniere; SAMBAVA, Madagascar - Thirty miles outside this down-at-the-heels seaside town, Justin Betombo tends his vanilla plants and cheers the local soccer team as if he had not a care in the world. And in fact, what was once his greatest worry has been almost magically lifted from his shoulders. In the local prosecutor s
The Long and Fatal Reach of an Unyielding Epidemic Wolfe Releasing: New York Times - December 1, 2006; Stephen Holden; Every so often 3 Needles, an ambitious, frustrating Canadian film that examines the AIDS epidemic on three continents, throws up its hands and directs its befuddled gaze at the moon. As pretty as that orb appears, the notion of the moon contemplated by miserable earthlings all around the world is too banal a metaphor f
Looking at Bodies (and Peeking Into Souls): New York Times - December 1, 2006; Anita Gates; It is not big news when Spencer Tunick takes a photograph of a large group of naked people. He has been doing that sort of thing at least since the early 1990s. In 1999 he was arrested for organizing a nude photo shoot in Times Square. (The charges were later dismissed.) What makes the photograph that is the subject of
Clinton helps kids get drugs for AIDS: His foundation negotiates, so cost is down by half: New York Times - December 1, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; With the financial backing of a group of nations led by France , former President Clinton announced Thursday that his foundation has negotiated deeply reduced prices for 19 AIDS drugs to treat children, halving the cost of the simplest-to-use therapy -- three drugs combined in a single pill -- to less than $60 a year f
Clinton's Foundation Brokers Deal on AIDS Drugs: The New York Times - November 30, 2006; Anand Giridharadas; MUMBAI, Nov. 30 - The cost of treating children infected with H.I.V. and AIDS is poised to plummet next year, under a deal announced today between two Indian drugmakers and former President Bill Clinton s foundation. Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories agreed to make 19 different anti-retroviral drugs designed for child
World failing to meet goals in AIDS fight, group says: The New York Times - November 29, 2006; Elisabeth Rosenthal; Rome - Governments and international agencies are failing to meet their goals of providing treatment for AIDS and HIV in the developing world, a group of leading advocates for AIDS patients says in a new report. The rhetoric from public health officials is good, but the follow-through is abysmal, said Gregg Gonsalves,
AIDS Is on the Rise Worldwide, U.N. Finds: The New York Times - November 22, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; The AIDS pandemic is growing in all areas of the world, with worrisome signs of resurgence in some countries that were trumpeted as successes in combating the disease, the United Nations said yesterday. At the same time, the prevalence of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, among young people has declined in eight coun
Traditional Ways Spread AIDS in Africa, Experts Say: The New York Times - November 21, 2006; Elisabeth Rosenthal; NKOLONDOGO, Cameroon - When Innocent Zamba Manga was born this summer, doctors advised his mother, Marise, who is H.I.V. positive, not to breast-feed, because nursing can pass the virus that causes AIDS from mother to child. Mother and baby left the hospital with bottles and formula supplied by a Catholic charity.
African Children Often Lack Available AIDS Treatment: The New York Times - November 15, 2006; Elisabeth Rosenthal; YAOUNDE, Cameroon - Five-year-old Anastasia Enongo lies curled like a fetus in a hospital bunk here, coughing weakly, intravenous medicine dripping into her arm. Born to a mother who died of AIDS, the girl has always been sick, her relatives said, her life a parade of doctors visits for fevers, coughs and diarrhea.
Megastars Out to Save the World: Those Halos Can Tarnish in an Instant: The New York Times - November 13, 2006; Caryn James; For the star who has everything - money, fame, awards - the latest must-have accessory seems to be a saintly halo as images are burnished by high-profile attempts to save the world. Trying to turn themselves into glam versions of Mother Teresa has its perils, though. George Clooney addressed the United Nations Security
The Walk Is Fun, Raising the Money Isn't: The New York Times - November 13, 2006; Fran Hawthorne; WALKING was something I knew I could do. I run four to five miles a day, so why not put those muscles to further use in a fund-raising walk? But what cause should it be? The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society s Light the Night (two miles), in honor of a friend s daughter who survived leukemia last year? Or the Juvenile Diab
Candles, Jeans, Lipsticks: Products With Ulterior Motives: The New York Times - November 13, 2006; Michael Barbaro; SO much for the yellow plastic bracelet at the checkout counter. After decades of treating charity as an afterthought - and using cheap trinkets as an incentive for shoppers to give - retailers across the country are putting philanthropy at the center of their product lines, whether it is clothes, books or shoes. In
More ARVs to expire: New Vision (Kampala) - November 12, 2006; Anti-Retroviral (arv) syrup for children worth sh400m will expire at the National Medical Stores. Acting managing director Apollo Mwesige said over 80,000 packs of the syrup, in addition to 42,555 packs of triomune ARV drugs for adults with HIV/AIDS, will expire in December. He said on Tuesday, We have ARV syrup from t
Old Viruses Resurrected Through DNA: The New York Times- November 7, 2006; Carl Zimmer; Thanks to advances in DNA technology, scientists can now reconstruct new copies of old viruses. Last year United States government scientists reconstructed the virus that caused the influenza epidemic of 1918. Now a team of French scientists has rebuilt a virus that infected our apelike ancestors several million years
China's Muslims Awake to Nexus of Needles and AIDS: The New York Times - November 6, 2006; Howard W. French; KASHGAR, China - The story of Almijan, a gaunt 31-year-old former silk trader with nervous eyes, has all the markings of a public health nightmare. An AIDS poster in Kashgar in the Xinjiang region, which has one-tenth of China s AIDS cases and the highest H.I.V. infection rate in the nation. A longtime heroin addic
Scientists Urge New Trial in Libya AIDS Case: New York Times - November 5, 2006; Elisabeth Rosenthal; ROME - With five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor on trial in Tripoli on charges that they spread H.I.V. to 426 Libyan children, hundreds of prominent scientists are rallying in their defense, calling for a new and fairer trial. The nurses and doctor were foreign experts working at Al Fateh Children s Hospital
Teacher, 29, Is Charged in Sex Assault: The New York Times - November 4, 2006; A New Jersey high school teacher accused of infecting a former student with H.I.V. has been charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said yesterday. The teacher, Hassan Vann, 29, a former music instructor at the West Side High School in Newark, began sexually abusing the boy, who
L.I. Hospital Is Issued 17 Violations by the State: The New York Times - November 3, 2006; Bruce Lambert; New York State health officials have cited Stony Brook University Medical Center for 17 violations, including administering incorrect drug dosages and overlooking symptoms in a patient involved in a traffic accident who later died of head injuries, hospital officials confirmed yesterday. The hospital, which has 504 bed
South Africa, under fire, will rethink HIV plan: Widely scorned health chief appears to have been sidelined: New York Times - November 3, 2006; Michael Wines; Johannesburg - Departing from years of indecision and, on occasion, denial, South Africa s government is considering a new and sweeping assault on an AIDS pandemic that already includes 1 in 8 of the world s HIV infections. Every day, 1,000 South Africans are infected with HIV and 800 others are killed by illnesses tha
A Decorator Show House for More Than Show: The New York Times - November 2, 2006; Penelope Green; IF Luz Solis writes a memoir, she is planning to call it The Fourth Floor, for the I.C.U. section of the nursing home where she went to die two years ago. Then, she weighed 90 pounds, her body ragged from cancer, AIDS and crack cocaine. They asked me, Who is your proxy? Who will sign a - what do you call it? - a do not
Brooklyn: Judge Bars Rent Increase: The New York Times - October 31, 2006; Sewell Chan; A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction yesterday barring the city and state from sharply increasing the rent contribution required from about 2,200 poor adults with H.I.V. or AIDS who live in subsidized apartments in New York City. Housing Works, an advocacy group that sought the injunction, saying the increa
Brooklyn: Rent Decision Challenged: The New York Times - October 30, 2006; Sewell Chan; Housing Works, an advocacy group for people with AIDS, said yesterday that it would file a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Brooklyn today challenging a decision by the city to sharply increase the rent contribution it requires from about 2,200 poor adults with H.I.V. or AIDS who live in government-subsidized apart
U.S. Jobs Shape Condoms' Role in Foreign Aid: The New York Times - October 29, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; EUFAULA, Alabama - Here in this courtly, antebellum town, Alabama s condom production has survived an onslaught of Asian competition, thanks to the patronage of straitlaced congressmen from this Bible Belt state. Behind the scenes, the politicians have ensured that companies in Alabama won federal contracts to make bil
Libya Sends Children With AIDS to Hospitals in Europe: The New York Times - October 25, 2006; Elisabeth Rosenthal; ROME - In the last month, nearly 400 Libyan children with AIDS have quietly come for treatment to some of the premier pediatric hospitals in Italy and France at the expense of the Libyan government for diagnosis and treatment. Nearly 150 are in Rome, and more than 100 are being cared for at the Vatican-owned Hospital B
Worrisome New Link: AIDS Drugs and Leprosy: The New York Times - October 24, 2006; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; With affordable AIDS drugs arriving in many poor countries, experts say a startling and worrisome side effect has emerged: in some patients, the treatment uncovers a hidden leprosy infection. No one knows how widespread the problem is. Only about a dozen cases have been described in medical literature since the first o
Calling All Cameras: Living Large, Doing Good: The New York Times - October 22, 2006; Michael Wines; JOHANNESBURG - MADONNA LOUISE CICCONE, a k a Madonna, pop icon and global philanthropist, sailed into Malawi this month and showered money on that ill-starred nation in the name of helping impoverished children. Following the tradition of stars like Mia Farrow, Ewan McGregor and Angelina Jolie, she concluded her trip b
Thailand's AIDS Patients Find Romance Among Survivors: The New York Times - October 16, 2006; Seth Mydans; LOP BURI, Thailand - Look, he s doing the laundry, said Orathai, as she walked toward her tiny house on the grounds of a temple here that serves as an AIDS hospice. For me. Isn t that sweet? That s what made me decide to marry him. Orathai, a 44-year-old widow, said she was caught by surprise when love came to her inst
Swaziland: U.S. Circumcision Funds Termed an Error: The New York Times - October 14, 2006; Sharon LaFraniere; The United States Agency for International Development mistakenly financed a program in Swaziland that promoted circumcision to prevent the spread of H.I.V., a spokesman said. The spokesman, David Snider, said the Family Life Association of Swaziland received about $150,000 in agency funds last year and circumcised 328
Editorial: A Medical-Legal Travesty in Libya: The New York Times - October 14, 2006; Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor are facing the death penalty in Libya based on preposterous charges that they deliberately infected hundreds of children with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. This looming miscarriage of justice demands a strong warning to the Libyan leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi, that his
Editorial: AIDS Tests, Everywhere: The New York Times - October 13, 2006; At the beginning of 2004, AIDS treatment in Botswana - a country with the world s second-highest rate of H.I.V. cases - was stagnating. The country was providing free antiretrovirals, but only one in 10 who needed the drugs was taking them. Then Botswana made a simple change in the rules for AIDS testing that allowed t
Manhattan: Rent Increase Is Criticized: The New York Times - October 11, 2006; Sewell Chan; Two state lawmakers and a city councilman yesterday criticized a rent increase that will affect about 2,200 poor adults who live in government-subsidized housing and have H.I.V. or AIDS. By Nov. 1, the tenants, who have been paying rent amounting to 30 percent of their income from federal benefits, will have to pay all
Electronic Network to Pool Information About H.I.V.: The New York Times - October 10, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; To help determine the best therapies for patients with H.I.V., seven medical centers around the country will create the first electronic network to pool information about such care through a federal grant being announced today. It s the first formal way to track H.I.V./AIDS treatments and outcomes on a broad, comprehen
Adults on Welfare With H.I.V. or AIDS Hit With Rent Increase: The New York Times - October 5, 2006; Sewell Chan; In a move that has alarmed local officials and advocates for people with AIDS, the state ordered New York City s welfare agency to sharply increase the rent contribution it requires from about 2,200 poor adults who live in government-subsidized buildings and have H.I.V. or AIDS. The change, which city officials disclos
Want to Help Treat AIDS in Africa? Buy a Cellphone: The New York Times - October 4, 2006; Louise Story; A NEW line of products from companies like Gap, Armani Exchange and Motorola aims to raise money to help fight AIDS in Africa. Products from Converse, Gap, Motorola and Armani will be sold under the Red brand. Promoters want the companies to make money. Those companies, along with Converse and American Express, created
Opinion: Optimism and Africa: The New York Times - October 3, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof; The founding president of this country was a witch doctor who murdered tens of thousands, put enemies heads on pikes, denounced education and spread land mines on the road out of his country to prevent people from fleeing. This was then so vile a place that an American diplomat stabbed another to death here in 1971 and
H.I.V. Testing Increases in City Jails and Hospitals: The New York Times - October 3, 2006; Richard Perez-Pena; H.I.V. testing at New York City-owned clinics, hospitals and jails jumped by almost 50 percent in a single year, officials said yesterday, reflecting a campaign by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg s administration to make that screening a routine part of health care. The steep increase actually began two years ago, primarily
Federal Policy Calling for More H.I.V. Testing Poses a Unique Challenge in New York: The New York Times - October 2, 2006; Richard Perez-Pena; When it comes to H.I.V. and AIDS - the epidemic and its politics - New York has always looked different from the rest of the country. It has the nation s highest rates of infection and illness, an unusual range of public and private services for those affected, and some of the biggest and best-organized advocacy groups
A Rare Kind of Food Bank, and Just Maybe the Hippest, Flourishes: The New York Times - September 26, 2006; Patricia Leigh Brown; FORESTVILLE, Calif. - For most gardeners, spending a gorgeous Saturday morning harvesting basil and organic heirloom tomatoes is a life-enhancing experience. But for green thumbs at one particular garden - an innovative addition to a food bank for people with H.I.V. and AIDS - the life-embracing quality of a bountiful
At Risk: Smoking Tied to Increased Risk of H.I.V.: The New York Times - September 26, 2006; Eric Nagourney; Researchers have found that smokers may be at higher risk for becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The study, which appears in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, says it is not clear why smokers would be more likely to become infected with the virus, H.I.V., than nonsmokers. But the authors poin
EDITORIAL: Routine Testing for the AIDS Virus: The New York Times - September 25, 2006; Federal health officials took the right step last week when they recommended that all teenagers and all adults up to the age of 64 be tested for H.I.V. infection when they receive routine medical care. This welcome effort to remove barriers in the way of widespread testing offers the best hope to reduce the stubborn pe
The Last Holdout Reconsiders a Program to Curb H.I.V.: The New York Times - September 25, 2006; Richard G. Jones; CAMDEN, N.J. - On most days, the fringe workers in this city s stunningly vibrant drug trade shout and gesticulate from street corners like hot dog vendors at a ballpark, hawking hypodermic needles they claim are clean. Works for sale! Works for sale! But the shouting stopped at one corner recently after one of those d
Here's Your Syllabus, and Your Condom: The New York Times - September 24, 2006; Stephanie Rosenbloom; AMERICANS generally think of back-to-school as a time for discounts on laptops and backpacks, a mad dash for textbooks and CliffsNotes, a chance to stock up on wool tights and warm socks. Few associate it with latex and lubricant. Yet fall also happens to be back-to-school season for the condom industry. Students are u
TV Review: Asking Simple Questions of African AIDS Victims and Getting Simple, Powerful Answers: The New York Times - September 23, 2006; Virginia Heffernan; Christiane Amanpour lends her authority and acuity to the newly energized cause of Africa tonight on her CNN special Where Have All the Parents Gone? Like Bono, Angelina Jolie, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, Ms. Amanpour has seen that Africa now offers clear opportunities to do some good with reports that, against the od
U.S. Urges H.I.V. Tests for Adults and Teenagers: The New York Times - September 22, 2006; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; In a major shift of policy, the federal government recommended yesterday that all teenagers and most adults have H.I.V. tests as part of routine medical care because too many Americans infected with the AIDS virus don t know it. The recommendation, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urges testing at lea
Kazakhstan: Health Minister Fired in H.I.V. Scandal: The New York Times - September 21, 2006; Ilan Greenberg; Responding to a rising national fury, the government fired the health minister, Yerbolat Dosayev, along with the governor of South Kazakhstan Province, where 55 children, including infants, contracted H.I.V. through blood transfusions and injections at a hospital in the city of Shymkent. The dismissals were for poor p
The Deep Roots of AIDS: The New York Times - September 19, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; YOKADOUMA, Cameroon It was about 70 years ago, evidence suggests, that a man somewhere in this remote forest area of southeastern Cameroon butchered a sick chimpanzee - and the AIDS virus was born. Chimpanzees here carry a strain of simian immunodeficiency virus (the monkey version of H.I.V.) that is genetically close
Five Nations to Tax Airfare to Raise Funds for AIDS Drugs: The New York Times - September 19, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; A group of countries led by France plan to raise at least $300 million next year, mostly through taxes on airline tickets, to help pay for the treatment of children with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, a senior French official said yesterday. The countries, acting through a new Geneva-based organization called Unitaid,
Notables Urge India to End 145-Year Ban on Gay Sex: The New York Times - September 16, 2006; Somini Sengupta; NEW DELHI, Sept. 15 - A British-era relic is facing a new challenge in India , as a growing citizens movement rallies against a 145-year-old law still embedded in the Indian penal code that bans gay sex. On Saturday an open letter to the government will be officially unveiled, calling for the repeal of what is known by
Pataki Signs Bill to Expand Disability Pay: The New York Times - September 16, 2006; Michael Cooper; ALBANY - Gov. George E. Pataki signed a law this week over Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg s objections that categorizes strokes as a line-of-duty disability for New York City police officers and firefighters, entitling them to more lucrative pensions. The new law adds strokes to a list of ailments, including heart disease,
Editorial: Extreme Tuberculosis: The New York Times - September 14, 2006; Tuberculosis is outrunning us. In the last few months, 53 patients in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal were found to have a form of the disease resistant to enough existing drugs that it is virtually incurable. All but one of those patients have died. Airborne and deadly, extensively drug-resistant TB is a n
3 Bilked Medicaid of Millions Using Fake Billings, U.S. Says: The New York Times - September 14, 2006; Richard Perez-Pena; Two brothers, a doctor in Brooklyn and an owner of pharmacies in Brooklyn and Queens, led a conspiracy that defrauded Medicaid of millions of dollars by billing the program for H.I.V. drugs and other medicines that were never given to patients, federal prosecutors say. The United States attorney s office announced
Philanthropist Gives $50 Million to Help Aid the Poor in Africa: The New York Times - September 12, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; WASHINGTON - The financier and philanthropist George Soros said Tuesday that he was contributing $50 million to support a sprawling social experiment, organized and led by the economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, that aims to help villages in Africa escape grinding poverty. Mr. Soros s money will, among other things, pay for fe
The Doctor's World: Bright Spots, Lost Chances on AIDS: The New York Times - September 12, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman, M.D.; The theme of the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto last month, Time to Deliver, was, in part, a call for everyone responsible for AIDS work to explain what they had done and not done to achieve the goal of stopping AIDS. Four million people in the world became infected with H.I.V. last year, raising to 40 m
Consequences: Long Hours Put Medical Interns at Risk: The New York Times - September 12, 2006; Eric Nagourney; Interns working the arduous shifts common in their training are more likely to stick themselves accidentally with needles and other medical equipment, new research has found. Extended Work Duration and the Risk of Self-reported Percutaneous Injuries in Interns (JAMA) Researchers had already established that the exhaust
AIDS Cited in the Climb in South Africa's Death Rate: The New York Times - September 8, 2006; Michael Wines; JOHANNESBURG -- With South Africa s anti-AIDS efforts under increasingly bitter assault by global experts and local activists, government statisticians reported Thursday that death rates for adults of virtually all ages and both sexes rose sharply from 1997 to 2004, in some groups by a factor of four or more. AIDS is n
Drug-Resistant TB in South Africa Draws Attention From U.N.: The New York Times - September 6, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; WASHINGTON - The World Health Organization will hold an urgent meeting this week to seek ways to deal with deadly strains of tuberculosis that are virtually untreatable with standard drugs. The meeting, in Johannesburg on Thursday and Friday, comes in response to recent reports from a number of the world s regions abou
Editorial: Vaccine Futures: The New York Times - September 6, 2006; One of the big reasons that companies don t try to develop vaccinations for poor-country diseases is that they fear there won t be a market for them. So what if rich countries promised to buy them? That s the very simple idea behind a new plan to entice companies into making vaccines for illnesses that mostly kill poor
Untreatable Strains of Tuberculosis to Be Studied: The New York Times - September 5, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; WASHINGTON - The World Health Organization will hold an urgent meeting this week to address deadly strains of tuberculosis that are virtually untreatable with standard drugs. The meeting in Johannesburg on Thursday and Friday is being held in response to recent reports of a small but growing number of cases of the dead
Drug Piracy: A Wave of Counterfeit Medicines Washes Over Russia: The New York Times - September 5, 2006; Andrew E. Kramer; MOSCOW - Time and again, Dr. Boris A. Merkeshkin pricked his patients arms with a needle and injected a drug intended to ease cardiovascular ailments. He did it for six months earlier this year and his patients recovered smoothly. They may not be so lucky next time. Dr. Merkeshkin, the chief physician at a large resear
Iraqis Infected by H.I.V.-Tainted Blood Try New Tool: A Lawsuit: The New York Times - September 4, 2006; Paul von Zielbauer; BAGHDAD, Iraq - One day in 1986, a car from Saddam Hussein s Health Ministry pulled up in front of young Hussein Fadhil Abbas s farmhouse in Hib Hib, about 40 miles northeast of the capital. Mr. Abbas, 17 at the time and suffering from hemophilia, a hereditary bleeding disorder, answered the door.
Editorial: California's Condom Bill: The New York Times - September 4, 2006; The United States will never control the spread of H.I.V. until it takes stronger measures in prison, where unprotected sex and intravenous drug use are commonplace - and the AIDS infection rate is nearly five times that of the general population. The first step is to use the same AIDS prevention techniques within the
Editorial: AIDS Money Suddenly at Risk: The New York Times - September 1, 2006; A lethal form of budgetary politics is at work in Congress. The proven formula for assisting AIDS-ridden urban areas that pioneered effective treatment programs is in danger of being radically altered to shift money to more rural states. Rather than increase spending to cover both real priorities - the cities AIDS need
EDITORIAL: For People With AIDS, a Government With Two Faces: The New York Times - August 30, 2006; Tina Rosenberg; At the AIDS conference in Toronto this month, South Africa s booth included lemons, garlic and beets as part of its recommended treatment for H.I.V. South Africa s health minister has long touted salad, vitamins and assorted quack cures over antiretroviral drugs, which she has called toxic. Such embarrassments are norm
Nurses and Doctor Again Face Execution in H.I.V. Trial in Libya: The New York Times - August 29, 2006; Craig S. Smith; PARIS - A Libyan prosecutor on Tuesday again demanded the death penalty for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor being tried a second time in Libya on charges that they infected hundreds of Libyan children with H.I.V. The evidence has been established, and after the confessions of the accused and the witness
Clinton Makes Up for Lost Time in Battling AIDS: The New York Times - August 29, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; RWINKWAVU, Rwanda - Bill Clinton worked the crowd of AIDS survivors, clasping the outstretched hands of children alive because of the AIDS medicines his foundation donated. Inside the rural hospital here that he recently helped renovate, where Rwandans were hunted down and killed during the genocide he regrets he didn
Libyan Court Again Calls for Death Penalty in H.I.V. Case: The New York Times - August 29, 2006; Craig S. Smith; PARIS - A Libyan prosecutor has again demanded the death penalty for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor being tried a second time in Libya on charges that they infected hundreds of Libyan children with H.I.V. The evidence has been established and after the confessions of the accused and the witness statemen
Weddings & Celebrations: Aarthi Belani and Anil Soni: The New York Times - August 27, 2006; Aarthi Kumar Belani and Anil Kumar Soni, were married on Monday at the Municipal Building in Manhattan. Blanca Martinez, a community associate in the City Clerk s office, officiated. Yesterday, Pandit Krishna Jois performed a Hindu ceremony at the Minikahda Club, a country club in Minneapolis. Skip to next paragraph
Obama Gets a Warm Welcome in Kenya: The New York Times - August 25, 2006; Jeffrey Gettleman; NAIROBI, Kenya - If Senator Barack Obama is ever thinking of running for president - or changing careers to rock star - he got excellent practice in Nairobi on Friday. Thousands of people lined the streets, waiting hours in the intense sunshine just for a glimpse of him. Local newspapers overflowed with breathless cove
Africa Adds to Miserable Ranks of Child Workers: The New York Times - August 24, 2006; Michael Wines; LUSAKA, Zambia - The boulders here are hard enough that the scavengers who have taken over the abandoned quarry south of downtown prefer not to strike them directly with their hammers. They heat the rocks first - with flaming tires, scrap plastic, even old rubber boots - so that the stones will fracture more easily.
City Foots Bill as State Upgrades Pensions: The New York Times - August 22, 2006; Michael Cooper; ALBANY - It began with a simple plea for equity, for the same deal that other unions had. It ended with thousands more former New York City employees getting expensive Christmas presents: bonus checks in each year of retirement that would eventually reach $12,000, all paid for by taxpayers. The road to a new pension be
Commentary: Fight Against AIDS: Small Triumphs, Sunny Optimism and Grim Reality: The New York Times - August 22, 2006; Abigail Zuger, M.D.; askscience@nytimes.com; TORONTO - Bill, Bill and Melinda dropped into our world for a few days here. It was an unsettling experience, much like coming home from work to find Mr. Gates regrouting your bathroom shower, Mr. Clinton fixing that broken window, and Mrs. Gates cheerily watering the plants. Famous strangers were suddenly all over our
Condoms Stay Faithful When Prevention Is the Goal: The New York Times - August 22, 2006; Jane E. Brody; In a perfectly safe world, everyone who is not sexually abstinent would have sex with only one other person, who in turn is also monogamous for life. But, as we all know, the world is far from perfect. Most people have, in the course of their lives, more than one sexual partner. Hence, we have a worldwide epidemic of s
U.N. Official Assails South Africa on Its Response to AIDS: The New York Times - August 18, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; TORONTO, Aug. 18 - A top United Nations official delivered a blistering attack on South Africa on Friday at the closing of the 16th international AIDS meeting here, saying that its government is still obtuse, dilatory and negligent about rolling out treatment. In a keynote address, the official, Stephen Lewis, the amba
Doctors Warn of Powerful and Resistant Tuberculosis Strain: New York Times - August 17, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; TORONTO - Virulent strains of tuberculosis resistant to all standard drugs have killed 52 of 53 patients in a rural hospital in South Africa in recent months, a team of researchers reported here today. The patients, who were also infected with the virus that causes AIDS, were resistant to all first- and second-line dru
Children Slip Through Cracks of AIDS Efforts: New York Times - August 16, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; TORONTO - Efforts to greatly expand antiretroviral treatment for AIDS in poor countries are not reaching a vast majority of children who need it, a World Health Organization official said here on Wednesday. The official, Dr. Kevin M. De Cock, who directs the organization s AIDS program, said that an estimated 2.3 milli
Experts Warn Scientific Gains on H.I.V. Not Enough: New York Times - August 15, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; TORONTO, Aug. 15 - An array of promising new methods to prevent the spread of H.I.V. may become reality in the near future, but most countries are unprepared to provide them to the hundreds of millions of people at risk of becoming infected, an international panel of experts reported here on Tuesday. Findings from larg
Experts Cite Distribution as Key in Fighting H.I.V.: The New York Times - August 15, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; TORONTO - Large studies of an array of promising new ways to prevent H.I.V. are nearing completion, but the world is unprepared to make them widely available to the hundreds of millions of people at risk of becoming infected, an international panel of experts reported here today. Findings from some studies, like those
Appeals Court Backs Student in Lawsuit Over H.I.V.: The New York Times - August 15, 2006; Laura Mansnerus; TRENTON - A former student at a Newark high school who says he was infected with H.I.V. by his band director can sue the school district, a state appeals court ruled on Monday, rejecting the district s contention that he filed suit too late. The band director at West Side High School in Newark, who was also a teacher t
A Familiar Pair Urge Greater Attention for AIDS: The New York Times - August 14, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; TORONTO - Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that while heads of state could help break down the stigma of AIDS around the world, many more leaders were needed to change people s thinking. Mr. Clinton, speaking here at the first full day of the 16th International Conference on AIDS, said that the leaders don t n
AIDS Effort in Zambia Hailed as a Success: The New York Times - August 14, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; TORONTO - Rapid expansion of a large AIDS treatment program in Lusaka, Zambia , is working well and has saved many lives in its first two years, the program s leaders reported Sunday at the opening of the 16th International AIDS Conference here. The report looked at the outcome for more than 25,000 patients who receive
Panel Suggests Using Inmates in Drug Trials: The New York Times - August 13, 2006; Ian Urbina; PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7 - An influential federal panel of medical advisers has recommended that the government loosen regulations that severely limit the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates, a practice that was all but stopped three decades ago after revelations of abuse. The proposed change includes provisions i
Grandmothers From Africa Rally for AIDS Orphans: The New York Times - August 13, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; TORONTO - After burying their children, they must take care of the children of their children. They are the AIDS grannies of Africa: women like Matilda Mwenda, 51, of Zambia , who has lost two of her seven children to AIDS, leaving five orphaned grandchildren in her care, along with two nieces who were orphaned when he
Saudi Arabia Begins to Face Hidden AIDS Problem: The New York Times - August 8, 2006; Hassan M. Fattah; RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- He lives virtually in hiding, his real life a secret from his family and some of his closest friends. Being gay in Saudi Arabia is hard enough. But for a growing number of Saudis like Feisal, middle-aged, gay and H.I.V.-positive, life is a tangle of regret and fear.
The Doctor's World: Talking About AIDS, With All the World Watching: The New York Times - August 8, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman, M.D.; The 16th International AIDS Conference opens in Toronto on Sunday and will vastly differ from the first meeting, in Atlanta in 1985, four years after AIDS was discovered. What began as a relatively small forum for 2,200 scientists to share their embryonic knowledge has evolved into a huge arena for many groups, includi
Group Teaches Immigrants About AIDS, Hoping to Head Off a Crisis: The New York Times - August 8, 2006; Sarah Garland; The dozen or so people clustered together on a recent Thursday in the cavernous meeting hall of Our Lady of Refuge Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx included middle-aged mothers, teenage girls and former drug addicts. Javier Soriano stood up, cleared his throat and strained to make his soft voice fill the room as he a
Cheap Solutions Cut AIDS Toll for Poor Kenyan Youths: News York Times - August 6, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; At a time when millions of people each year are still being infected with the virus that causes AIDS, particularly in Africa, a rigorous new study has identified several simple, inexpensive methods that helped reduce the spread of the disease among Kenyan teenagers, especially girls. In Kenya, where poverty drives some
When a Pill Is Not Enough: The New York Times - August 6, 2006; Tina Rosenberg; In the whole AIDS epidemic, no question is more heartbreaking and confounding than this: Why would a mother choose to condemn her baby to death? Mothers with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, pass it along to their newborns at birth 25 to 30 percent of the time, and in poor countries, some half a million babies a yea
Deal on Fair to Promote Gay Pride: The New York Times - August 4, 2006; Corey Kilgannon; After months of negotiations and controversy over a gay pride event scheduled for Sunday at a beach in Queens, the event�s organizers and the federal agency that runs the beach reached a compromise yesterday. The event, an outreach health fair for people at risk for AIDS, has been held at Jacob Riis Park beach in the R
Editorial: A Warning About AIDS in Prison: The New York Times - July 24, 2006; The American prison system houses 1.4 million inmates - in cramped, unsanitary conditions, with little medical care to speak of - and has an H.I.V. infection rate nearly five times that of the general, nonprison population. With inmates who participate in unprotected sex or share needles while using illicit drugs, the
Health Care for the Poor Stressed Anew by Nassau: The New York Times - July 24, 2006; Bruce Lambert; EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - The newly installed leaders of Nassau County s struggling health care agency on Monday reported a turnaround in its gloomy finances and embraced a new strategy of focusing on the health problems of minorities and the poor as a core mission. We are changing course, focusing on our mission to minoriti
India: Report Says AIDS Could Slow Economy: New York Times - July 21, 2006; Amelia Gentleman; If unchecked, the AIDS epidemic in India will have a severe impact on the economy over the next decade, pulling the gross domestic product � now 8 percent � down by almost a full percentage point, a study concluded. But the study, by the National Council of Applied Economic Research with support from the government and
Muzzling Sex Education on Anything but Abstinence: New York Times - July 19, 2006; Samuel G. Freedman, sgfreedman@nytimes.com; FOR much of this spring, a sex education bill called the Healthy Teens Act was sailing through the New York State Legislature. It passed the Assembly in April by a vote of 126 to 15. The Senate s Health Committee approved it the next month by a vote of 15 to 2. It had bipartisan support, with a Republican as sponsor in
Gateses to Finance H.I.V. Vaccine Search: The New York Times - July 19, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; SEATTLE - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded more than a quarter of a billion dollars on Wednesday to researchers in 19 countries to speed the lagging development of an H.I.V. vaccine. The grants, totaling $287 million, are the largest private investment in making such a vaccine, the foundation said. They re
A New Vaccine for Girls, but Should It Be Compulsory?: The New York Times - July 18, 2006; Roni Rabin; Around the time report cards came home this spring, federal health officials approved another new vaccine to add to the ever-growing list of recommended childhood shots - this one for girls and women only, from 9 to 26, to protect them from genital warts and cervical cancer. One of my own daughters, who just turned 9,
'Fabulous!' on IFC Examines the Cinema of Boy Meets Boy and Girl Meets Girl: The New York Times - July 15, 2006; Ginia Bellafante; Two years ago a young filmmaker named Alice Wu wrote and directed a movie called Saving Face, which in the specificity of its interest exemplifies just how broad the bounds of gay cinema now reach. Saving Face is about a Chinese-American lesbian plastic surgeon. More narrowly, though, it is about a Chinese-American les
F.D.A. Backs AIDS Pill to Be Taken Once a Day: The New York Times - July 13, 2006; Andrew Pollack; The first drug that allows AIDS to be treated by taking one pill a day won federal approval yesterday, a development that government officials said would both simplify and improve treatment of the disease. The drug, called Atripla, is a combination of three once-a-day drugs that are already on the market -
New Medicine for AIDS Is One Pill, Once a Day: The New York Times - July 8, 2006; Andrew Pollack; The first complete treatment for AIDS that is taken once a day as a single pill is expected to be available soon. The pill, which combines three drugs made by two companies, would be a milestone in improving the simplicity of treatment for the disease, experts say. It should make it easier for people to take their medi
No Longer in Shadow, Melinda Gates Puts Her Mark on Foundation: New York Times - July 6, 2006; Steve Lohr and Stephanie Strom; Warren E. Buffett said he was making a bet on a couple of outstanding minds when he recently donated $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And as he did so, one of those minds emerged from the shadow of her husband to become a full-fledged partner in the world s largest foundation. Melinda Gates is far
New pill OKd for fight against AIDS: New York Times - July 6, 2006; The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first 3-in-1 antiretroviral pill for use by the U.S.-sponsored plan for AIDS treatment, something that the White House s acting global AIDS coordinator on Wednesday said should greatly improve treatment for AIDS patients in poor countries. Although it is not yet clear h
People Who Pass On AIDS Virus May be Sued: The New York Times - July 4, 2006; Adam Liptak; People infected with the virus that causes AIDS may sue the sexual partner who transmitted the virus to them even if the partner did not do so knowingly, the California Supreme Court ruled yesterday. Bridget B. and John B., as they are known in court papers, started dating in 1998 and married in July 2000. Bridget said
Marijuana Fight Envelops Fisherman's Wharf: The New York Times - July 2, 2006; Jesse Mckinley; SAN FRANCISCO, July 2 - The newest attraction planned for Fisherman s Wharf, San Francisco s most popular tourist destination, has no sign, no advertisements and not even a scrap of sourdough. Yet everyone seems to think that the new business, the Green Cross, will be a hit, drawing customers from all over the region t
Ask Science: The New York Times - June 30, 2006; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Donald G. McNeil Jr. answered select reader questions regarding his article about the malaria wars from this week s Science Times. Q. I was confused by your assertion that the war on malaria is potentially winnable because a cure exists, in contrast to AIDS. But the rest of the article seems to imply that today s cure
Eric Rofes, Commentator on Gay Issues, Dies at 51: The New York Times - June 29, 2006; Douglas Martin; Eric Rofes, an educator, author and organizer whose iconoclastic writings on gay concerns preceded the AIDS epidemic and who then helped define its stages, died on Monday in Provincetown, Mass. He was 51. The cause was not determined, said Richard Burns, executive director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
In McFarland's Past, Abuse and Regret Over Sibling Rift: The New York Times - June 28, 2006; Patrick Healy; Decades before she became a candidate for the United States Senate, Kathleen Troia McFarland grew up in a home where she was beaten by her father s fists, whipped with belts and kicked as she curled on the floor. At times her father would wave a gun in her face, threatening to kill the family, Ms. McFarland said yester
Push for New Tactics as War on Malaria Falters: The New York Times - June 28, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; The mosquito nets arrived too late for 18-month-old Phillip Odong. The roly-poly boy came down with his fourth bout of malaria on March 16, the same day the nets were handed out at the makeshift camp where he lived in northern Uganda . It was because of poverty that we could not afford one, his mother, Jackeline Ato,
In McFarland's Past, Abuse and Regret Over Sibling Rift: The New York Times - June 28, 2006; Patrick Healy; Decades before she became a candidate for the United States Senate, Kathleen Troia McFarland grew up in a home where she was beaten by her father s fists, whipped with belts and kicked as she curled on the floor. At times her father would wave a gun in her face, threatening to kill the family, Ms. McFarland said yester
'Tough Love' Lessons From a Deadly Epidemic: The New York Times - June 27, 2006; Barron H. Lerner, M.D.; What ever happened to tuberculosis? It depends on where you look. Around the globe, especially in third world countries, tuberculosis is rampant, killing roughly two million people annually. But in the United States , tuberculosis, epidemic in New York in the early 1990 s, is at its lowest rate in decades, with only 98
Buffett's Billions Will Aid Fight Against Disease: The New York Times - June 27, 2006; Donald G. Mcneil Jr. and Rick Lyman; Warren E. Buffett s $31 billion gift to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help the foundation pursue its longstanding goal of curing the globe s most fatal diseases, Mr. Gates said yesterday, along with improving American education. The foundation hopes to use the enormous gift, among other things, to find a
Patrick Corbin's 'Bathing Jeff, Part I' Offers a Tribute That's Loving, but Not Sentimental: The New York Times - June 27, 2006; Jennifer Dunning; Patrick Corbin s new Bathing Jeff, Part I is a quietly powerful piece about the death of Jeff Wadlington from AIDS in 1994. By that time AIDS deaths were a fact of life in dance. But Mr. Wadlington, a sunny young dancer with a broad, innocent face, must have been especially beloved. As Bathing Jeff chronicles, a group
Smithsonian Museums Reopen, Telling America's Story Through Ideas and Ideals: The New York Times - June 26, 2006; Michael Janofsky; WASHINGTON - When two of the Smithsonian Institution s pre-eminent museums reopen on Saturday after six years of renovation, visitors may be stunned to learn that they were once competing installations with little more in common than the subdued building that housed them. Presidents at the National Portrait Gallery: th
District of Columbia Urges Routine H.I.V. Testing: The New York Times - June 25, 2006; Jason DeParle; WASHINGTON, June 24 - Suffering from the nation s highest rate of new AIDS cases, the District of Columbia is beginning a campaign to screen every resident ages 14 to 84 for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Health officials here said the campaign, if successful, would be the most aggressive screening regimen underta
Gay Brother, Straight Brother: It Could Be a Play: The New York Times - June 25, 2006; Anemona Hartocollis; In his wrenching autobiographical play about AIDS in New York in the 1980 s, Larry Kramer made his brother the face of evil in an uncaring world. The conflict between the brothers in that play, The Normal Heart, was the consummate coming-out story, a tale reflected in many families. The straight brother couldn t find i
The Dances of Neil Greenberg: Finding Life Among the Losses: The New York Times - June 24, 2006; Claudia La Rocco; At a certain time of night, either very early or very late, the space between dancers in a club becomes almost more tangible than the dancers themselves. They are like dreamy survivors, performing more for their own pleasure than for any potential watchers. Neil Greenberg, left, in his Quartet With Three Gay Men at Dan
Condoms Found to Block a Virus Harmful to Women: The New York Times - June 22, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; The consistent use of condoms protects against human papillomavirus, a cause of warts and cervical and other female cancers, researchers are reporting today. U.S. Approves Use of Vaccine for Cervical Cancer (June 9, 2006). In the study, which independent experts said was the most conclusive to examine the role of condo
Vision: The New York Times - June 21, 2006; Chester Higgins, Jr.; It s exciting when I see churches that have H.I.V. testing centers with daily activities around helping people living with H.I.V. and people affected by H.I.V., and to watch that process � the process of starting with prayer, says Pernessa C. Seele, founder and chief executive of the Balm in Gilead. Ms. Seele began he
Health Report Paints a Mostly Positive Picture: The New York Times - June 21, 2006; Richard P�rez-Pe�a; New York City residents take markedly better care of their health than they did just a few years ago by several important measures, according to a city report scheduled to be released today. But at the same time, a few other important gauges have barely budged. In 2005, a New Yorker was significantly more likely than i
A Common Parasite Reveals Its Strongest Asset: Stealth: The New York Times - June 20, 2006; Carl Zimmer; On paper, Toxoplasma gondii looks as if it ought to be the most famous parasite on earth. This single-celled pathogen infects over half the world s population, including an estimated 50 million Americans. Each of Toxoplasma s victims carries thousands of the parasites, many residing in the brain. As if that were not en
Living and Dying in the Age of AIDS, Continued: The New York Times - June 18, 2006; Gia Kourlas; MANY choreographers resist the very idea of revisiting a dance. There are always new dances to create and new things to say. But for several years Neil Greenberg has wanted to revive his Not-About-AIDS-Dance, a witty, unsentimental quintet from 1994 featuring music by Zeena Parkins that won a Bessie Award and widesprea
'Angels in America,' Already Operatic, Is Now Presented as an Opera: The New York Times - June 17, 2006; Bernard Holland; BOSTON - Much of life is spent thinking about death. Primary in our thoughts are the rate of its approach and hour of its arrival. It is a little like driving a car whose accelerator and brakes are out of our control. This idea may explain the public s hideous and enduring fascination with executions and suicides, for
F.D.A. Imposes Long-Delayed Rule to Require Tracking of Prescription Drugs: The New York Times - June 10, 2006; Barnaby J. Feder; Long-delayed federal rules requiring most wholesalers to be able to track prescription drugs from factory floor to pharmacy door will finally take effect in December, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. The regulations, stemming from a 1988 law intended to combat counterfeiting by verifying a drug s pedigr
Ask Science: The New York Times - June 8, 2006; Abigail Zuger; Abigail Zuger answered select reader questions regarding her essay about how AIDS has changed over the past 25 years from this week s Science Times. Q. I m the vigorous man with muscles you mention in your essay. I m 58, I have AIDS, have poor blood tests, am resistant to medicines but I m still around. My question is:
From the Archive: AIDS: The New York Times - June 8, 2006; Robin Herman; Twenty five years ago this month, the federal Centers for Disease Control made a brief note of a disease affecting gay men. The disease eventually got a name -- AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome. AIDS was first mentioned in The New York Times on Aug. 8, 1982, in an article on page 31. A Disease s Spread Prov
Essay: AIDS, at 25, Offers No Easy Answers: The New York Times - June 6, 2006; Abigail Zuger, M.D., askscience@nytimes.com; Instinctively, the first thing we want to know about a disease is whether it is going to kill us. As the Talmud says, pretty much all the rest is commentary. Twenty-five years ago, this was the only question about AIDS we could answer with any certainty; how disorienting it is that now, vast quantities of commentary la
Race Against Death: The New York Times - Sunday, June 4, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; WINDHOEK, Namibia -- At this rate, by 2020, the total death toll from AIDS will reach 70 million -- more than double that of the Black Death in Europe in the 14th century. We re still losing the war on AIDS, says Richard Holbrooke, chairman of the Global Business Coalition on H.I.V./AIDS. We re just losing it at a slo
Families Forged by Illness: The New York Times, Sunday, June 4, 2006; Jonathan Rauch, Op-Ed Contributor; WASHINGTON -- WE feared for our lives; we prayed for a remedy. What none of us in the gay world imagined, when word of a mysterious affliction surfaced 25 years ago, was what proved to be the epidemic s most important moral legacy: AIDS transformed the gay-marriage movement from implausible to inevitable. In May 1970,
Deadly Quackery: The New York Times - Sunday, June 4, 2006; John Moore and Nicoli Nattrass, Op-Ed Contributor; H.I.V. causes AIDS. This is not a controversial claim but an established fact, based on more than 20 years of solid science. It is as certain as the descent of humans from apes and the falling of dropped objects to the ground. So why reiterate the obvious? Because lately, a bizarre theory has gained ground -- one that
AIDS at 25: An Epidemic of Caring: The New York Times - Sunday, June 4, 2006; Abraham Verghese, Op-Ed Contributor; SAN ANTONIO -- A quarter-century ago this week, when the Centers for Disease Control first reported the affliction we now know as AIDS, I was a 25-year-old medical resident. While I didn t even notice the report at the time, the milestones of my life and medical career -- and of thousands of other doctors like me -- ha
U.N. assembly calls for more effort in AIDS fight: Strongly worded statement urges increased action: New York Times - June 3, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman, Elisabeth Rosenthal; United Nations - The U.N. General Assembly adopted a strongly worded declaration Friday intended to press the nations of the world to strengthen their fight against AIDS, a global pandemic that Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the greatest challenge of our generation. The language of the document surprised even AIDS
U.N. Chief Says World Is Losing Battle With AIDS: The New York Times - June 2, 2006; Elisabeth Rosenthal; UNITED NATIONS - On the final day of a special session on the fight against H.I.V. and AIDS, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered a gloomy assessment, saying the world was losing the battle. The epidemic continues to outpace us, he told a jam-packed session of the General Assembly today. There are more
Editorial: Two Important Rulings on AIDS: The New York Times - June 2, 2006; Federal judges in New York and the District of Columbia have declared unconstitutional a 2003 rule that limits the way U.S. health groups spend their privately raised money if they want to get federal money for international AIDS work. Under this sweeping edict, nonprofits that want government support must sign a pledg
Editorial: A Flagging Commitment on AIDS: The New York Times - June 1, 2006; The AIDS epidemic turns 25 this week, and while new infections are declining in a few countries, the number of infected is still growing, especially among young women. Globally, the epidemic seems to have more energy than efforts to fight it. This week, United Nations members are meeting in a follow-up to the successfu
No Compromise in Sight on Plan to Fight H.I.V.: The New York Times - Wednesday, May 31, 2006; David W. Chen; TRENTON, May 31 -- In every legislative session here but one since 1992, at least one bill has been introduced to allow drug users to exchange used syringes for new ones. And though the details have differed from year to year, one goal has remained constant: to reduce the spread of H.I.V. in a state with one of the nat
U.N. Urges Tripling of Funds by '08 to Halt AIDS: The New York Times - May 31, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; UNITED NATIONS - Stopping the epidemic of AIDS will require $22 billion a year by 2008 and possibly more in the following years, officials of the United Nations AIDS program said Wednesday. The $22 billion is nearly triple the $8.3 billion spent last year by all sources, including governments and the Khensani Mavasa of
Report Shows AIDS Epidemic Slowdown in 2005: The New York Times - May 31, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; UNITED NATIONS - New surveys suggest that the global AIDS epidemic has begun to slow, with a decline in new H.I.V. infections in about 10 countries, the leader of the United Nations AIDS program said Tuesday. Outside of those countries - which include Haiti , Cambodia ,
A Promise for Immigrants Who Seek Hospital Care: The New York Times - May 31, 2006; Toni Whitt; The city s Health and Hospitals Corporation and the mayor s office said yesterday that they were taking aggressive steps to reassure immigrants that no one will question their status when they seek care at New York City s public hospitals. Alan D. Aviles, the president of New York City s Health and Hospitals Corporatio
A Plague of Orphans and Lonely Grandmothers: The New York Times - May 30, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; In the early years of AIDS, the virus didn t get attention because the victims were marginalized people: gays, Haitians and hemophiliacs. Then when AIDS did threaten mainstream America, it finally evoked empathy and research dollars. But now it has slipped back in our consciousness because once more the primary victims
Spread of AIDS Is Slowing, U.N. Report Finds: The New York Times - May 30, 2006; Maria Newman; The spread of AIDS worldwide is slowing down, according to a comprehensive United Nations report on the AIDS epidemic released today, but the number of new infections continues to increase in certain regions and countries. The report finds reasons for optimism in the slowing spread of AIDS globally, saying it is a sign
The Documentary 'The Age of AIDS' Begins on PBS: The New York Times - May 30, 2006; Anita Gates; There s Elizabeth Taylor, pretty in pink, and beside her Nancy Reagan, elegant in white, wearing a cautious version of her adoring-wife gaze. Ms. Taylor looks pleased, too. It is 1987, and at her invitation, six years into the AIDS epidemic, President Ronald Reagan is making his first - and, as it turned out, only - sp
Shunned, Women With H.I.V. Join Forces in Vietnam: The New York Times - May 28, 2006; Seth Mydans; HAIPHONG, Vietnam - The neighbors know what is going on when they hear peals of laughter coming from the house of Pham Thi Hue. The dying women have gotten together again. Crammed onto a couch and little chairs, the women shout and clap as they talk about the city s shortage of shrouds or about the dying man with the b
At 12, a Mother of Two: The New York Times - May 28, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; MHLATUZE, Swaziland -- We re now marking the 25th anniversary of the detection of AIDS, and it has been a sad chapter in the history of humanity. It s been a quarter-century of self-delusion, dithering and failure at every level. In America, we may think of AIDS as something that is behind us, but this year it will kil
'Nick News With Linda Ellerbee' Celebrates 15 Years: The New York Times - May 27, 2006; Felicia R. Lee; Linda Ellerbee, the host and executive producer of Nick News With Linda Ellerbee, has won just about every major journalism award, survived breast cancer and traversed the globe for the biggest stories. It is a measure of both her continued freshness and her vulnerability that she was caught short by a response from a
Chimp Virus Is Linked to H.I.V.: The New York Times - May 26, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; By studying chimpanzee droppings in remote African jungles, scientists reported yesterday, they have found direct evidence of a missing link between a chimpanzee virus and the one that causes human AIDS. Scientists have long suspected that chimpanzees are the source of the human AIDS pandemic because at least one subsp
U.S. Plan to Lure Nurses May Hurt Poor Nations: The New York Times - May 24, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; As the United States runs short of nurses, senators are looking abroad. A little-noticed provision in their immigration bill would throw open the gate to nurses and, some fear, drain them from the world s developing countries. Health experts fear that nurses, like this one in Manila, would be unable to resist the highe
Dr. Lee Jong Wook, 61, World Public Health Leader, Dies: The New York Times - May 23, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; Dr. Lee Jong Wook, who led the World Health Organization as its director general as it struggled to cope with the spread of SARS, avian flu and other public health menaces, died yesterday in Geneva, where he was to attend the organization s annual meeting. He was 61. Spain s minister of health, Elena Salgado, announced
Panel Reverses Bush Cuts in Family Planning Aid: The New York Times - May 20, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; A House appropriations subcommittee yesterday approved a foreign aid budget for next year that would reverse the deep cuts President Bush proposed for international family planning programs he himself once described as among the best ways to prevent abortion. The Republican chairman of the subcommittee, Jim Kolbe, of A
Where AIDS Galloped, Lessons in Applying the Reins: The New York Times - May 18, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya is a rarity in Africa, a nation where experts say the AIDS epidemic shows signs of easing. So this land of safaris has become a hunting ground of a different sort, attracting policy makers and researchers looking for keys to slowing the relentless spread of AIDS elsewhere on the continent. AI
Editorial: New Guidelines for AIDS Testing: The New York Times - May 15, 2006; Despite widely available testing, about a quarter of the Americans infected with H.I.V. don t know it. Those who are unaware of their infections can spread then unknowingly. They also miss out on powerful drug therapies that have been shown to extend lives, while protecting infected people from the diseases to which H.
Editorial: Ideology Only: The New York Times - May 13, 2006; President Bush deserves much credit for sharply increasing United States financing for AIDS prevention programs overseas. But along with Congress, he must also shoulder the blame for letting ideology rather than sound public health policy drive how the money is spent. The elevation of ideology over both science and loc
AIDS Groups in India Sue to Halt Patent for U.S. Drug: The New York Times - May 11, 2006; Amelia Gentleman and Hari Kumar; NEW DELHI - AIDS groups this week brought an important test of India s new patent law, which restricts the ability of Indian companies to produce low-cost generic drugs. A four-hour television series and interactive web site by The Times, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the ZDF network of Ge
Putin Urges Plan to Reverse Slide in the Birth Rate: The New York Times - May 11, 2006; C. J. Chivers; MOSCOW, May 10 - President Vladimir V. Putin directed Parliament on Wednesday to adopt a 10-year program to stop the sharp decline in Russia s population, principally by offering financial incentives and subsidies to encourage women to have children. Journalists reflected in a screen showing President Vladimir V. Putin
Editorial: The 'She Asked for It' Defense Wins: The New York Times - May 10, 2006; Jacob Zuma, the former deputy president of South Africa who was once a front-runner for the presidency, has been acquitted of rape. While he still faces charges of corruption, Mr. Zuma retains enormous public support, especially among his ethnic group, the Zulus. Yesterday he apologized for having sex without a condom
South Africa: Apology for Unprotected Sex: The New York Times - May 10, 2006; Michael Wines; Newly acquitted of raping the daughter of a family friend, South Africa s former deputy president, Jacob G. Zuma, apologized for having unprotected sex with the H.I.V.-positive woman last November, saying he should have been more cautious and more responsible. But he bristled at the widespread criticism of his statemen
OP/ED: Bush Takes On the Brothels: The New York Times - May 9, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof; I m guessing that President Bush s foreign policy will stand up about as well to the assessments of future historians as a baby gazelle to a pack of cheetahs. Yet there is one area where Mr. Bush is making a historic contribution: he is devoting much more money and attention to human trafficking than his predecessors.
Johnson Aims to Bolster Its Sluggish Drug Business: The New York Times - May 5, 2006; Stephanie Saul; Stung by competition from generic products and setbacks at the Food and Drug Administration, Johnson & Johnson sent a strong signal yesterday that it wants to revitalize the pharmaceutical side of the company, a health care conglomerate that has become increasingly reliant on its medical devices business. The c
OP/ED: The Paranoid Style: The New York Times - May 4, 2006; David Brooks; There s always been a strain of paranoia running through American politics. Back in the mid-1960 s, when the right felt powerless, the John Birch Society thrived. Today, when the left feels disinherited, liberals seize upon the conspiracy fantasies of Kevin Phillips, whose book American Theocracy is in its fifth week o
China Surpasses U.N. Goal to Beat Child Hunger: The New York Times - May 3, 2006; Sharon LaFraniere; JOHANNESBURG - China has made huge strides in reducing malnutrition among children over the past 15 years, while India recorded only modest progress, and eastern and southern Africa made no gains at all, according to a new report by the United Nations Children s Fund. A four-hour television series and interactive w
Ideals Collide as Vatican Rethinks Condom Ban: The New York Times - May 2, 2006; Ian Fisher; ROME - Even at the Vatican, not all sacred beliefs are absolute: Thou shalt not kill, but war can be just. Now, behind the quiet walls, a clash is shaping up involving two poles of near certainty: the church s long-held ban on condoms and its advocacy of human life. The issue is AIDS. Church officials recently confirme
City to Take Over Health Care for Youths in Detention: The New York Times - May 1, 2006; Paul von Zielbauer; A New Jersey company that has provided medical care to about 400 troubled youths in New York City s juvenile justice system for the past three years is quitting today, Juvenile Justice officials said, after negotiations for a new contract failed. With no other alternative, the Department of Juvenile Justice has turned
Debate Over Condoms and AIDS Tests the Pope: The New York Times - May 1, 2006; Ian Fisher; ROME, May 1 - Even at the Vatican, not all sacred beliefs are absolute. Thou shalt not kill, but there is still just war. Now, behind the quiet Vatican walls, a clash is shaping up between two poles of near-certainty: the church s long-held ban on condom use and its advocacy of human life. The issue is AIDS. Church off
Circumcision Studied in Africa as AIDS Preventive: The New York Times - April 27, 2006; Sharon LaFraniere; JOHANNESBURG - For well over a decade, southern Africans have battled the spread of H.I.V. with everything from condoms and abstinence campaigns to doses of antiretroviral drugs for pregnant women - and yet the epidemic continues unabated. Now a growing number of clinicians and policy makers in the region are pointing
In a Break From Mystery Writing, Henning Mankell Turns to Africa: The New York Times - April 27, 2006; Alan Cowell; GOTHENBURG, Sweden - To many English speakers Henning Mankell is probably best known as the creator of Inspector Kurt Wallander, a morose, self-loathing plainclothes officer whose dark vision of himself is matched only by the bleakness of the Swedish terrain and weather in which he somehow manages to track down the vil
World Bank Failed in Fight Against Malaria, Health Experts Say: The New York Times - April 25, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; The World Bank failed to follow through on its pledges to spend up to $500 million to combat malaria, let its staff working on the disease shrink to zero, used false statistical data to claim success and wasted money on ineffective medicines, according to a group of public health experts writing in the British medical
FDA'S MISSIVE AGAINST MEDICAL POT: Health agency bolsters DEA's position, leaps into another political hot-button issue: The New York Times - April 21, 2006; Gardiner Harris; Washington - The Food and Drug Administration declared Thursday that no sound scientific studies support the medical use of smoked marijuana. The statement, which contradicts a 1999 review by top government scientists, inserts the health agency into yet another fierce political fight. Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman,
Medical Data at City Jails Enter the Era of Computers: The New York times - April 14, 2006; Paul von Zielbauer; The city s jails have computerized the standard medical screening process for all newly arriving inmates, city health officials said yesterday, eliminating an antiquated paper-based system that often vexed jail health care workers. The move toward an automated checklist is one of several initiatives started in recent m
Medical Data at City Jails Enter the Era of Computers: The New York Times - April 14, 2006; Paul von Zielbauer; The city s jails have computerized the standard medical screening process for all newly arriving inmates, city health officials said yesterday, eliminating an antiquated paper-based system that often vexed jail health care workers. The move toward an automated checklist is one of several initiatives started in recent m
Children of Uganda: Young Emissaries From a Troubled Land, Joyous Still: The New York Times - April 13, 2006; Gia Kourlas; Children of Uganda , a troupe of 22 young dancers and musicians, doesn t mess around. As soon as the curtain rose at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday night, the stage, awash in vivid blue, was a veritable explosion of frenetic hips and pulsating drums. It was euphoric. The haunting paradox is found in the biographies of th
Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool: The New York Times - April 11, 2006; Howard W. French; XINZHUANG, China - This winter, Liu Xianhong s life was changed for the second time by her infection with AIDS. The first time was seven years ago, when she discovered that she, along with her newborn son, had contracted the disease through an infusion of contaminated blood given to her during childbirth. Then late
A Highly Charged Rape Trial Tests South Africa's Ideals: The New York Times - April 10, 2006; Michael Wines; JOHANNESBURG, April 9 - For Jacob G. Zuma, a charismatic figure of South Africa s liberation struggle, the last year has been a series of shocks: fired as deputy president, ousted as the front-runner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki, indicted on bribery charges, and, most recently, put on trial on charges of raping the
U.S. Focus on Abstinence Weakens AIDS Fight, Agency Finds: The New York Times - April 5, 2006; Celia W. Dugger; Insistence by Republican Congressional leaders that American money to fight the spread of AIDS globally be used to emphasize abstinence and fidelity is undercutting comprehensive and widely accepted aid models, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday. The report by the G.A.O., an investig
New H.I.V. Cases Reported to Drop in Southern India: The New York Times - March 31, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; In a rare piece of good news about AIDS, the prevalence of new H.I.V. infections has fallen significantly in southern India , the region of that country where the disease has occurred most often, scientists reported yesterday. Many health officials have predicted major increases in H.I.V. in India, which has the world
Talking Points: The Scandal of 'Poor People's Diseases': The New York Times - March 29, 2006; Tina Rosenberg; It s hard to imagine how a Rwandan woman with AIDS might be considered lucky, but in a way, she is. Effective drugs exist to treat her disease, and their price has dropped by more than 98 percent in the last six years. Research speeds ahead on treatments and vaccines. Although much more needs to be done, the world take
EDITORIAL: Free Trade and AIDS Drugs: The New York Times - March 28, 2006; The countries of southern Africa have the world s highest rates of AIDS infection. These governments have a special need to make or buy low-cost generic drugs to save their citizens. World trade rules are amenable, containing safeguards that allow countries to use generics to preserve public health. But the Bush admini
EDITORIAL: A Woman Without Importance: The New York Times - March 26, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof; Aisha Parveen doesn t matter. She s simply one more impoverished girl from the countryside, and if her brothel s owner goes ahead and kills her, almost no one will care. Ms. Parveen, an outspoken 20-year-old woman with flashing eyes, is steeling herself for a state-administered horror. Just two months after she escaped
Tackling the Animal-to-Human Link in Illness: The New York Times - March 25, 2006; Lawrence K. Altman; ATLANTA, March 24 - Stronger ties between veterinarians and physicians are needed to prevent further outbreaks of the animal diseases that have caused deaths and serious illness among humans in many countries in recent years, international health officials said at a meeting here. The diseases are known as zoonoses beca
'Living Room in Africa,' With an Art Gallery Set Amid Poverty: The New York Times - March 24, 2006; Phoebe Hoban; I had a farm in Africa, Isak Dinesen s memoir Out of Africa famously begins. But the odd young British couple in Bathsheba Doran s disturbing play Living Room in Africa, at the Beckett Theater, has only a living room - at least that is all that we ever glimpse of their rambling old house in a remote region of Africa.
Tuberculosis Declines to Historic Low in the U.S.: The New York Times - March 24, 2006; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Tuberculosis cases in the United States fell to historic lows last year, public health authorities said yesterday. At the same time, doctors said, there was a small but worrisome increase in the number of cases resistant to several drugs. The total number of cases in 2005 was 14,093, or 4.8 cases per 100,000 people, th
Sneakerhead Bonanza: The New York Times - March 23, 2006; Eric Wilson; THE rise of sneakerheads, as aficionados of artistically enhanced footwear call themselves, has had a contagious impact on shoe companies. It is rare this spring to locate a style that has not been touched by the hand of an artist, designer or cartoon character. That s the way sneakerheads like their shoes: expensive a
Rumor, Fear and Fatigue Hinder Final Push to End Polio: The New York Times - March 20, 2006; Celia W. Dugger and Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; BAREILLY, India - The cry went up the moment the polio vaccination team was spotted - Hide your children! Some families slammed doors on the two volunteers going house to house with polio drops in this teeming city s decrepit maze of lanes, saying that they feared the vaccine would sicken or sterilize their children, o
An Article in Harper's Ignites a Controversy Over H.I.V.: The New York Times - March 13, 2006; Lia Miller; In his last issue as the editor of Harper s Magazine, Lewis Lapham has left a parting gift for his successor: a firestorm in the media and among AIDS researchers. The source is a 15-page article in the March issue, titled Out of Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science, by Celia Farber. Ms. Farber, a longtim
A Poz Columnist Is Named Its Editor: The New York Times - March 13, 2006; Lia Miller; Poz, a monthly magazine for people with H.I.V. and AIDS, will announce in its April issue that its new editor in chief is the same Anonymous who has been writing a column in Poz for the last four years. Her name is Regan Hofmann, and she will be coming out to the readers of Poz as well as to friends and acquaintances a
Slowly, Africa Starts to Care for AIDS Children: The New York Times - March 8, 2006; Sharon LaFraniere; MASERU, Lesotho - Staff members of the new pediatric AIDS clinic here are used to seeing sick children. But rarely had they seen one so ill as the silent, twig-thin youngster led in by his grandmother one hot morning in February. The boy, Tsokotsa Lepheane, age 7, weighed 36 pounds. His hair was thin and patchy, his ey
Suit Accuses a Police Chief of Blocking CPR: The New York Times - March 3, 2006; Adam Liptak; Billy Snead was furiously trying to save the life of a friend having a heart attack on a West Virginia roadside in June when the police chief arrived. The chief, Mr. Snead recalled yesterday, ordered him to stop. The chief, Robert K. Bowman of the small town of Welch, told Mr. Snead that his friend, red-faced and gaspi
Battling H.I.V. Where Sex Meets Crystal Meth: The New York Times - February 21, 2006; Andrew Jacobs; Terry Evans turned on the computer, punched in his password and set out on the prowl. It was a Saturday night, and with more than 900 men logged onto the sex site Adam4Adam.com, he had no problem finding his quarry: a 25-year-old man nicknamed Bronxplayer who was looking to party-n-play, cyberspace lingo for engaging i
Bristol-Myers Allows Powerful AIDS Drug to Be Sold Cheaply: The New York Times - February 15, 2006; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; In a deal to be announced today, one of the newest and most powerful AIDS drugs will be licensed to generic drug makers in India and South Africa so that it can be made inexpensively for patients in many poor countries. The drug is atazanavir, made by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company un
Rules of Medicare Drug Plans Slow Access to Benefits: The New York Times - February 13, 2006; Robert Pear; WASHINGTON - Doctors and pharmacists say many drugs theoretically covered by the new Medicare drug benefit are not readily available because of insurers restrictions and requirements. The benefit is administered by scores of companies under contract to Medicare. Each plan has its own list of covered drugs, known as a f
With the Clock Ticking Down, a Desire to Survive: The New York Times - February 10, 2006; Laura Kern; In A Year Without Love, background ticking sounds represent the life clock of Pablo (Juan Minujin), a youngish gay writer afflicted with AIDS, and count down the passing seconds of his dreary existence. It is based on the diaries of the real-life Pablo Perez, who is listed as the screenwriter, with the director, Anahi
40 Years of Black Male History in 2� Hours: The New York Times - February 9, 2006; Andrea Stevens; How to tell the history of the black man in America on the stage? It took August Wilson 10 plays for one century of the African-American experience; what can be said in two and a half hours? Much, it turns out, if you think of history as an impressionistic collection of events and images and use eight male performers t
Editorial: Modifying the AIDS Laws: The New York Times - February 6, 2006; New York City s health commissioner wants to change state laws to facilitate the testing and treatment of people suffering from AIDS or the virus that causes it. His proposals raise concerns about privacy that will need to be evaluated by the Legislature, but they reflect the legitimate desire of health authorities nat
A Slow, Solo Crossing of the Atlantic Is One Man's Response to the AIDS Crisis: The New York Times - February 6, 2006; Nicholas Confessore; Of all the ways to get to Brooklyn, rowing a 24-foot boat across the Atlantic Ocean must be among the hardest. Especially when you have to build your own boat. And if you haven t actually practiced on the water since last summer. If I did that, said Victor Mooney, I wouldn t have had time to finish the boat. Finishin
Editorial: Wrong Fix for Foreign Aid: The New York Times - February 6, 2006; Ever since Washington began giving foreign aid, administrations have been coming up with plans to reform it. Now it s Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice s turn. She has put a single official, reporting directly to her, in charge of coordinating the State Department s multiple foreign aid programs. Duplicate efforts ar
Public Lives: Getting Good Data on the Bad Health of the Homeless: The New York Times - February 3, 2006; Robin Finn; NEVER underestimate the power of suggestion. Spend two minutes inhaling the stale, over-baked air inside Bonnie Kerker s unlovely office in the epidemiology wing at the city health department s somewhat geriatric Worth Street headquarters, and the topic of germs surfaces on autopilot. Do they proliferate here in the do
Overhaul Urged for Laws on AIDS Tests and Data: The New York Times - February 2, 2006; Marc Santora; New York City s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, called yesterday for changing state laws so that health officials could more aggressively test people for H.I.V. and AIDS and use the medical information the city already collects to help treat those infected. Currently, the city and the state collect detailed
Health of the Homeless Is Worse Than Imagined, New Study Finds: The New York Times - January 31, 2006; Marc Santora; That homeless people are in worse health than other New Yorkers is no surprise. But the first extensive examination of the health of the city s homeless adults has found their health to be far worse than even the doctors who deal with them every day had thought. The homeless die at twice the rate of other New Yorkers,
The Neediest Cases: After Years of Struggle, Signs of Hope: The New York Times - January 31, 2006; Joseph P. Fried; Unhappy is a mild word for many of Ruth Armstrong s 49 years. As a teenager, she said recently, she felt pressured by her suburban middle-class parents to pursue a career that she was not sure she wanted and whose training she abandoned with college-ending vehemence. In her 20 s, she said, she lived in poverty in New Y
JERSEY; Needles Without Strings: The New York Times - January 29, 2006; Paula Span; ATLANTIC CITY - THE mobile health van is parked outside the old stone church on Pennsylvania Avenue. It s a prime location for reaching this town s large population of drug users: The church houses a busy soup kitchen; there s a probation office across the street; adjacent Pacific Avenue has an active sex trade. A man
New Survey Reduces Estimate of AIDS and H.I.V. Cases in China: The New York Times - January 25, 2006; Jim Yardley; BEIJING - China countered today the long-held suspicion that it has undercounted the number of people with H.I.V. and AIDS by releasing a new, more extensive survey that found the opposite to be true - that the country has actually overestimated its number of cases. The new survey, conducted with the
The next superpower is ...Nicholas Kristof examines whether India can catch up to China on the track for world dominance: The New York Times - January 23, 2006; Nicholas Kristof; CALCUTTA, India - The great race of the 21st century is under way between China and India to see which will be the leading power in the world in the year 2100. President Bush s trip to India next month is important, for we in America must brace ourselves to see not only China looming in our rear-view mirror, but eventu
Slavery in Our Time: The New York Times - January 22, 2006; Nicholas D. Kristof; CALCUTTA - Historians will look back in puzzlement at the way our 21st century world tolerates the slavery of more than a million children in brothels around the world. India alone may have half a million children in its brothels, more than any other country in the world. Visit the brothel district in almost any city i
Strained by Needs, a Community Withdraws Its Helping Hands: The New York Times - January 22, 2006; Robert David Zeliger; When Henry Calderon looks down 116th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, he sees a tuxedo store, a dental center, a nail salon, two banks, and sidewalk vendors hawking tamales and jewelry. The scene is strikingly different from the boarded-up shops and crime-ridden pockets of just a few years back. But Mr. Cald
Clinton in Deal to Cut AIDS Treatment Costs: The New York Times - January 12, 2006; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Former President Bill Clinton plans to announce today that his foundation has negotiated lower prices on AIDS tests and on two important AIDS drugs. Four companies, from the United States , India and China , will offer rapid H.I.V. tests for 49 cents to 65 cents, which will reduce the typical cost of a test in
Tory Dent, Poet Who Wrote of Living With H.I.V., Dies at 47: The New York Times - January 3, 2006; Wolfgang Saxon; Tory Dent, a poet, essayist and art critic whose verse told of life with a diagnosis of H.I.V. and of the struggle to keep her creativity alive, died last Friday at her home in the East Village. She was 47. The death was announced by her husband, Sean Harvey. The cause was an opportunistic infection associated with AID

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