2008

The Doctor's World: Leaving Platform That Elevated AIDS Fight: The New York Times - December 29, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman, M.D; Dr. Peter Piot, the only head of the United Nations AIDS program in its 13-year history, is retiring on Wednesday. He is credited as the person most responsible for making heads of state understand the political, economic and social ramifications of a pandemic that rivals the worst in history. Although the toll of infe
Op-Ed: You're Likable Enough, Gay People: The New York Times - December 27, 2008; Frank Rich; IN his first press conference after his re-election in 2004, President Bush memorably declared, I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. We all know how that turned out. Barack Obama has little in common with George W. Bush, thank God, his obsessive workouts and message control
In Clinton List, a Veil Is Lifted on Foundation: The New York Times - December 19, 2008; Peter Baker and Charlie Savage; WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton has collected tens of millions of dollars for his foundation over the last 10 years from governments in the Middle East, tycoons from Canada , India , Nigeria and Ukraine , and other international figures with interests in Americ
Gay Marriage Ban Inspires New Wave of Activists: The New York Times - December 10, 2008; Jesse Mckinley; SAN FRANCISCO -- They re calling it Stonewall 2.0. Outraged by California voters ban on same-sex marriage, a new wave of advocates, shaken out of a generational apathy, have pushed to the forefront of the gay rights movement, using freshly minted grass-roots groups and embracing not only new technologies but also old-s
Report Sounds Alarm on Child Accidents: The New York Times - December 9, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Around the globe, accidents kill 830,000 children - the equivalent of all the children in Chicago - every year, according to a report issued Tuesday by the World Health Organization and Unicef. The report, the first to collect all known data on child injuries worldwide, makes broad estimates because many poor countries
Op-Ed: A Killer Without Borders: The New York Times - December 6, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof; YEREVAN, Armenia - As if you didn t have enough to worry about ... consider the deadly, infectious and highly portable disease sitting in the lungs of a charming young man here, Garik Hakobyan. In effect, he s a time bomb. Mr. Hakobyan, 34, an artist, carries an ailment that stars in the nightmares of public health exp
France: Adopting an Aids Mission: The New York Times - December 2, 2008; Maia De La Baume; Carla Sarkozy, the wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, announced that she would serve as a good-will ambassador to fight AIDS with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. “I ll do it as ambassador of the global fund, by using the exceptional people that my new position makes possible to meet,” she said
Thousands Die Needlessly Because Junta Spends Too Little on AIDS, Group Says: The New York Times - December 1, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Thousands of people in Myanmar are dying needlessly of AIDS each year because too little money is allocated to treating them, the international charity Doctors Without Borders said last week. About 240,000 people in Myanmar are infected with the virus that causes AIDS, and about 76,000 are sick enough to need antiretro
Most Patients Should Be Screened for H.I.V., Physicians' Group Says: The New York Times - December 1, 2008; Roni Caryn Rabin; The American College of Physicians is urging doctors to screen all patients for H.I.V. routinely beginning at age 13, whether or not they engage in risky behaviors. The guidelines differ slightly from those of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends routine screening of patients until a
A Killer and a Cure This World AIDS Day: The New York Times - December 1, 2008; Josh Ruxin*; This December 1st marks the 20th commemoration of World AIDS Day. The international commemoration has perennially been accompanied by new, bleak reports, and bureaucratic hand-wringing over the invariable failure of supply - in the form of drugs, management and financing - to keep up with the needs of the desperately i
Editorial: A Breathtaking Aspiration for AIDS: The New York Times - December 1, 2008; It sounds too good to be true, and it may prove to be so in the real world, but researchers at the World Health Organization have come up with a suggestion to drastically reduce the transmission of AIDS and virtually halt the widening epidemic in Africa within a decade. On this 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, after
A Quiet Place to Remember Lost Friends: The New York Times - December 1, 2008; Susan Dominus, susan.dominus@nytimes.com; At 4 o clock on Sunday morning, Andrew Marber was wide awake, thinking of his past and the people who populated it. He got out of bed and pulled out two address books, his own and another, a small, overflowing black book that had belonged to his late companion. He flipped through the two books until he was satisfied he
Bill Clinton to Name Donors as Part of Obama Deal: The New York Times - November 29, 2008; Peter Baker; CHICAGO - Former President Bill Clinton has agreed to disclose publicly the names of more than 200,000 donors to his foundation as part of an accord with President-elect Barack Obama that clears the way for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to become secretary of state, Democrats close to both sides said on Saturday. Mr.
Op-Ed: Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority: The New York Times - November 29, 2008; Charles M. Blow, chblow@nytimes.com; We now know that blacks probably didn t tip the balance for Proposition 8. Myth busted. However, the fact remains that a strikingly high percentage of blacks said they voted to ban same-sex marriage in California. Why? There was one very telling (and virtually ignored) statistic in CNN s exit poll data that may shed so
Study Cites Toll of AIDS Policy in South Africa: The New York Times - November 25, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG - A new study by Harvard researchers estimates that the South African government would have prevented the premature deaths of 365,000 people earlier this decade if it had provided antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients and widely administered drugs to help prevent pregnant women from infecting their babies.
Rare Treatment Is Reported to Cure AIDS Patient: The New York Times - November 19, 2008; Doctors in Berlin are reporting that they cured a man of AIDS by giving him transplanted blood stem cells from a person naturally resistant to the virus. But while the case has novel medical implications, experts say it will be of little immediate use in treating AIDS. Top American researchers called the treatment unth
OPINION: The Wrong Message in a Bottle: The New York Times - November 15, 2008; Roger Bate, Op-Ed Contributor; Washington - IN late September, the authorities in Belgium seized more than two million counterfeit painkillers and antimalarial drugs that had been manufactured in India and were en route to Africa. It was the largest seizure ever of fake pharmaceuticals in Europe. The incident shines a light on one of the most pr
Nearly 2,000 Carrying H.I.V. in Chile Were Not Notified: The New York Times - November 13, 2008; Pascale Bonnefoy and Alexei Barrionuevo; SANTIAGO, Chile - Chile s health minister said Thursday that the country s public health system had failed to notify at least 512 people that they were infected with H.I.V., and that private-sector services did not inform an additional 1,364 that they were carrying the virus, which causes AIDS. Speaking to lawmaker
Brooklyn Lab Is Part of City's Goal to Be a Biotech Center: The New York Times - November 11, 2008; Patrick McGeehan; On the top floor of a hulking 90-year-old building on Brooklyn s western waterfront, plasterers and electricians are preparing what city officials hope will be an economic antidote to the implosion of the financial services industry. In a cavernous warehouse built as a military supply depot during World War I, medical
At Forum on Budget Cuts, Blunt Talk From Paterson: The New York Times - November 11, 2008; Jeremy W. Peters; SYRACUSE - Even by the standards of upstate New York, where the abundance of shuttered factories and storefronts serve as a reminder that nobody s job is ever really safe, these have been rough times for Kathleen Regan. So when Ms. Regan, a public school teacher whose husband was recently laid off, stepped to the micro
Patient Voices: Speaking Out for a Group Once Unheard-Of: Aging With AIDS: The New York Times - November 10, 2008; Karen Barrow; In the early 1990s, a diagnosis of AIDS was both a likely death sentence and a stigma. There were few treatment options, and many Americans were terrified of people infected with H.I.V. Today, because of antiretroviral therapy and an array of drugs to treat both symptoms and side effects, AIDS has become a chronic cond
H.I.V. Scare Unnerves a St. Louis High School: The New York Times - November 8, 2008; Malcolm Gay; ST. LOUIS - Walking the halls of Normandy High School between classes, Mya McLemore, a senior, pays close attention these days to the faces of her fellow students. She keeps an eye out for those who avert their gaze, whose lips quiver or who allow a telltale tear to roll down their cheeks. I ve been observing people, t
Philip Reed, Ex-Councilman, Is Dead at 59: The New York Times Blogs - November 7, 2008; Sewell Chan and Jonathan P. Hicks; Philip Reed, a former elevator salesman who devoted himself to health issues as a member of the New York City Council, where he was a pioneer as a black, openly gay and H.I.V.-positive lawmaker representing a largely Latino district, died on Thursday at St. Luke s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He was 59. The death was con
Aid Group Says Zimbabwe Misused $7.3 Million: The New York Times - November 3, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG - The government of Zimbabwe , led by President Robert Mugabe, spent $7.3 million donated by an international organization to fight killer diseases on other things and has failed to honor requests to return the money, according to the organization s inspector general. The actions by Zimbabwe have depri
South Africa: Firing Over H.I.V. Drugs Ruled Wrongful: The New York Times - October 22, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; A judge has found that a provincial Health Department wrongly fired Dr. Malcolm Naude in 2001 for prescribing antiretroviral drugs to rape victims to reduce their risk of H.I.V. infection and for trying to stop the eviction of a rape crisis group that favored the preventive doses. The Health Department in Mpumalanga Pr
Post-Cyclone Aid Divides Myanmar Between the Helped and the Helpless: The New York Times - October 20, 2008; SITTWE, Myanmar - The cyclone that ravaged Myanmar s Irrawaddy Delta five months ago has led to an unexpectedly robust influx of foreign money and relief workers, showering aid on a small part of Myanmar s population but leaving other, equally desperate parts of the country to fend for themselves. After initial res
Deep in the Rain Forest, Stalking the Next Pandemic: The New York Times - October 20, 2008; Elizabeth Svoboda; For Nathan Wolfe, a 38-year-old visiting professor at Stanford, an ordinary workday can look like a clip from Survivor - chasing primate hunters through the dense foliage of rural Cameroon , sloshing through mud and streams, dodging branches and malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The subsistence, or bushmeat, hunters he tr
Botswana's Ex-President Wins Leadership Prize: The New York Times - October 20, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG - A foundation dedicated to celebrating and encouraging good government in Africa awarded its annual prize on Monday to Botswana s former president, Festus G. Mogae. He was honored for consolidating his nation s democracy, ensuring that its diamond wealth enriched its people and providing bold leadership d
Dr. Allan Rosenfield, Women's Health Advocate, Dies at 75: The New York Times - October 16, 2008; H. Roger Segelken; Allan Rosenfield, who as dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University became a leading advocate for women s health during the global H.I.V./AIDS epidemic, died on Sunday at his home in Hartsdale, N.Y. He was 75. The cause was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., said his son, Paul Rosenfield.
Can This Be Pro-Life?: The New York Times - October 9, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world s poorest women in Africa. Thus the paradox of a pro-life administration adopting a policy whose result will be tens of thousands of additional abortions each year -- along with more women dying in childbirth. The sa
Discoverers of AIDS and Cancer Viruses Win Nobel: The New York Times - October 7, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded Monday to three European scientists who had discovered viruses behind two devastating illnesses, AIDS and cervical cancer. Half of the award will be shared by two French virologists, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, 61, and Luc A. Montagnier, 76, for discovering H.I.V., the virus that c
H.I.V. Spreads in China, Affecting New Populations: The New York Times - October 6, 2008; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Infection with the AIDS virus in China is spreading beyond the country s original high-risk groups - heroin addicts in the south and blood sellers in rural central counties. A new study finds that the virus has spread to all provinces, and cases are rising quickly among gay men and female prostitutes. Heterosexual tran
Post-Apartheid South Africa Enters Anxious Era: The New York Times - October 5, 2008; Barry Bearak; DIEPSLOOT, South Africa - A dusty maze of concrete, sheet metal and scrap wood, Diepsloot is like so many of the enormous settlements around Johannesburg, mile after mile of feebly assembled shacks, the impromptu patchwork of the poor, the extremely poor and the hopelessly poor. Monica Xangathi, 40, lives here in a s
California to Cover Cost of Screening for H.I.V.: The New York Times - October 1, 2008; Rebecca Cathcart; LOS ANGELES - California came closer than any other state to instituting routine H.I.V. screening as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signed into law a bill requiring private health insurance providers to cover the cost of the testing regardless of a primary diagnosis. As soon as next year, health care providers i
For Those on the Soup Line, No Rescue Plans: The New York Times - October 1, 2008; David Gonzalez; By the time the doors open to the soup kitchen at St. Benedict the Moor Neighborhood Center, the line is already snaking down St. Ann s Avenue. Old people sit on crates, children shuffle impatiently and adults avert their gaze. This happens every day of the year in Mott Haven, no matter the weather. That is because for
South Africa Picks President, but Uncertainty Remains: New york Times - September 26, 2008; Barry Bearak; JOHANNESBURG -- Kgalema Motlanthe, 59, a former trade unionist once imprisoned during the apartheid era on charges of terrorism, was overwhelmingly elected Thursday by Parliament as South Africa s president. But whether he merely keeps the seat warm until elections next year -- when Jacob Zuma, his party s leader, pres
Editorial: Thabo Mbeki's Fall: The New York Times - September 26, 2008; Thabo Mbeki s resignation this week as South Africa s president was swift and humbling. Once called the most powerful man in Africa, he was pushed out by his party after protracted internal squabbling, and he leaves a legacy of squandered potential and significant failures. Mr. Mbeki s party, the African National Congr
South African Cabinet Upheaval Was False Alarm: The New York Times - September 23, 2008; Barry Bearak; JOHANNESBURG - Panic surged through South Africa s financial markets early Tuesday when the president s office, still controlled by the departing Thabo Mbeki, announced that 14 of the government s top officials had resigned, including Trevor Manuel, the powerful finance minister regarded internationally as the anchor o
Revisions Sharply Cut Estimates on Malaria: The New York Times - September 22, 2008; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; The world has many fewer cases of malaria than previously thought, the World Health Organization is reporting. But the agency says the apparent drop is not a result of mosquito nets, miracle drugs and DDT spraying - just better statistical techniques. The war on the disease still needs to be prosecuted with vigor, the
South Africa's President to Quit Under Pressure: The New York Times - September 20, 2008; Barry Bearak; JOHANNESBURG - President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa , the loser in a prolonged power struggle with his rival, Jacob Zuma, agreed Saturday to resign after the top leaders of his party, the African National Congress, asked him to step down. The party s fateful decision is a harsh rebuke to Mr. Mbeki, the aloof and schol
MOVIE REVIEW: 'ALL OF US' - A Blurring of the Doctor-Patient Divide: The New York Times - September 19, 2008; Nathan Lee; The release of All of Us, a documentary about H.I.V./AIDS and African-American women in New York, is well timed given recent headlines about the alarming persistence of the crisis. But this powerful, conceptually sure film is relevant beyond the concerns of the moment as both a model of documentary method and compassio
Mayor's Report Shows What Works and Doesn't in New York, by the Numbers: The New York Times - September 18, 2008; Fernanda Santos; This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: September 19, 2008 [An article on Thursday about the Mayor s Management Report, which assesses how New York City government responded in all areas during the past fiscal year compared with the previous year, misstated the number of free cond
The Historic Legacy of 'Rent': 525,600 Minutes to Preserve: The New York Times - September 17, 2008; Charles Isherwood; RENT closed with the usual celebratory brouhaha. Hours before its final curtain on Sept. 7, the sidewalk in front of the Nederlander Theater, where the musical had played for more than a dozen years, was strewn with barricades signaling the potential presence of celebrity - or at least the expensively self-important.
Detailed Study on Spread of H.I.V. in U.S.: The New York Times - September 11, 2008; Gardiner Harris; An unusually detailed study of people newly infected with H.I.V. in the United States has confirmed that the majority of new cases occur among gay and bisexual men and that blacks are most at risk. But the data show that whites and blacks tend to be infected at different times in their lives with the virus that causes
Rwanda: Orphaned by Genocide and AIDS, a Generation Poor and Depressed: The New York Times - September 8, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Rwanda , a country that suffered 100 days of tribal genocide in 1994 and has also been hit hard by the AIDS epidemic, is believed to have the highest percentage of orphans in the world. Now a survey finds that depression is alarmingly common among teenage and young adult orphans there who head households and care for
In Destitute Swaziland, Leader Lives Royally: The New York Times - September 5, 2008; Barry Bearak; LUDZIDZINI, Swaziland - Once upon a time, a young and handsome king ruled over a land of mountainous splendor near the southern tip of Africa. He liked to marry, and as the years passed he took 13 wives, each of them a great beauty. His countrymen wanted His Majesty to be happy, but some also thought so many spouses we
Donors' Aid to Poor Nations Declines, U.N. Reports: The New York Times - September 4, 2008; Neil Macfarquhar; UNITED NATIONS - Aid to poor nations has slumped even as higher food and energy prices and slowing global economic growth have made such assistance more urgent, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. The question of how to increase development aid will be the main
Editorial: The Real Numbers on H.I.V.: The New York Times - September 3, 2008; It has been difficult over the years to get a good statistical handle on the size of the AIDS problem in this country. But by the latest and most sophisticated measurements, the disease continues to frustrate federal and local efforts to rein it in. A recent report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Preve
OPINION: Tortured, but not silenced: The New York Times - September 1, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof; An early test of the next president s moral courage will come as he decides how to engage two Sudanese people named Bashir. One is President Omar al-Bashir, who faces indictment for genocide by the International Criminal Court. The other is Dr. Halima Bashir, a young Darfuri woman whom the Sudanese authorities have tri
H.I.V. Is Spreading in New York City at Three Times the National Rate, a Study Finds: The New York Times - August 28, 2008; Sewell Chan; The virus that causes AIDS is spreading in New York City at three times the national rate - an incidence of 72 new infections for every 100,000 people, compared with 23 per 100,000 nationally - according to a study released on Wednesday by the city s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The findings, based on a new
Vital Statistics: Teenagers Changing Sexual Behavior: The New York Times - August 26, 2008; Nicholas Bakalar; Compared with their peers in 1991, high school students today are less likely to be sexually active, and when they are, more likely to use condoms. The percentage of high school students in 2007 who had ever had sexual intercourse declined by 12 percent since 1991, the percentage who had had intercourse with four or mo
Mexico City Journal: Lifting the Veil on AIDS in a Mexican Prison: The New York Times - August 26, 2008; Marc Lacey; MEXICO CITY -- Officially, there is no sex among the male inmates at the over-packed Oriente prison on the outskirts of the Mexican capital. The only sexual relations in the male portion of the facility, administrators say, occur in the special rooms set aside for male-female conjugal visits. But talk to the prisoners,
Foreclosures Mean Crises for H.I.V. Positive Renters: The New York Times - August 26, 2008; April Dembosky; Sabrina Wilson did not know she would have to move out of her Brooklyn apartment until she saw the for sale sign outside the building. Mrs. Wilson, whose H.I.V. was diagnosed 18 years ago, had always dreaded the thought of having to find another landlord who would accept her rental subsidy from the city. But this time,
8 States Cut From System That Tracks Rate of H.I.V.: The New York Times - August 23, 2008; Shaila Dewan; ATLANTA -- Eight states and Puerto Rico will no longer receive federal money for an advanced H.I.V. monitoring system that showed that the annual infection rate in the nation was 40 percent higher than previously estimated, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The change will low
At Meeting on AIDS, Focus Shifts to Long Haul: The New York Times - August 18, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman, M.D; This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: August 23, 2008 The Doctor s World column on Tuesday, about the International AIDS Conference, misidentified the organization that recently issued guidelines urging earlier treatment of H.I.V. in the developed world. The guidelines were deve
Protective Effects of Circumcision Are Shown to Continue After Trials' End: The New York Times - August 11, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; MEXICO CITY - A follow-up look at men who were circumcised in an African study shows that the procedure s protective effects against H.I.V. last for at least three and a half years, researchers said at the 17th International AIDS Conference here last week. The study was one of three that were stopped before their sched
Web Privacy on the Radar in Congress: The New York Times - August 10, 2008; Stephanie Clifford; Here are some things Internet users can discover about Kiyoshi Martinez, a 24-year-old man from Mokena, Ill., from some of his recent posts online. He watched The Colbert Report on Tuesday night, he likes the musician Lenlow and he received bottles of olive oil and vinegar for his birthday. Mr. Martinez has Facebook an
Advocates Share Ideas in Teaching About AIDS: The New York Times - August 8, 2008; Marc Lacey and Lawrence K. Altman; MEXICO CITY - Like most scientific conferences, the 17th International AIDS Conference, which ended here on Friday, had its share of researchers presenting and discussing the findings of multiyear investigations in clinical terms. There was a planting and eating soybean project for people living with H.I.V./AIDS in rur
Seeking Better Laws on H.I.V.: The New York Times - August 8, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; MEXICO CITY - The 17th International AIDS Conference ended here on Friday with a call for the reversal of laws that criminalize and stigmatize groups at risk for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Criminalization is a poor tool for regulating H.I.V. infection and transmission, Edwin Cameron, a justice of the Supreme C
AIDS Group Cites Rapes in Zimbabwe as Terror Tool: The New York Times - August 7, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; MEXICO CITY - A 13-year-old girl was abducted, then raped repeatedly over a two-week period during a campaign of political terror in Zimbabwe surrounding recent elections there. Hers is one of 53 cases documented by AIDS-Free World, an advocacy group investigating rape as a political weapon in Zimbabwe, activists said
New Focus on Children at AIDS Seminar: The New York Times - August 6, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; MEXICO CITY - The global response to the AIDS epidemic has short-changed children, health workers at the International AIDS Conference said here on Wednesday. Although governments and donors provide large amounts of money for H.I.V. treatment in the developing world, too little of that money reaches children, said Lind
Vulnerable to H.I.V., Resistant to Labels: The New York Times - August 6, 2008; Marc Lacey; MEXICO CITY - The 29-year-old is not gay. He wants that known. He did have sex with a man once, but that was the result of loneliness and his hormones being in overdrive, he said, not because of any attraction to men. He suspects that the one encounter was responsible for giving him the virus that causes AIDS. But he i
Behavioral Approaches Overlooked in AIDS Fight: The New York Times - August 6, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; MEXICO CITY - While the world awaits findings from new AIDS prevention trials, millions of people are becoming infected because governments are overlooking studies showing that behavior modification works, AIDS experts said Tuesday. Among the behavior modifications the experts cited: promoting safer sex through delayed
Researchers Look to Pill, Taken Daily, to Avert H.I.V.: The New York Times - August 4, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; MEXICO CITY - Can a pill a day help prevent infection from H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS? No one knows. But researchers in a number of countries are conducting trials and planning others to test the unproven strategy that a daily pill, or a combination of drugs, can prevent H.I.V. By mid-2009, more people will be
H.I.V. Study Finds Rate 40% Higher Than Estimated (Correction Appended*): The New York Times - August 3, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; MEXICO CITY - The United States has significantly underreported the number of new H.I.V. infections occurring nationally each year, with a study released here on Saturday showing that the annual infection rate is 40 percent higher than previously estimated. The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Pr
Editorial: After the Glittering AIDS Bill: The New York Times - August 1, 2008; President Bush signed into law on Wednesday an important bill that authorizes greatly increased American spending to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. Although the money is more than he had originally wanted, the president willingly accepted the higher numbers. He can be justifiably proud of his ad
U.S. Blacks, if a Nation, Would Rank High on AIDS: The New York Times - July 30, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; If black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with the AIDS virus, the Black AIDS Institute, an advocacy group, reported Tuesday. The report, financed in part by the Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, provides a startling new perspective on an epidemic
Drug Trials Deepen Dilemma on Preventing H.I.V. Transmission in Breast-Feeding: The New York Times - July 29, 2008; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; For a mother infected with the virus that causes AIDS, breast-feeding presents a life-and-death dilemma. Using formula protects her child from H.I.V. But mixed with dirty water, it increases the chances that the child will die of diarrhea or malnutrition. In poor countries, most mothers still breast-feed, because it is
Iran fights scourge of addiction in plain view, stressing treatment: The New York Times - July 27, 2008; Nazila Fathi; TEHRAN: Ali blew out a candle on a small round cake. More than 200 people cheered, celebrating the first anniversary of his becoming drug-free. I was in an awful condition, said Ali, describing 12 years of addiction to opium and alcohol. I reached a state that I smashed our furniture and threw our television out of the
F.D.A. Urges Genetic Test Before Giving AIDS Drug: The New York Times - July 24, 2008; Andrew Pollack; Seeking to prevent life-threatening side effects, the Food and Drug Administration is urging doctors to use a genetic test to screen patients before prescribing a drug widely used for H.I.V. infection and AIDS. In an advisory it is expected to issue Thursday, the agency says that patients with a particular variation in
Many Gays Don't Tell Doctors Their Sexuality, Study Finds: The New York Times - July 23, 2008; Sewell Chan; A survey of 452 New York City men who had had sex with other men within the past year found that 39 percent had not disclosed their sexual orientation to their doctors, a problem particularly acute among black, Hispanic and Asian men, the city s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced on Wednesday. Health off
Russia Scorns Methadone for Heroin Addiction: The New York Times - July 22, 2008; Michael Schwirtz; MOSCOW - The conference seemed innocuous enough: a Moscow hotel, slide shows and several dozen doctors and specialists gathered to discuss how to treat heroin addiction. But then members of a Kremlin youth group called the Young Guard arrived, crowding the hotel s entrance and denouncing the participants as criminals a
Taboos About Sex Hinder Efforts to Fight AIDS in Pakistan, Study Says: The New York Times - July 22, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; In Pakistan , seven times as many men as women are reported to be infected with the AIDS virus, but the country s taboos about sex make it very difficult to even address the epidemic, researchers are reporting this week. The findings, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, are by researchers at two Pakistani univ
McCain and Obama Agree to Attend Megachurch Forum: The New York Times - July 21, 2008; Jim Rutenberg; It has taken a man of God, perhaps, to do what nobody else has been able to do since the general election season began: Get Barack Obama and John McCain together on the same stage before their party conventions later this summer. The Rev. Rick Warren has persuaded the candidates to attend a forum at his Saddleback Chur
Pope Calls for a 'New Age' in Final Australia Mass: The New York Times - July 20, 2008; Tim Johnston; SYDNEY, Australia - In his final address to hundreds of thousands of young Catholics gathered in Australia on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI attacked the violence and materialism of the modern age, and called on his audience to build a new age. A new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which Go
Trial for Vaccine Against H.I.V. Is Canceled: The New York Times - July 18, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; Plans for a large human trial of a promising government-developed H.I.V. vaccine in the United States were canceled Thursday because a top federal official said scientists realized that they did not know enough about how H.I.V. vaccines and the immune system interact. The decision is a major setback in an effort to dev
Gene Variation May Raise Risk of H.I.V., Study Finds: The New York Times - July 17, 2008; Nicholas Wade; A genetic variation that once protected people in sub-Saharan Africa from a now extinct form of malaria may have left them somewhat more vulnerable to infection by H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The gene could account for 11 percent of the H.I.V. infections in Africa, explaining why the disease is more common ther
Problems Persist With Red Cross Blood Services: The New York Times - July 17, 2008; Stephanie Strom; For 15 years, the American Red Cross has been under a federal court order to improve the way it collects and processes blood. Yet, despite $21 million in fines since 2003 and repeated promises to follow procedures intended to ensure the safety of the nation s blood supply, it continues to fall short. The situation has
Senate Moves on AIDS Bill: The New York Times - July 14, 2008; Carl Hulse; After finally breaking a procedural logjam, the Senate this week will move ahead with a $50 billion AIDS initiative that has the support of Democrats, Republicans and the White House. It would seem like a sure bet - except for Senator Jim DeMint. Mr. DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, forced the Senate last week
Bohemia Takes Its Final Bows: The New York Times - July 13, 2008; Campbell Robertson; I WAS late to Rent. Late to the show, and late to the city it portrays. When I arrived in New York, in the fall of 1998, bistros and boutiques had already infiltrated the East Village, gentrification was spreading into the Lower East Side, and northwest Brooklyn had largely fallen to the forces of the Rent had already
Suddenly, a Sculptor: The New York Times - July 13, 2008; Francesca Cao; IN New York State, a person with AIDS is eligible to receive food stamps and housing assistance, along with a small daily stipend. Eleven dollars is what Wayne Starks, who is 52 years old and lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, receives every day to improve the quality of his life. Every day, Mr. Starks records in a
When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans: The New York Times - July 13, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; If you caught your son burning ants with a magnifying glass, would it bother you less than if you found him torturing a mouse with a soldering iron? How about a snake? How about his sister? Does Khalid Shaikh Mohammed - the Guantanamo detainee who claims he personally beheaded the reporter Daniel Pearl - deserve the ri
Op-Ed: The Pain of the G-8's Big Shrug: The New York Times - July 10, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof; As President Bush and the Group of 8 leaders who are meeting in Japan again shun their responsibilities in Darfur, there is a serious argument to be made that genocide is overrated as an international concern. The G-8 leaders implicitly accept that argument, which goes like this: Genocide is regrettable, but don t los
Effort for Lower Drug Prices Would Focus on Gaining Patents: The New York Times - July 8, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Unitaid, the international agency created in 2006 to buy medicine to counter AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, has taken the first step toward establishing a mechanism to deal with a vexing problem of drugs so expensive they are out of reach for most poor The agency is endorsing the creation of a panel of experts to expl
Disunity at G-8 over Zimbabwe: The New York Times - July 7, 2008; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; TOYAKO, Japan : As world leaders convened in this resort town in northern Japan on Monday for three days of talks on issues including climate change and rising food and energy prices, the agenda quickly shifted to the political crisis in Zimbabwe , exposing a split between Western and African leaders.
Editorial: The Needy and Budget Priorities: The New York Times - July 7, 2008; These are tough times. But the newly passed $59.1 billion New York City budget cut nearly $300 million in spending, a good part of it for programs meant to protect the city’s most vulnerable people, including the elderly, youth, the unemployed, people who need legal aid and those with H.I.V. and AIDS. Traditionally, Ne
Editorial: Republican Delay on AIDS: The New York Times - July 7, 2008; A tiny group of Republican senators continues to block a vote on an important bill to increase American spending on AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world. Their obstructionism has deprived President Bush of a legislative achievement that could help him spur other industrialized nations to contribute substanti
Bush Asks for Help, Abroad and at Home, in Sending Aid to Africa: The New York Times - July 3, 2008; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; WASHINGTON - Amid signs that his quest for more aid to Africa is in danger of unraveling, President Bush called Wednesday for Congress to renew his global AIDS initiative and urged other nations to live up to their own promises to fight poverty and disease on the continent. President Bush entering the Rose Garden befor
Op-Ed: Mbeki's Shame: The New York Times - July 3, 2008; Roger Cohen; Sometimes stubbornness gets measured in blood, and sometimes the wounds of race are blinding. That s the kindest verdict I can find for the listless mediation in a devastated Zimbabwe of Thabo Mbeki, the South African president. Faced by all the brutal expressions of his neighbor Robert Mugabe s megalomania, Mbeki has
Officials Praise New Test for Drug-Resistant TB: The New York Times - July 1, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; A new test that can detect multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis in two days instead of the standard two to three months promises to help significantly improve treatment and prevent the spread of the airborne infection, the World Health Organization said Monday. Multiple-drug-resistant TB, or MDR-TB, is a growing public
Online Tunes, in Service to Africa: The New York Times - June 30, 2008; Robert Levine; The music business is known for supporting causes with events like the Live Aid and Live Earth concerts, which generate lots of money and publicity for a relatively short time. But on Monday (RED), a nonprofit organization that arranges for companies to contribute a share of profits on certain products to fight AIDS in
H.I.V. Diagnosis Rates Continue to Rise Among Young Men, African-Americans: The New York Times - June 27, 2008; David Tuller; Diagnoses of H.I.V. and AIDS in men who have sex with men rose significantly between 2001 and 2006 while declining in other demographic groups, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday. The increase in diagnoses was especially high among males between the ages of 13 and 24, with an annual increase of 1
Iran Fights Scourge of Addiction in Plain View, Stressing Treatment: The New York Times - June 27, 2008; Nazila Fathi; TEHRAN - Ali blew out a candle on a small round cake. More than 200 people cheered, celebrating the first anniversary of his becoming drug-free. A trash collector gathers used syringes taken from Tehran parks. Free needles are offered in Iran to counter H.I.V. risks. A ceremony in Tehran in May celebrated a recovering
A Hedge Fund and Its Nonprofit Twin: The New York Times - June 26, 2008; Heather Timmons; Christopher Cooper-Hohn and his wife, Jamie, follow a simple economic formula: he makes money, and she gives it away. Mr. Cooper-Hohn runs the Children s Investment Fund, or T.C.I., a successful - and controversial - hedge fund that has become a gadfly to corporate giants like CSX, the American railroad. Ms. Cooper-Hoh
City Is Pushing for H.I.V. Tests for All in Bronx: The New York Times - June 26, 2008; Anemona Hartocollis; The New York City health department plans to announce on Thursday an ambitious three-year effort to give an H.I.V. test to every adult living in the Bronx, which has a far higher death rate from AIDS than any other borough. The campaign will begin with a push to make the voluntary testing routine in emergency rooms and
Michael Shernoff, 57, Gay-Health Therapist, Is Dead: The New York Times - June 21, 2008; Bruce Weber; Michael Shernoff, a psychotherapist who beginning in the early years of the AIDS epidemic wrote widely on its emotional toll on gay men and who organized an early safe-sex workshop, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 57. The cause was pancreatic cancer, his brother Jeffrey said. In his practice and in his
Editorial: A Global AIDS Campaign Stalled: The New York Times - June 21, 2008; A handful of Republican senators is blocking action on a bill that would greatly increase American funding to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. If their delaying tactics succeed, the United States will lose considerable leverage in trying to persuade other advanced nations to contribute substantia
Index Ranks Pharmaceutical Groups According to Third World Outreach: The New York Times - June 17, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; An unusual ranking of pharmaceutical companies is being unveiled this week. It evaluates them by how easy they make it for patients in poor countries to get drugs and vaccines. The list, called the Access to Medicine Index, has been created for social responsibility funds and investors who want to know how companies wh
When the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The New York Times - June 15, 2008; Trey Ellis; A YEAR before his death, my dad was forced to come out to me. I thought he was in Paris for a vacation. Instead, he was there for treatment with AZT , which in 1986 was experimental and not yet approved in the United States for people infected with the virus that causes AIDS. After my mother died when I was 16, my
White House Names 6 for Medal of Freedom: The New York Times - June 12, 2008; David Stout; WASHINGTON - Gen. Peter Pace, who was denied a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff a year ago because of the war in Iraq , will receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, the White House announced on Wednesday. General Pace, a retired marine, is one of six medal r
Spread of Tuberculosis Seen Slowing Progress on AIDS: The New York Times - June 10, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; Inadequate attention to the spread of tuberculosis is undermining recent gains made against the virus that causes AIDS, United Nations officials said Monday. Tuberculosis and AIDS are now epidemic in many areas of the world, and the two infectious diseases must be addressed together, said the officials, who spoke from
Marijuana Hotbed Retreats on Medicinal Use: The New York Times - June 9, 2008; Jesse McKinley; UKIAH, Calif. - There is probably no marijuana-friendlier place in the country than here in Mendocino County, where plants can grow more than 15 feet high, medical marijuana clubs adopt stretches of highway, and the sticky, sweet aroma of cannabis fills this city s streets during the autumn harvest. Lately, however, re
Zimbabwe Blocks Opposition's Rallies and Again Detains Its Leader: The New York Times - June 7, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG - With only three weeks to go before Zimbabwe s presidential runoff, the police briefly detained the opposition s standard-bearer, Morgan Tsvangirai, on Friday for the second time this week and directed his party to cancel political rallies, effectively preventing him from addressing voters. Morgan Tsvangi
Bush in the Background: The New York Times - June 6, 2008; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; WASHINGTON - Scenes from the quiet life of George W. Bush, master of ceremonies and president of the United States : On Sunday, Mr. Bush presented awards to the poet Maya Angelou and the actress Ruby Dee at the annual Ford s Theatre Gala. On Monday, he gave a three-minute talk about tax cuts, and bestowed a posthumous
Oscar Ratnoff, 91, Expert on Blood Clots, Is Dead: The New York Times - June 6, 2008; Jeremy Pearce; Dr. Oscar D. Ratnoff, whose insightful research into how the blood coagulates helped reveal the waterfall biochemical response involved in the body s reaction to wounds and trauma, died on May 20 in Cleveland. He was 91. The cause was respiratory failure, his family said. In the late 1950s and early 60s, Dr. Ratnoff, a
In a Crackdown, Zimbabwe Curbs Aid Groups: The New York Times - June 4, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG - Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Zimbabweans - orphans and old people, the sick and the down and out - have lost access to food and other basic humanitarian assistance as their government has clamped down on international aid groups it says are backing the political opposition, relief agencies
Noninfectious Illnesses Are Expected to Become Top Killers: The New York Times - June 3, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; As the world’s population ages, gets richer, smokes more, eats more and drives more, noncommunicable diseases will become bigger killers than infectious ones over the next 20 years, the World Health Organization is reporting. The report, World Health Statistics 2008, shows that diseases like diarrhea, AIDS, tuberculosi
Progress on AIDS, but Not Enough, U.N. Says: The New York Times - June 3, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG - The good news on AIDS: Nearly a million people began life-prolonging drug treatment in developing countries last year. The bad news: 2.5 million people were newly infected with the HIV virus. As new infections continue to far outstrip efforts to treat the sick, the United Nations released a progress repo
Resources Scarce, Homelessness Persists in New Orleans: The New York Times - May 28, 2008; Shaila Dewan; NEW ORLEANS - Mayor C. Ray Nagin recently suggested a way to reduce this city s post-Katrina homeless population: give them one-way bus tickets out of town. Patrick Pugh and Clara Gomez outside their tent at a homeless encampment under a highway overpass in New Orleans. Mr. Nagin later insisted the off-the-cuff proposa
Letter: Saliva and H.I.V.: The New York Times - May 27, 2008; To the Editor: Prison for Man With H.I.V. Who Spit on a Police Officer (news article, May 16) appropriately noted that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that contact with saliva, tears, or sweat has never been shown to result in the transmission of H.I.V. Even though we know that there is no s
Editorial: The Failures of Thabo Mbeki: The New York Times - May 24, 2008; Crackpot and dangerous theories on AIDS. Extreme and widening levels of income inequality. Enabling Zimbabwe s Robert Mugabe and only belatedly trying to halt mob atrocities against desperate Zimbabwean and other African immigrants. This is the legacy of South Africa s president, Thabo Mbeki, who has one more year in h
Genre-Bending Hangout Takes Its Final Bows: The New York Times - May 21, 2008; Frank Bruni; Florent Morellet will switch off his neon sign after almost 23 years on Gansevoort Street. ALMOST 23 years ago a transplanted young Frenchman named Florent Morellet, the youngest son of the conceptual artist Francois Morellet, took over a diner named the R & L on Gansevoort Street. In Paris he had owned a little re
Web Game With a Message Debunks H.I.V. Myths: The New York Times - May 19, 2008; Brian Stelter; Hot or Not, a Web site where people submit photographs of themselves so that strangers can rate how attractive they are on a scale of 1 to 10, has spawned many imitators (plus a fair number of critics who view it as a sign of the end of civilization as we know it). One new spinoff, Pos or Not, has a serious purpose (ta
Despite H.I.V., Fighting to Maintain Health and a Positive Attitude: The New York Times - May 18, 2008; Sally Sara; Patricia Clouden dresses in a whirl of color, from her bright African dress to her shiny green toenail polish. She is a grandmother of eight who gets noticed in her Harlem neighborhood and is not afraid to speak her mind. I m not a Yes, ma am no more, she told a group of about a dozen women seated around a boardroom ta
Report Assesses Blame in Hepatitis Cases: The New York Times - May 17, 2008; Jennifer Steinhauer; Health care workers at a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic linked to more than 80 cases of hepatitis C routinely mishandled injection equipment and medication vials and often failed to perform basic hand hygiene, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday. The Endoscopy Center of
Prison for Man With H.I.V. Who Spit on a Police Officer: The New York Times - May 16, 2008; Gretel C. Kovach; DALLAS - A homeless man who spit in the mouth and eye of a police officer and then taunted him, saying he was H.I.V. positive, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for harassing a public servant with a deadly weapon: his saliva. Because of the deadly weapon finding, the man, Willie Campbell, 42, of Dallas,
Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in Custody: The New York Times - May 5, 2008; Nina Bernstein; Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement, and late that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive. But outside, for fiv
Working to Restore Help for AIDS Patients: The New York Times - May 4, 2008; Linda Saslow; NOW that Nassau and Suffolk Counties have won their lawsuit to restore full federal financing for helping those with AIDS and the H.I.V. infection, health and social service officials say they hope to boost medical and support services to Long Island patients. An April 25 ruling by the United States Court of Appeal
OPINION: A Prison of Shame, and It's Ours: The New York Times - May 4, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof; My Times colleague Barry Bearak was imprisoned by the brutal regime in Zimbabwe last month. Barry was not beaten, but he was infected with scabies while in a bug-infested jail. He was finally brought before a court after four nights in jail and then released. Alas, we don t treat our own inmates in Guantanamo with even
A Chance to Shop Till You Help: The New York Times - May 1, 2008; Marianne Rohrlich; Design on a Dime, the annual sale to benefit Housing Works thrift shops, which raise money for poor New Yorkers with H.I.V. or AIDS, begins next Thursday evening. All furnishings will be sold at 60 to 80 percent off retail, and vignettes will be created by 30 designers, including Jamie Drake, Thom Filicia and James Hun
The Short End of the Longer Life: The New York Times - April 27, 2008; Kevin Sack; THROUGHOUT the 20th century, it was an American birthright that each generation would live longer than the last. Year after year, almost without exception, the anticipated life span of the average American rose inexorably, to 78 years in 2005 from 61 years in 1933, when comprehensive data first became available. AN APP
Help for Those Seeking a Job and a Home: The New York Times - April 27, 2008; Joseph P. Fried, homefront@nytimes.com.; ONE man is a former professional football player. The other has been a security guard and a short-order cook amid stints in prison for selling drugs. As different as their backgrounds are, both men are now homeless, jobless and infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Roy Simmons, 51, was an offensive lineman for the
It Takes a Children's Book for Bushes to Play the Y: The New York Times - April 23, 2008; Eric Konigsberg; On a night when many people around the country may have been focused on the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, some in New York showed up at a Bush event - that is a Laura and Jenna Bush event. At least 500 people turned out at the 92nd Street Y on Lexington Avenue to hear the first lady and one of the Bush twins, Jen
At Chelsea, Success Isn't a Satisfying Answer: The New York Times - April 22, 2008; Jack Bell; The coach of Chelsea, the Israeli Avram Grant, has been bombarded by many more than the four questions of Passover the past week from the news media, which have often been hostile during his tumultuous eight-month reign with the English Premier League club. Grant is a friend of Chelsea s billionaire Russian owner, Roma
Life Expectancy Is Declining in Some Pockets of the Country: The New York Times - April 22, 2008; Nicholas Bakalar; Life expectancy has long been growing steadily for most Americans. But it has not for a significant minority, according to a new study, which finds a growing disparity in mortality depending on race, income and geography. The study, published Monday in the online journal PLoS, analyzed life expectancy in all 3,141 coun
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, 72, Dies in Rome: The New York Times - April 21, 2008; Ian Fisher; Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, the Vatican s leading voice in defense of traditional family values and in opposition to abortion, contraception and gay marriage, died of cardiac arrest on Saturday in Rome, the Vatican said Sunday. He was 72 and had been hospitalized in recent weeks for treatment for complications fro
China Dissident Loses Chance to Appeal in Subversion Case: The New York Times - April 18, 2008; Jim Yardley; BEIJING - One of China s most prominent human rights advocates has missed the deadline to appeal his recent conviction for inciting subversion after prison guards denied him the chance to meet with his lawyer to discuss whether to proceed, his wife and his lawyer said Thursday. The advocate, Hu Jia, 34, had faced a Mon
Giving Shelter: Portraits of Young Lives in Limbo: The New York Times - April 18, 2008; Sewell Chan; A new book of documentary photographs, Shelter, examines a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender young people living, off and on, at a homeless shelter in Hell s Kitchen - a group for whom growing up could hardly be more difficult. That the book is the product of a 27-year-old photographer who is gay, grew up
How Epidemics Helped Shape the Modern Metropolis: The New York Times - April 15, 2008; John Noble Wilford; On a Sunday in July 1832, a fearful and somber crowd of New Yorkers gathered in City Hall Park for more bad news. The epidemic of cholera, cause unknown and prognosis dire, had reached its peak. People of means were escaping to the country. The New York Evening Post reported, The roads, in all directions, were lined wi
Where 'Idol's' Charitable Arm Reaches: The New York Times - April 7, 2008; Edward Wyatt; LOS ANGELES - Just about anyone who has tuned in American Idol this season has seen video clips of Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell touring slums in Africa or working with victims of poverty in the United States as part of the program s Idol Gives Back charity. Ryan Seacrest, the show s host, has repeatedly
For a Purchase Premiere, 'A Musical Outcry': The New York Times - March 30, 2008; Susan Hodara; IN 1992, Paul Lustig Dunkel, the music director and conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic, commissioned the composer Laura Kaminsky to write a piece for the orchestra. Sixteen years later, Ms. Kaminsky, now the dean of music at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music and the interim artistic director of the Perf
OPINION: 'With a Few More Brains ...': The New York Times - March 30, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof; Ten days ago, I noted the reckless assertion of Barack Obama s former pastor that the United States government had deliberately engineered AIDS to kill blacks, but I tried to put it in context by citing a poll showing that 30 percent of African-Americans believe such a plot is at least plausible. My point was that
Editorial: Grim Outlook for an AIDS Vaccine: The New York Times - March 30, 2008; Back in 1984, federal health officials, flush with excitement over discovery of the virus that causes AIDS, famously predicted that they would have a vaccine ready for market within three years. Now, after almost a quarter-century of toil and struggle, the effort has crashed in failure. No one yet knows whether a vacci
Rethinking Is Urged on a Vaccine for AIDS: The New York Times - March 26, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; WASHINGTON - Researchers must go back to the drawing board before they can develop an effective vaccine against H.I.V., AIDS experts said at a scientific meeting on Tuesday. And Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top federal official responsible for AIDS research, agreed that more fundamental knowledge is needed about H.I.V. an
TB Patients Chafe Under Lockdown in South Africa: The New York Times - March 25, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa - The Jose Pearson TB Hospital here is like a prison for the sick. It is encircled by three fences topped with coils of razor wire to keep patients infected with lethal strains of tuberculosis from escaping. But at Christmastime and again around Easter, dozens of them cut holes in the fence
Birth Control for Others: The New York Times - March 23, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof; The first large-scale scientific test of family planning took place in Khanna, India , beginning in the early 1950s. Backed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers asked 8,000 villagers how often they had sex, whether they wanted to conceive and the details of the women s mens
Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation: The New York Times - March 23, 2008; Robert Pear; WASHINGTON - New government research has found large and growing disparities in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades. Life expectancy for the nation as a whole has increased, the researchers said, but affluent people have experienced greate
Obama and Race: The New York Times - March 20, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; Barack Obama this week gave the best political speech since John Kennedy talked about his Catholicism in Houston in 1960, and it derived power from something most unusual in modern politics: an acknowledgment of complexity, nuance and legitimate grievances on many sides. It was not a sound bite, but a symphony. But the
Progress Slows in Detection of New TB Cases: The New York Times - March 18, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; WASHINGTON - Progress in detecting new cases of tuberculosis is slowing, threatening to increase the risks of transmitting drug-resistant strains, the World Health Organization said Monday. From 2005 to 2006, the rate of increase in detecting new cases fell to 3 percent from an average of 6 percent in the preceding fiv
Editorial: One in Four Girls: The New York Times - March 17, 2008; Teenage girls and their parents need to read the latest government study of sexually transmitted diseases. The infections are so prevalent they are hard to avoid once a girl becomes sexually active. One in four girls ages 14 to 19 is infected with at least one of four common diseases. Among African-American girls in th
In Lagging Haiti, First Lady Finds Positive Signs: The New York Times - March 14, 2008; Marc Lacey; PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Most Haitians are unemployed, but the first lady, Laura Bush, spoke to some of the fortunate few who do have jobs here in the poorest country in the hemisphere during her visit on Thursday. The trip was aimed at putting a positive face on some of the country s social ills and highlighting what t
Do as He Said: The New York Times - March 13, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist; The last time I saw Eliot Spitzer, he encouraged me to write about his work involving prostitution. So here goes. The governor buttonholed me because he wanted credit for passage of a tough state law against sex trafficking. Frankly, he deserves credit, for the law took the innovative step of cracking down on johns by
Sex Diseases in Many Gay Men Go Unfound, Experts Say: The New York Times - March 13, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; Many cases of sexually transmitted diseases are escaping detection because gay men are not being tested each year as advised, federal health officials said Wednesday. And if the men do show up, the officials added, many doctors and clinics are not following screening recommendations. But more cases could be detected if
One in four U.S. teenage girls have STD's, study finds: The New York Times - March 12, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four are infected with at least one of the diseases, U.S. health officials reported Tuesday. Nearly half the African-Americans in the study of teenagers ages 14 to 19 were infected with at least one o
The Claim: Identical Twins Have Identical DNA: The New York Times - March 11, 2008; Anahad O'Connor, scitimes@nytimes.com; It is a basic tenet of human biology, taught in grade schools everywhere: Identical twins come from the same fertilized egg and, thus, share identical genetic profiles. But according to new research, though identical twins share very similar genes, identical they are not. The discovery opens a new understanding of why
Rift Over AIDS Treatment Lingers in South Africa: The New York Times - March 9, 2008; Celia W. Dugger; KWANGWANASE, South Africa - Colin Pfaff, a slight doctor imbued with Christian zeal, had reached a moral crossroads. Dr. Pfaff knew that giving H.I.V.-positive women and their newborns two anti-AIDS drugs instead of one would reduce the odds that mothers would pass the virus to their babies. For months, he and doctors
Good News: Karlo Will Live: The New York Times - March 6, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof, op-ed columnist; NUBA MOUNTAINS, Sudan - The farm families living in these rocky hills in central Sudan confront every disease imaginable, from leprosy to malaria, and perhaps one-quarter of children die by the age of five. Yet this is a good news column. Karlo will live. The number of children who die worldwide each year before the ag
Prescription drugs and their TV treatment: The New York Times - March 4, 2008; Abigail Zuger, M.D.; NEW YORK: Years ago, a large poster featuring an appealingly sweaty and smiling young man climbing a mountain appeared in my subway station, directly across from my usual waiting spot. Purportedly he had been invigorated by one of the first AIDS drugs marketed directly to the public. He looked magnificent on top of his
A Bug Rises, and With It a Company: The New York Times - March 4, 2008; Andrew Pollack; Patients might not particularly like the new admission procedure at a growing number of hospitals: having what looks like an elongated Q-Tip stuck up their noses. But it smells great to Cepheid. Cepheid, a biotechnology company in Silicon Valley, sells a rapid genetic test to detect MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant superb
In Student Hands, Films That Take Serious Aim: The New York Times - March 2, 2008; Anita Gates; MICHELLE OUTHOUSE, 17, has never had a friend or family member stricken with AIDS. But she has cared deeply about fighting the disease ever since a speaker on the subject came to her school when she was a sophomore. So she made a movie about it. Ten minutes of her 35-minute Negative for Life will be shown at the Ninth
Long Slump May Mean Drug Stocks Are Bargains: The New York Times - March 1, 2008; Conrad De Aenlle; SHARES of drug makers are usually in demand when the economic outlook is cloudy and investors are avoiding risk. The companies stable earnings may be less appealing this time because the sector faces some new risks. Widespread calls by political leaders to overhaul the health care system have hit the stocks, as has con
Editorial: The Global AIDS Fight: The New York Times - February 29, 2008; Congress and the White House are preparing to ramp up spending on programs to combat AIDS and related diseases around the world while removing some of the ideological blinders that have long undermined the effort to slow the spread of the AIDS virus. It will be a welcome strengthening of a foreign aid program that was
Drug-Resistant TB Rates Soar in Former Soviet Regions: The New York Times - February 27, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; Drug-resistant tuberculosis cases in parts of the former Soviet Union have reached the highest rates ever recorded globally, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The rates could soar even higher, spreading the potentially fatal disease elsewhere, a top W.H.O. official said, releasing findings from the largest gl
Talking With Children About Sex and AIDS: At What Age to Start?: The New York Times - February 26, 2008; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; A new documentary, Please Talk to Kids About AIDS, raises this question in a cute but discomfiting way. So far it has been seen only at film festivals and at schools of public health, including those at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. But the film will soon be available at www.eztakes.com/Talk-to-Kids. I saw it last month a
Editorial: Politics and Needle Exchanges: The New York Times - February 23, 2008; Needle exchange programs save lives. They slow the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and they help get addicts into treatment. Yet when it comes to supporting these programs, it seems that the political cowardice never ends. For the last 20 years, Congress has blocked the use of federal money to pay for nee
Bush Confronts Hard Questions in Ghana: The New York Times - February 21, 2008; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; ACCRA, Ghana - Traveling across Africa this week, President Bush has been a little like Santa Claus, a benevolent figure from another land handing out gifts - American foreign aid - and generating smiles wherever he goes. But here in the capital of Ghana on Wednesday, the smiles stopped for a moment as Mr. Bush confron
Tanzania Welcomes Bush, but Obama Is Topic No. 1 on the Streets: The New York Times - February 18, 2008; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - President Bush has been smothered with affection here, never more so than on Sunday, when he sat at a wooden desk under a sweltering sun with President Jakaya Kikwete by his side and signed a $698 million grant of foreign aid to Tanzania. But while people here in the capital city of this East
Liaisons Dangereuses: The New York Times - February 17, 2008; James Angelos; IT was a slow weeknight at the Comfort Zone, a meeting place for men that is in a drab office building amid the Broadway musicals on West 49th Street. Although snow and sleet fell in the streets, several men endured the frigid weather to make their way to the club s spacious second-floor suite, eager to indulge the yea
Turmoil in Africa Alters Focus of Bush's 5-Nation Tour: The New York Times - February 14, 2008; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; WASHINGTON - On the eve of a planned trip to Africa, President Bush thrust himself into the role of peacemaker on Thursday, as his plans to promote American efforts against poverty and disease gave way to a more pressing imperative: addressing the violence and turmoil on the continent. Mr. Bush injected his administrat
Scientists Find New Receptor for H.I.V.: The New York Times - February 11, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; SAN FRANCISCO - Government scientists have discovered a new way that H.I.V. attacks human cells, an advance that could provide fresh avenues for the development of additional therapies to stop AIDS, they reported on Sunday. The discovery is the identification of a new human receptor for H.I.V. The receptor helps guide
Gates Foundation Head to Leave Longtime Post: The New York Times - February 7, 2008; Stephanie Strom; SEATTLE - Patty Stonesifer, who helped start the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in an office over a pizza parlor seven years ago and has overseen its growth it into the world s largest philanthropic institution, said in an interview on Wednesday that she would step down by the end of the year. Her decision marks a m
Pre-Chewed Baby Food Said to Transmit H.I.V.: The New York Times - February 7, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; BOSTON - Researchers have identified another way that babies can be infected with H.I.V. - through food pre-chewed by an infected parent or caretaker. Although thousands of babies have been infected in the United States over the last 15 years, pre-chewed food has been documented as the cause of just three cases, federa
Bottom Line for (Red): The New York Times - February 6, 2008; Ron Nixon; KIGALI, Rwanda - A year ago, staff members at the Treatment and Research AIDS Center could barely cope. Patients, unable to find care elsewhere, flowed in from every corner of the country. And if one of them was fortunate enough to find a bed here, she often had to share it. Today, a dozen patients, mostly women, sit i
Longer Drug Regimen Found to Help Babies Avoid H.I.V.: The New York Times - February 5, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; BOSTON - Over recent years, giving an antiretroviral drug to a woman infected with the AIDS virus in labor and to her baby at birth has reduced the risk of transmitting the virus to the baby. Yet many babies born uninfected go on to acquire H.I.V., the AIDS virus, in the lengthy period of breast feeding because of cont
Disease Fighter Turns Plane Aisle Into a Gym: The New York Times - February 5, 2008; Charles Van Der Horst, M.D.; As told to Joan Raymond, joan.raymond@nytimes.com.; AS an infectious diseases specialist, I travel to Johannesburg, South Africa , and Lilongwe, Malawi , four times a year for various projects related to my work with the human immunodeficiency virus or, as we all know it, H.I.V. I also go to
US - Male Circumcision No Aid to Women in Study: The New York Times - February 4, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; BOSTON - A number of studies showing that circumcision among men reduces their risk of infection from the AIDS virus has raised the hope that the procedure would also benefit their female sexual partners. But the expectations were challenged Sunday by a new study showing that male circumcision conferred no indirect ben
Evangelicals a Liberal Can Love: The New York Times - February 3, 2008; Nicholas D. Kristof; At a New York or Los Angeles cocktail party, few would dare make a pejorative comment about Barack Obama s race or Hillary Clinton s sex. Yet it would be easy to get away with deriding Mike Huckabee s religious faith. Liberals believe deeply in tolerance and over the last century have led the battles against prejudices
Movie Review: The Witnesses; Mehdi and Sarah and Adrien and Manu, Coupling Under a Cloud: The New York Times - February 1, 2008; Stephen Holden; The French director Andre Techine is a master at evoking personality quirks, the unpredictability of relationships and the haphazard way love affairs, friendships and social groups form and dissolve. Many of his films, like Changing Times and Wild Reeds, portray a multicultural environment in which French and North Afr
Research Groups Boom in Washington: The New York Times - January 30, 2008; Brendan Smialowski; The United States Institute of Peace is building a headquarters on the Mall in Washington. WASHINGTON - The economy may be slowing down, but Washington s ideas industry is booming. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research institution that was effectively broke seven years ago, just bought a $33 mi
Bush, Facing Woes in '08, Focuses on War and Taxes: The New York Times - January 29, 2008; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; WASHINGTON - Facing an unstable economy and an unfinished war, President Bush used his final State of the Union address Monday night to call for quick passage of his tax rebate package, patience in Iraq and a modest concluding agenda that includes $300 million in scholarship money for low-income children in struggling
After Linking New Strain of Staph to Gay Men, University Scrambles to Clarify: The New York Times - January 20, 2008; Jesse McKinley; SAN FRANCISCO - In a matter of days, it jumped from a routine press release to a medical controversy. On Monday, a team of researchers led by doctors from the University of California at San Francisco announced that gay men were many times more likely than others to acquire a new strain of drug-resistant staphylococcus
Virus Is Linked to a Powerful Skin Cancer: The New York Times - January 18, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; Scientists have discovered a previously unknown virus and strongly linked it with the most aggressive form of skin cancer, they reported in a scientific journal on Thursday. The cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma, tends to occur most often on the sun-exposed areas of the body like the face, the head and the neck. Although i
Nearly 12 Years Old, 'Rent' Is to Close: The New York Times - January 16, 2008; Campbell Robertson; Nine hundred thirty thousand, one hundred eighty minutes. That s how you measure the total running time Rent will have played on Broadway when, as the producers said on Tuesday, it closes after its evening performance on June 1, making it the seventh-longest-running Broadway show in history. But the length of its run i
New Bacteria Strain Is Striking Gay Men: New York Times - January 15, 2008; Lawrence K. Altman; A new, highly drug-resistant strain of the flesh-eating MRSA bacteria is being spread among gay men in San Francisco and Boston, researchers reported on Monday. In a study published online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the bacteria seemed to be spread most easily through anal intercourse but also through
Editorial: H.I.V. Rises Among Young Gay Men: The New York Times- January 14, 2008; AIDS appears to be making an alarming comeback. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that the incidence of H.I.V. infection among gay men is shooting up, following an encouraging period of decline. The rise of infections among younger gay men, especially black and Hispanic men, is troubling, and the
Study Finds Possible Targets for H.I.V. Drugs: The New York Times - January 11, 2008; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Using a new type of genetic screen, researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified 273 proteins that the AIDS virus needs to survive in human cells, opening up new potential targets for drugs. Their work, published online on Thursday by Science magazine, used RNA interference to screen thousands of protein-makin
AIDS Patients Face Downside of Living Longer: The New York Times - January 6, 2008; Jane Gross; CHICAGO -- John Holloway received a diagnosis of AIDS nearly two decades ago, when the disease was a speedy death sentence and treatment a distant dream. Yet at 59 he is alive, thanks to a cocktail of drugs that changed the course of an epidemic. But with longevity has come a host of unexpected medical conditions, whic
In Global Battle on AIDS, Bush Creates Legacy: The New York Times- January 5, 2008; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; WASHINGTON - Dr. Jean W. Pape did not know what to expect in early January 2003, when he slipped away from his work treating AIDS patients in Haiti and flew to Washington for a secret meeting with President Bush. Mr. Bush was considering devoting billions to combat global AIDS, a public health initiative unparalleled i
New H.I.V. Cases Drop, but Rise in Young Gay Men: The New York Times -- January 2, 2008; Sarah Kershaw; For years he had numbed his pain and fear with drugs, alcohol and anonymous sex. But in a flash of clarity one day, when the crystal meth was wearing off, Javier Arriola dragged himself to a clinic to get an H.I.V. test, years after he stopped using condoms. He knew the answer before he received the results, but it was
Putting a Plague in Perspective: The New York Times- January 1, 2008; Daniel Halperin, Op-Ed Contributor; Cambridge, Mass. - ALTHOUGH the United Nations recently lowered its global H.I.V. estimates, as many as 33 million people worldwide are still living with the AIDS virus. This pandemic requires continued attention; preventing further deaths and orphans remains imperative. But the well-meaning promises of some presidenti
Research Groups Boom in Washington: The New York Times - January , 2008; Elisabeth Bumiller; WASHINGTON - The economy may be slowing down, but Washington s ideas industry is booming. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research institution that was effectively broke seven years ago, just bought a $33 million vacant lot downtown as the site for a new home. The Council on Foreign Relations is e

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