2009

In New Way to Edit DNA, Hope for Treating Disease: The New York Times - December 29, 2009; Nicholas Wade; Only one man seems to have ever been cured of AIDS, a patient who also had leukemia. To treat the leukemia, he received a bone marrow transplant in Berlin from a donor who, as luck would have it, was naturally immune to the AIDS virus. If that natural mutation could be mimicked in human blood cells, patients could be e
Global Update | Kenya: Group Worries About Rights of Children as Kenya Plans In-Home Tests for H.I.V.: The New York Times - December 29, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Kenya has plans to test four million people in their homes next year for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and the advocacy group Human Rights Watch recently sent the Kenyan government a letter asking that it ensure that all those tested -- particularly children and teenagers -- have their rights protected during t
Editorial: Righting a Wrong, Much Too Late: The New York Times - December 26, 2009; Public health advocates held an understandably muted celebration when President Obama signed a bill repealing a 21-year-old ban on federal financing for programs that supply clean needles to drug addicts. The bill brought an end to a long and bitter struggle between the public health establishment -- which knew from th
Editorial: Combating Prisoner Abuse: The New York Times - December 21, 2009; When Mississippi inmates sued their prison, charging that they had been sodomized by a staff member, the claim was thrown out. Under a harsh federal law, inmates must show that they suffered a physical injury to prevail in a suit challenging cruel prison conditions. A federal district court ruled in 2006 that the alleg
Walter Stamm Dies at 64; Helped Curb Chlamydia: The New York Times - December 21, 2009; Lawrence K. Altman; Dr. Walter E. Stamm, whose research spared many women from infertility and helped prevent, control and treat certain common infectious diseases, died last Monday at his home in Seattle, where he taught at the University of Washington. He was 64. The cause was spread of a melanoma, his daughter Hillary said. Among his a
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South African Who Oversaw Discredited AIDS Policy, Dies at 69: The New York Times - December 17, 2009; Bruce Weber; Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who as South Africa s health minister drew international censure for questioning the causal connection between H.I.V. and AIDS and for promoting dietary measures rather than drugs to treat AIDS, a policy that was held responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, died Wednesda
Music and Charity Meet in Intimate, Lofty Setting: The New York Times - December 16, 2009; James Barron; Steven and Judy Gluckstern have worked out a preconcert routine. Roll up the area rugs. Push the piano to the center of the room. Line up 100 rented folding chairs. Pray that the elevator does not conk out. (It has, twice.) They are not performers, nor are they stagehands. For 10 years they have been hosts, providing a
Global Update: Antiretroviral Drugs Cut Suicide Rate in Swiss AIDS Patients, a Study Finds: The New York Times - December 15, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Suicide among AIDS patients in Switzerland dropped by more than 50 percent after they started getting antiretroviral drugs in 1996, a recent Swiss study has found. Virtually all Swiss AIDS patients get the medicine they need, but the study may prove significant in the third world as well. There is an active debate in w
AIDS Prevention Gel Fails in Trial, Researchers Say: The New York Times - December 15, 2009; Donald Mcneil; In another setback for the fight against AIDS, a microbicide to protect women against infection has failed in the largest trial of its kind, researchers said Monday. That failure, several researchers said, was the last nail in the coffin for this type of microbicide -- gels containing molecules that clump around the vi
Dennis deLeon, AIDS Activist, Dies at 61: The New York Times - December 15, 2009; Dennis Hevesi; Dennis deLeon, a former New York City human rights commissioner who was one of the first city officials to announce that he was infected with the virus that causes AIDS and who later led one of the nation s most influential advocacy groups for Latinos with AIDS, died Monday in Manhattan. He was 61. The cause was heart
Updating the AIDS Quilt with a Social Networking Site for the Dead: The New York Times - December 13, 2009; Guy Trebay; Lost to AIDS, but Still Friended - LIKE millions of other Americans, Dominic Bash has a Twitter account, an online wall and a network of friends on the Web. His Facebook-style profile features Mr. Bash s occupation as a hairdresser at the Abbey in Philadelphia, lists his birthday, the names of good friends, his interes
Editorial: Easing Congress's Heel on the Capital City: The New York Times - December 11, 2009; Congress is on the verge of enacting a sea change for self-government in the District of Columbia that would at last allow the district to finance abortions for the poor, permit medical marijuana and end the ban on using federal funds for city workers domestic partner benefits. Proponents are cheered that the changes -
Obama Is Criticized on AIDS Program: The New York Times - December 9, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; As the Obama administration slowly unveils its global AIDS plan, the drive to put more people on drugs is being scaled back as emphasis is shifted to prevention and to diseases that cost less to fight, including pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and fatal birth complications. AIDS advocates complained bitterly that they had
H.I.V. Tests Turn Blood Into Cash in China: The New York Times - December 3, 2009; Andrew Jacobs; TIANJIN, China -- A young, boisterous crowd gathered in front of the Purple Tribe nightclub on a recent Friday night, but hardly anyone was interested in going inside. Instead the men, most of them gay, waited their turn to duck into a dingy storage space next to the club. A needle prick and a wince later, they emerged
South Africa to Expand Effort to Combat AIDS: The New York Times - December 1, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG -- After an era in which South Africa s government delayed providing drugs to treat AIDS and prevent women from infecting their newborns, President Jacob Zuma declared Tuesday in a national address on World AIDS Day that drug therapy for H.I.V.-positive pregnant women and babies would be broadened and star
Jackman, Craig Unload Their Garments for Charity: The New York Times - November 27, 2009; Dave Itzkoff; How much would you pay for two sweaty vests that have been worn out by weeks of use in a Broadway play? Wait, don’t answer yet: How much would you pay if those two sweaty vests had been worn for weeks by Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, the stars of “A Steady Rain”? Audiences got their answer on Wednesday when Mr. Craig
Sir John Crofton, Pioneer in TB Cure, Dies at 97: The New York Times - November 20, 2009; Denise Gellene; Sir John Crofton, a pioneering clinician who demonstrated that antibiotics could be safely combined to cure tuberculosis, a dread disease that once killed half the people who contracted it, died on Nov. 3 at his home in Edinburgh. He was 97. The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh announced his death. Sir John sta
Global Update: AIDS Divisions of 2 Large Drug Makers Form Company to Focus on the Disease: The New York Times - November 10, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Two of the world s biggest drug makers last week spun off their divisions that manufacture AIDS drugs and combined them into one company focusing on the disease. The new company, ViiV Healthcare, will initially be 85 percent controlled by GlaxoSmithKline and 15 percent controlled by
Letter: Money to Fight AIDS: The New York Times - November 10, 2009; To the Editor: Re As Donors Focus on AIDS, Child Illnesses Languish [http://www.aegis.org/news/nyt/2009/NYT091011.html] (news article, Oct. 30): Doctors Without Borders knows from experience the immense burden that pneumonia, diarrhea and other underfunded diseases have on children every day. We have treated hundreds o
New York Gay Rights Foe Sees Nuance in His Stand: The New York Times - November 10, 2009; Nicholas Confessore and Jeremy W. Peters; ALBANY -- Every Sunday morning, the deep, melodious voice of State Senator Rubén Diaz Sr. rumbles across the congregation at his Bronx church. On weekdays, it echoes across the Senate chamber as he rails against Medicaid cuts or abortion. Earlier this year, it enthralled thousands at a boisterous rally against same-sex
Bill Would Limit Needle Exchanges: The New York Times - November 9, 2009; Katie Zezima; BANGOR, Me. -- For years, the location of this city s needle exchange program, in a nondescript strip mall close to highways and bus lines, was seen as a major asset. But now, AIDS activists say, that very location could undermine what happens inside the exchange. A bill working its way through Congress would lift a ba
Research Shows Neighborhoods Where AIDS Treatments Lag: The New York Times - November 6, 2009; Carol Pogash; The map of San Francisco in the city s health department is bathed in shades of blue. The color, usually associated with the city s liberal politics, has a different import on the map. A light shade covers most neighborhoods. A slightly darker one covers the Castro, the center of the city s gay culture. And, like an el
Seen: Beauty at the Ball: The New York Times - November 5, 2009; Joyce Wadler; MY clams are not in place, the pregnant mermaid in the ladies room at the New York Design Center Masquerade Ball was saying, adjusting the homemade shell-and-string brassiere she was wearing over her clingy gown. Her long red hair was a magnificent Venus-rising mane, intertwined with seashells, and a blue-green fish t
Global Update - AIDS: Panel Warns That Without New Direction, Epidemic Will Remain Out of Control at 50: The New York Times - November 3, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Unless there is a drastic change in approach, the AIDS epidemic will still be out of control on its 50th anniversary in 2031, a panel of AIDS experts predicted in an analysis being published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs[http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/6/1591]. The lead author, Robert H
Zuma Rallies S. Africa to Fight AIDS: The New York Times - November 1, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG -- In a culmination of his party s major shift on AIDS, a disease that has led to plunging life expectancies here, President Jacob Zuma last week definitively rejected his predecessor s denial of the viral cause of AIDS and of the critical role of antiretroviral drugs in treating it. Almost 10 years to the
Obama Lifts a Ban on Entry Into U.S. by H.I.V.-Positive People: The New York Times - October 31, 2009; Julia Preston; President Obama on Friday announced the end of a 22-year ban on travel to the United States by people who had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, fulfilling a promise he made to gay advocates and acting to eliminate a restriction he said was rooted in fear rather than fact. At a White House ceremony, M
As Donors Focus on AIDS, Child Illnesses Languish: The New York Times - October 30, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG -- Diarrhea kills 1.5 million young children a year in developing countries -- more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined -- but only 4 in 10 of those who need the oral rehydration solution that can prevent death for pennies get it. All the attention has gone to more glamorous diseases, but this basic th
California Awards Grants for Research Projects in Nonembryonic Stem Cells: The New York Times - October 29, 2009; Andrew Pollack; LOS ANGELES -- In a tacit acknowledgment that the promise of human embryonic stem cells is still far in the future, California s stem cell research program on Wednesday awarded grants intended to develop therapies using mainly other, less controversial cells. The $230 million in grants awarded Wednesday to California u
Fighting H.I.V., a Community at a Time: The New York Times - October 27, 2009; Susan Okie; WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials are preparing a plan to study a bold new strategy to stop the spread of the AIDS virus: routinely testing virtually every adult in a community, and promptly treating those found to be infected. The strategy is called test and treat, and officials say the two sites for the three-ye
AIDS Vaccine Trial Shows Only Slight Protection: The New York Times - October 21, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; The full results from an AIDS vaccine trial in Thailand , released Tuesday, showed that the vaccine s protective effect might be even weaker than researchers first admitted. However, the complicated six-shot, two-vaccine regimen may have briefly worked better in the first year after it was given, and also may have work
Have Faith in an AIDS Vaccine: The New York Times - October 19, 2009; Seth Berkley, Op-Ed Contributor; VACCINE researchers don t often find themselves at the center of public controversies. But a storm has erupted over the announcement last month that an experimental AIDS vaccine tested in Thailand proved modestly effective. It was billed as a major scientific advance -- the long-awaited hard evidence that it is possibl
Paterson Proposes Cuts to Close Deficit: The New York Times - October 16, 2009; Danny Hakim; ALBANY -- Gov. David A. Paterson proposed billions of dollars in spending cuts on Thursday and raised alarms about New York s financial health as the state faces a deficit of nearly $50 billion over the next three and a half years. The governor s plan, which seeks to close a deficit for this fiscal year projected to be
No Place at School for Vietnam AIDS Orphans: The New York Times - October 14, 2009; Seth Mydans; AN NHON TAY, Vietnam -- The first day of school was a special one last month for the 15 children from the Mai Hoa orphanage here. They are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and for the first time they would be allowed to attend the local primary school. The children were so excited, said Sister Nguyen
Generation B: In a Changing Era, a Reminder of AIDS: The New York Times - October 11, 2009; Michael Winerip; BY the fall of 1995, Sean Strub was near death from AIDS. He d already lived longer than he was supposed to. He was sure he d experienced the first symptoms while a student at Columbia in 1979, though by the time he was tested and his disease formally diagnosed it was 1985. The doctor held my hand, looked into my eyes
Success of AIDS Vaccine Trial Is at Issue: The New York Times - October 11, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; When AIDS researchers released results last month from a six-year trial in Thailand of a new AIDS vaccine, they said it showed some promise for new avenues of research, though they freely admitted their data was weak. Now two published accounts citing anonymous AIDS researchers who were given confidential briefings abo
Debate Over Gay March Exposes Split in Approach: The New York Times - October 10, 2009; Jeremy W. Peters; It was meant to be a unifying show of strength at a critical juncture in the gay rights movement. But a march planned for Sunday on the Mall in Washington is exposing deep divisions among gay rights advocates around the country as they grapple with whether to continue pushing for gains state by state, or embrace a more
U.N. Cites Global Rise in Detection and Treatment of AIDS: The New York Times - October 1, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG -- The number of people being tested for H.I.V. more than doubled in dozens of countries last year, improving detection of AIDS and contributing to a major surge in those being treated. The ranks of people taking antiretroviral drugs in the developing world rose by more than a million to surpass four milli
If AIDS Went the Way of Smallpox: The new York Times - September 27, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; What would an AIDS vaccine mean to the world? In some ways, it would outshine a cure for the common cold. After all, even if the cold and its stealth wingman, pneumonia, kill more people, they don t do it quite so grimly. People with AIDS tend to die after years of suffering, often screaming from the agony of cryptococ
For First Time, AIDS Vaccine Shows Some Success: The New York Times - September 25, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Scientists said Thursday that a new AIDS vaccine, the first ever declared to protect a significant minority of humans against the disease, would be studied to answer two fundamental questions: why it worked in some people but not in others, and why those infected despite vaccination got no benefit at all. The vaccine -
Op-Ed Contributor: A Tiny Tax Could Do a World of Good: The New York Times - September 24, 2009; Philippe Douste-Blazy; AS leaders of the world s largest economies gather today in Pittsburgh for the Group of 20 meeting, people in the world s poorest countries will likely look on with a mix of hope and trepidation, wondering whether their needs will figure in the deliberations at all. The G-20 nations could help both the poor and the glo
Travelers' Fee Can Help Fight Diseases: The New York Times - September 23, 2009; Stephanie Strom; A United Nations program that has raised $1.2 billion over the past three years for the treatment of H.I.V./AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis through a small fee added to airline tickets sold in 15 countries is going global. Starting in January, travelers in the United States and other countries buying airline tickets thr
Editorial: Medical Inattention in New York Prisons: The New York Times - September 15, 2009; Prison inmates are the sickest people in society, with infection rates for blood-borne viruses like H.I.V. and hepatitis C far higher than the general population. Failing to test, counsel and treat these inmates makes it more likely that they will spread infection once they are released and suffer catastrophic illnesse
3 Uighurs Convicted of Syringe Attacks, Heightening Tensions in Western China: The New York Times - September 13, 2009; Edward Wong and Jonathan Ansfield; BEIJING -- Three people were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison on Saturday after being convicted of attacking people with syringes in Urumqi, the capital of the western region of Xinjiang, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. It was the first sentencing of suspects accused of being involved in what the gover
Settlement Reached in California High School 'Rent' Case: The New York Times - September 10, 2009; Patricia Cohen; Dan l Linehan A January performance of Rent: School Edition at Fairmont State University in West Virginia, featuring students of nearby Bridgeport High School. While the prospect of student performances of the gritty musical Rent has provoked objections at some high schools around the country, in Orange County, Calif.,
AIDS Activists Issue Grades to Drug Companies: The New York Times - September 10, 2009; Duff Wilson; Merck won the highest grade and Abbott Laboratories flunked in a report card being issued Thursday by a prominent group of AIDS treatment activists after a yearlong study of the actions of nine major pharmaceutical companies to address the contagion in the United States . Although advances in drug regimens s
Tool to Offer Fast Help for H.I.V. Exposure: The New York Times - September 8, 2009; Roni Caryn Rabin; Time is of the essence in treating someone who may have been exposed to the AIDS virus. Starting Wednesday, emergency room doctors throughout New York State will be just a computer click away from concise guidelines for starting prompt drug treatment that can reduce the risk of becoming infected. The guidelines come in
New Protests Reported in Restive Chinese Region: The New York Times - September 4, 2009; Edward Wong and Xiyun Yang; BEIJING -- Thousands of Han Chinese protesters swarmed around government buildings in the capital of the restive Xinjiang region on Thursday to demand a crackdown on Uighurs after rumors spread that they were sticking hundreds of Hans with H.I.V.-tainted hypodermic needles. The fresh conflict in the capital, Urumqi, sh
Movie Review: 'House of Numbers' - AIDS Seen From a Different Angle: The New York Times - September 4, 2009; Jeannette Catsoulis; Couched as a personal journey through the history of H.I.V. and AIDS, House of Numbers is actually a weaselly support pamphlet for AIDS denialists. Trafficking in irresponsible inferences and unsupported conclusions, the filmmaker Brent Leung offers himself as suave docent through a globe-trotting pseudo-investigation
U.N. Guide for Sex Ed Generates Opposition: The New York Times - September 3, 2009; Steven Erlanger; PARIS -- A set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing H.I.V. infections among young people has provoked criticism from conservative groups that say the program would be too explicit for young children and promote access to legal abortion as a right. The guidelines, scheduled to be released
'Angels in America' Will Receive Its First New York Revival: The New York Times - September 1, 2009; Patrick Healy; Arts Beat - The Culture at Large - As part of its 2010-11 season dedicated to the work of the playwright Tony Kushner, the Signature Theater Company will mount the first New York revival of his Angels in America since the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning work closed on Broadway in 1994, the troupe s artistic dire
Editorial: Hope in South Africa: The New York Times - August 31, 2009; For years, South Africa was an international laughing stock for its tragically absurd approach to the deadly AIDS epidemic. Now, that national nightmare may be ending. The new government of President Jacob Zuma seems to have a clearer-eyed view of the problem, its remedies and the need to improve the overall health car
The Latest Fight Over the Foreskin: The New York Times - August 30, 2009; Roni Caryn Rabin; In the late 19th century, Victorian-era doctors described the male foreskin as a source of serious mischief. Convinced that masturbation led to insanity, and that it was the sensitive, responsive foreskin that stimulated masturbation, surgeons started promoting therapeutic circumcision to cure young men of the sin of
Scientist at Work: Eric Schadt - Enlisting Computers to Unravel the True Complexity of Disease: The New York Times - August 25, 2009; David Ewing Duncan; For over a decade, Eric Schadt has been one of a handful of scientists blending mathematics, biology and supercomputers to pursue a new understanding of human biology, one that suggests the mechanisms of human disease are far more complex than anticipated. The chief scientific officer for Pacific Biosciences in Menlo P
Editorial: The Government and the Web: The New York Times - August 25, 2009; The Obama administration is considering new rules to make it easier for government Web sites to use cookies and other technology to track visitors. There are valid reasons for using such tools, but the government has to build in robust privacy protections. The Clinton administration adopted a rule severely limiting tra
S. Africa Embraces Study Critical of Health Policy: The New York Times - August 25, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG -- Leading South African scientists challenged the governing party on Monday to break with its deeply flawed record on AIDS and public health, spurring the country s new health minister to say that he and his party shared their diagnosis of systemic problems and were determined to repair them. The decision
Officials Weigh Circumcision to Fight H.I.V. Risk: The New York Times - August 23, 2009; Roni Caryn Rabin; Public health officials are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The topic is a delicate one that has already generated controversy, even though a formal draft of the proposed recommendations, due out from the
Robert Hilferty, Writer and AIDS Activist, Is Dead at 49: The New York Times - August 20, 2009; Robert Hilferty, a writer and an AIDS activist who made a documentary film in 1989 that roiled the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and the Public Broadcasting Service, died on July 24 at his home in Manhattan. He was 49. Mr. Hilferty committed suicide while suffering from complications of a head injury he receiv
Global Update - Romania: Supply of AIDS Drugs Running Low Where Epidemic Had Been Controlled: The New York Times - August 18, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Romania , which has been lauded as a poor country that successfully tackled its AIDS epidemic, is facing shortages of antiretroviral drugs because of the global recession, according to local media reports and people working there. AIDS patients have appealed to President Traian Basescu to restore their medications, t
Editorial: Playing a Deadly Game With AIDS: The New York Times - August 5, 2009; Nearly 600,000 Americans with AIDS have died since the beginning of the epidemic. Nearly a third of those cases can be traced to intravenous drug users who became infected with the virus that causes AIDS by sharing contaminated needles and who sometimes infect wives, lovers and unborn children. Many of the dead would n
New Strain of H.I.V. Is Discovered: The New York Times - August 5, 2009; Lawrence K. Altman; European scientists have discovered a new strain of the virus that causes AIDS and linked it to gorillas, creating a mystery about when and how the first patient found to have the strain became infected. It is thought to be likely that this is the first time scientists have documented the jump of a simian immunodeficie
California Budget Trimmed Further: The New York Times - July 29, 2009; Jennifer Steinhauer; LOS ANGELES -- The day a governor signs a budget bill into law usually marks the end of acrimony, threats and political dodge ball. But this is broke, embattled, politically crippled California, and so with the sweep of his pen, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened the door Tuesday for more fights. Seeking to close a fina
Khayelitsha Journal: New Effort to Fight TB in South Africa: The New York Times - July 29, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; KHAYELITSHA, South Africa -- Busisiwe Beko, a gregarious community health worker for Doctors Without Borders, set out on foot into this vast township of 500,000 people to hunt for one particular ailing young woman. Ms. Beko strode along thin dirt paths among densely packed shacks, frequently pausing to ask for directio
Study Finds Chimps Die From Simian AIDS, Dispelling Widely Held Belief: The New York Times - July 23, 2009; Lawrence K. Altman; For the first time, scientists have shown that chimpanzees in the wild become sick and die from the simian version of AIDS. The finding upsets a widely held scientific belief that chimpanzees, the closest relatives to humans, can get the virus that causes simian AIDS but without harm. It also suggests that an outbreak
Global Update - Aids: Role of Gay Men in Spreading Virus Is Ignored in Africa, Study Finds: The New York Times - July 21, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; The role of gay sex in the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS in Africa has been long ignored, say the authors of a new study in the medical journal Lancet. While most transmission of the virus in Africa is heterosexual, 19 recent studies of African men who have sex with men show that they have considerably hig
South Africa Is Seen to Lag in H.I.V. Fight: The New York Times - July 20, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; ORANGE FARM, South Africa -- Young men have flocked by the thousands to this clinic for circumcisions, the only one of its kind in South Africa. Each of them lies down on one of seven closely spaced surgical tables, his privacy shielded only by a green curtain. I ve done 53 in a seven-hour day, me, myself, personally,
Nelson Mandela Endows His Birthday Celebration With a Purpose: The New York Times - July 20, 2009; Jon Pareles; Music Review | Mandela Day Happy 91st, Mr. Mandela, Aretha Franklin announced at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday night, celebrating Nelson Mandela s birthday. She was among the dozens of musicians at Mandela Day, a benefit concert for 46664, Mr. Mandela s organization for AIDS and H.I.V. prevention. It is named for h
Editorial: The Nation's 'Top Doctor': The New York Times - July 15, 2009; President Obama s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, is a woman of astonishing grit, selflessness and competence. If confirmed by the Senate, she would bring a perspective solidly rooted in the difficult reality so many Americans confront as they search for adequate, affordable health care. Dr. Benjam
Global Update - Tuberculosis: TB Vaccine Too Dangerous for Babies With AIDS Virus, Study Says: The New York Times - July 7, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; The vaccine against tuberculosis that is routinely given to 75 percent of the world s infants is too risky to give to those born infected with the AIDS virus, says a new study published by the World Health Organization . It recommended that vaccination be delayed until babies can be tested. The Bacille Calmette-Gue
Indian Court Overturns Gay Sex Ban: The New York Times - July 3, 2009; Heather Timmons And Hari Kumar; NEW DELHI --In a landmark ruling Thursday that could usher in an era of greater freedom for gay men and lesbians in India , New Delhi s highest court decriminalized homosexuality. The inclusiveness that Indian society traditionally displayed, literally in every aspect of life, is manifest in recognizing a role in socie
Focus on Soccer for a New York Film Festival: The New York Times - June 30, 2009; Jack Bell; It is not quite the Tribeca Film Festival and it is certainly not Cannes, but the first film festival in the United States dedicated to soccer movies, the Kicking and Screening International Soccer Film Festival, will unspool at five locations July 14-18 across New York City. Soccer and film are passions -- they crysta
A Misguided 'War on Drugs': The New York Times - June 26, 2009; Manfred Nowak & Anand Grover, Op-Ed Contributors; Anything goes in the war on drugs, or so it seems. Governments around the world have used it as an excuse for unchecked human rights abuse and irrational policies based on knee-jerk reactions rather than scientific evidence. This has caused tremendous human suffering. It also undermines drug control efforts. That human
Death in Birth: Fragile Tanzanian Orphans Get Help After Mothers Die: The New York Times - June 25, 2009; Denise Grady; BEREGA, Tanzania -- The Berega Orphanage, a cluster of neat stucco cottages in this village of red dirt roads and maize plots, is a far cry from what the name suggests. The 20 infants and toddlers here are not put up for adoption, nor kept on indefinitely without hope of ever living with a family. Most of their mot
Global Health: AIDS: Discrimination in Visa Laws Poses Risk to Those With AIDS, Rights Group Says: The New York Times - June 23, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; International migrant workers, foreign students and political refugees are often endangered by laws that discriminate against people with AIDS, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch reported last week. About a third of the world s countries limit the right of people with H.I.V. to enter or stay, even if their disease i
Why the Gay Rights Movement Has No National Leader: The New York Times - June 21, 2009; Jeremy W. Peters; Every so often, the American social order is reshuffled. And that upheaval is typically accompanied by a prominent face. Frederick Douglass became the face of the black abolitionist movement. A century later, Martin Luther King Jr. played that role in the civil rights movement. Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem became t
Shanghai Journal: Gay Festival in China Pushes Official Boundaries: The New York Times - June 15, 2009; Andrew Jacobs; SHANGHAI -- It was shortly after the hot body contest and just before a painted procession of Chinese opera singers took the stage that the police threatened to shut down China s first gay pride festival. The authorities had already forced the cancellation of a play, a film screening and a social mixer, so when an irri
Alan Berkman, 63, Activist Doctor, Dies: The New York Times - June 15, 2009; Dennis Hevesi; Physician, fugitive, federal prisoner, clinician to the homeless, advocate for AIDS patients. epidemiologist: That was the arc of Alan Berkman s career. Dr. Berkman, a Vietnam-era radical who spent eight years in prison for armed robbery and possession of explosives and who later founded Health GAP -- a leader in the c
H.I.V. Found in 22 Actors in Sex Films Since 2004: The New York Times - June 13, 2009; Gardiner Harris; Health officials in Los Angeles said Friday that 22 actors in adult sex movies had contracted H.I.V. since 2004, when a previous outbreak led to efforts to protect pornography industry employees. The officials accused an industry-supported health clinic of failing to cooperate with state investigations and of failing t
Movie Review: Portrait of an Activist: The New York Times - June 12, 2009; Stephen Holden; It is only at the end of Daryl Wein s documentary portrait of the onetime AIDS activist Richard Berkowitz that its agenda as a polemic against societal amnesia becomes apparent. Noting that in recent years H.I.V. infection rates among gay men have begun to climb, this sad, useful film sounds an alarm about the return o
Global Update - Parasites: Giving a Deworming Drug to Girls Could Cut H.I.V. Transmission in Africa: The New York Times - May 26, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Giving an inexpensive deworming drug to millions of girls in rural Africa could substantially reduce transmission of the virus that causes AIDS, researchers say. The drug praziquantel, which costs only 32 cents per child, would prevent schistosomiasis, a worm disease that starts as a urinary tract infection but, untrea
U.N. Health Aid Plan Unites Air Travelers and Bill Clinton: The New York Times - May 21, 2009; Doreen Carvajal; PARIS -- Former President Bill Clinton, newly appointed as the United Nations special envoy for Haiti , said he was joining a new international initiative to raise money for third world medical aid through a unique financing campaign that harnesses the power of unlikely philanthropists: air travelers who buy electronic
Witch Hunts and Foul Potions Heighten Fear of Leader in Gambia: The New York Times - May 21, 2009; Adam Nossiter; JAMBUR, Gambia -- This tiny West African nation s citizens have grown familiar with the unpredictable exploits of its absolute ruler, who insists on being called His Excellency President Professor Dr. Al-Haji Yahya Jammeh: his herbs-and-banana cure for AIDS, his threat to behead gays, his mandate that only he can drive
Global Update - AIDS: Questions Help Find AIDS Patients Who Are Vulnerable to Drug Resistance: The New York Times - May 19, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; In Africa, AIDS patients rarely get viral load testing to see whether they are developing dangerous resistance to their first-line drugs. The testing, routine in wealthy countries, is just too expensive and complex. Scientists from Makerere University s hospital in Kampala, Uganda , along with American and Belgian sc
Rodger McFarlane, Who Led AIDS-Related Groups, Dies at 54: The New York Times - May 19, 2009; Dennis Hevesi; Rodger McFarlane, a leader in the gay rights movement during the early days of the AIDS epidemic and the first executive director of the Gay Men s Health Crisis, died Friday in Truth or Consequences, N.M. He was 54 and lived in Denver. He committed suicide, Mr. McFarlane s brother John confirmed. In a letter that he le
Letter to the Editor: The Global Fight Against AIDS: The New York Times - May 18, 2009; To the Editor: Re Obama Seeks a Global Health Plan Broader Than Bush s AIDS Effort (news article, May 6): The details of President Obama s new global health initiative have left many concerned that the financing described does not reflect the commitment required to lead the United States efforts in the global fight aga
Tulane Doctor Is Expected to Lead Health Dept.: The New York Times - May 17, 2009; David W. Chen; An infectious-disease specialist and a longtime advocate of using government to promote healthier behavior is expected to be named New York s health commissioner by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Monday, according to people who have been briefed on the matter. Dr. Thomas A. Farley of the Tulane School of Public Health a
New York City Official Is Obama Pick for C.D.C.: The New York Times - May 15, 2009; Gardiner Harris And Anemona Hartocollis; WASHINGTON -- President Obama will announce on Friday that he has chosen Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the New York City health commissioner, as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, administration officials said Thursday. Dr. Frieden, a 48-year-old infectious disease specialist, has cut a high
In Moscow, an Attempt to Wed Pushes Gay Rights: The New York Times - May 13, 2009; Michael Schwirtz; MOSCOW -- They knew they had no chance. But there they were anyway at a marriage registration office in Moscow on Tuesday. Two young women, wearing tuxedos and clutching bouquets, trying to become the first same-sex couple in Russia to legally wed. We have love, we have happiness, we want to be together for our whole l
Campaign Spotlight: Fighting AIDS, Peer to Peer: The New York Times - May 11, 2009; Stuart Elliott; By now, the concept of consumer-generated content, also known as user-generated content, has become familiar to the denizens of Madison Avenue. Asking the people who are meant to buy a product to produce ads for that product makes sense on many levels, even if opening the creative process to outsiders may bruise a frag
Obama Seeks a Global Health Plan Broader Than Bush's AIDS Effort: The New York Times - May 6, 2009; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; WASHINGTON -- President Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to spend $63 billion over the next six years on a new, broader global health strategy that would reshape one of the signature foreign policy efforts of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Mr. Bush made combating global AIDS a centerpiece of his foreign agenda. The pr
Report Says Bank's AIDS Efforts Are Failing: The New York Times - May 1, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG - A vast majority of the World Bank s projects to combat AIDS failed to perform satisfactorily over the past decade, with the ones in Africa, the region at the epicenter of the pandemic, registering the worst record, according to a new internal evaluation. Seven of 10 AIDS projects that the bank financed a
Tests for New H.I.V. Infection Not Widely Adopted: The New York Times - May 1, 2009; David Tuller; In December 2008, after a weekend of sex fueled by methamphetamine, Chris, a San Francisco man in his early 30s, sought out testing for sexually transmitted diseases at Magnet, a clinic serving homosexual men in the city s Castro neighborhood. Staff members tested him for H.I.V. twice: first with a standard rapid test,
Updates on Flu Spotlight New York's Health Chief: The New York Times - April 30, 2009; Anemona Hartocollis; In 1984, a young medical student named Tom Frieden wrote a letter to the editor complaining that as long as specialty training was more prestigious than primary medicine, and as long as medical school exams -- like one he had encountered -- referred to Appalachians as filthy hillbillies, the country s medical system wo
In Treating H.I.V. Infection, Sooner Is Better, Study Finds: The New York Times - April 30, 2009; Roni Caryn Rabin; Powerful drugs are available to treat H.I.V., but doctors have long argued about when to start therapy. Is it better to treat patients early, exposing them to risky side effects, or to wait until the disease is more advanced? A new analysis suggests that sooner is better than later. The study, which is not the final wo
Obama Picks Leader for Global AIDS Effort: The New York Times - April 28, 2009; Neil Macfarquhar; Dr. Eric Goosby, a pioneer in the fight against AIDS, is President Obama s choice to run the American effort to combat the disease globally, the White House announced Monday. The President s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, known as Pepfar, was championed by President George W. Bush. It is expected to spend $48 billion
Editorial: A Real Problem, Here: The New York Times - April 20, 2009; The AIDS epidemic is spreading faster than previously thought, even as the American public s concern about it declines. That dangerous disconnect underscores the urgency of a new campaign announced by the Obama administration to combat complacency about the disease and its potential to strike the unwary. The Centers fo
Glaxo and Pfizer Join Forces to Develop and Market H.I.V. Drugs: The New York Times - April 17, 2009; Natasha Singer; Hoping to challenge Gilead Sciences , the leader in H.I.V. drugs, the pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer said Thursday that they would form a specialty company(see: http://www.hivfutures.com/) to research, develop and market treatments for H.I.V.
Global Update: AIDS: Earlier Drug Treatment for AIDS Saves More Lives, Study Finds: The New York Times - April 14, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Researchers have identified a new benchmark for starting drug treatment for AIDS, according to a report published online last week in the journal Lancet. The question of when to start therapy has been a swinging pendulum, notes an editorial accompanying the study. The marker in question is the CD4 count, which represen
Editorial: Addiction Behind Bars: The New York Times - April 13, 2009; The United States must do more to curb the spread of diseases like AIDS and hepatitis C in prison, where infection rates are high and inmates can easily spread disease through unprotected sex or by sharing needles. Drug treatment in prison is clearly part of the solution. But by some estimates, fewer than one in five i
On the White House: With a Reunion Planned, Bush Eases Back Into the Public Eye: The New York Times - April 11, 2009; Peter Baker; WASHINGTON -- Condoleezza Rice will be there. So will Karen Hughes and Dan Bartlett and Michael Gerson. And George W. Bush himself. The old gang is getting back together next week in Dallas for a reunion of sorts, the Bush team s first since leaving the White House. On tap is a dinner with the former president and a da
Global Update - Aids Relief: U.S. Initiative Is Found to Reduce Deaths From AIDS, but Not New Cases, in Africa: The New York Times - April 7, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; The President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the $15 billion program begun by the Bush administration in 2003, cut the AIDS death toll in its African target countries by more than 10 percent, but did not prevent new cases, according to a new study. The assessment of the plan, by two Stanford University School of Med
Scratching Relieves Itch by Quieting Nerve Cells: The New York Times - April 7, 2009; Benedict Carey; As common as it is, scratching to relieve an itch has long been considered a biological mystery: Are cells at the surface of the skin somehow fatigued, in need of outside stimulation? Or is the impulse, and its relief, centered in the brain? Perhaps neither one, a new study suggests. Neuroscientists at the University o
China Reports Hepatitis Infections From Hospital: The New York Times - April 2, 2009; Sharon Lafraniere; BEIJING -- At least 64 people have been infected with hepatitis C after receiving transfusions of tainted blood at a county hospital in southern China , a hospital official said Wednesday. The authorities at the Guizhou Province hospital traced the infections to contaminated blood from a single donor who had sold blood
Messages With a Mission, Embedded in TV Shows: The New York Times - April 2, 2009; Tim Arango And Brian Stelter; The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently spent $2 million to expand Internet access in Latvian libraries, $90 million to help African cocoa and cashew farmers and $11 million for further research in the Philippines to help produce higher-yielding rice crops. And foundation money was used for another cause: it hel
Dying, and Alone, in Myanmar: The New York Times - April 1, 2009; Seth Mydans; The most heartbreaking moment for doctors and nurses treating people with H.I.V./AIDS in Myanmar is the arrival of a new patient. Running short of funds and medications, clinics have started turning dying people away. They continue to knock on our doors, even though we can t take in most of them, said Joe Belliveau, o
Global Update - Tuberculosis: Infection With AIDS Sharply Raises Risk of Developing TB, Report Says: The New York Times - March 31, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; One-quarter of all deaths from tuberculosis are in patients also infected with the AIDS virus, twice as many as previously thought, the World Health Organization said last week. In its annual Global TB Control report, the organization said that being infected with the virus can increase the risk of developing tuberculo
Florida Veterans Stream for Testing After H.I.V. Warning: The New York Times - March 26, 2009; Damien Cave; MIAMI -- Hundreds of veterans, some in fatigues, others in wheelchairs, streamed into the Miami Veterans Hospital on Wednesday to be tested for H.I.V. and hepatitis after officials there announced that improperly cleaned colonoscopy equipment might have exposed them to infection. More than 3,200 veterans who had the pr
Editorial: Relief for Patients: The New York Times - March 26, 2009; Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that the federal government will no longer prosecute dispensers of medical marijuana if they comply with state law. That should bring relief to people who need marijuana for health reasons and free up law enforcement resources for more important work. There is considerab
AIDS Agency Takes Issue With the Pope: The New York Times - March 20, 2009; Neil Macfarquhar; The United Nations AIDS agency has joined the chorus of politicians and activists critical of Pope Benedict XVI for saying as he embarked on a tour of Africa this week that condoms increase the problem of the disease. With more than 7,400 new infections of H.I.V., which causes AIDS, reported daily, condoms are an essen
Editorial: The Pope on Condoms and AIDS: The New York Times - March 18, 2009; Pope Benedict XVI has every right to express his opposition to the use of condoms on moral grounds, in accordance with the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church. But he deserves no credence when he distorts scientific findings about the value of condoms in slowing the spread of the AIDS virus. As reported on Tue
On Africa Trip, Pope Will Find Place Where Church Is Surging Amid Travail: The New York Times - March 16, 2009; Rachel Donadio; VATICAN CITY -- When Pope Benedict XVI embarks on his first trip to Africa as pontiff on Tuesday, traveling to Cameroon and Angola , he will be visiting the future of the Roman Catholic Church, if not its present. With one of the world s largest Catholic populations, estimated at 158 million, Africa is the continent wh
The Dearth of Black and Hispanic Dolls: The New York Times - City Room, Blogging From the Five Boroughs - March 11, 2009; Posted by Jennifer 8. Lee; Krishna Stone Organizers struggled to assemble a diverse collection of dolls for a demonstration on women and H.I.V. at City Hall on Tuesday. More than 150 dolls were placed on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday, each with a little tag bearing some depressing statistic about women s health, such as the AIDS rate. The do
The Baffling World of Visa Restrictions: The New York Times - March 8, 2009; Michelle Higgins; LATE last month, the United Arab Emirates denied a visa to the Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer to play in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Then, just days later and after harsh criticism by the tennis world, the Emirates turned around and issued a visa for another Israeli tennis player, Andy Ram, to play the
City Says New Yorkers Are Healthier: The New York Times - March 5, 2009; Anemona Hartocollis; The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene gave itself a checkup and the prognosis was relentlessly upbeat. There are fewer smokers now than in 2002, when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his health commissioner took office, and during their tenure there have been fewer deaths from H.I.V., alcohol and drug
Global Update: New Web Site Seeks to Fight Myths About Circumcision and H.I.V.: The New York Times - March 3, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Two years ago, after three African studies showed that being circumcised could give men a 60 percent lower risk of getting the AIDS virus, the World Health Organization recommended male circumcision to prevent AIDS. Since then, as different poor countries struggled to create national circumcision policies, much misinfo
Britain: Report on Infected Blood Sidesteps Blame: The New York Times - February 24, 2009; John F. Burns; A long-awaited report on Monday described the use of contaminated blood products in Britain s National Health Service in the 1970s and 80s, infecting thousands of hemophiliacs with H.I.V., hepatitis and other conditions, as a horrific human tragedy and the worst treatment disaster in the 60-year history of the publicly
Tamer 'Rent' Is Too Wild for Some Schools: The New York Times - February 19, 2009; Patrick Healy; NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Theater directors and students at more than 40 high schools across the country have selected a new show for their big springtime musical this year: Rent: School Edition, a modified version of the hit Broadway musical that, while toned down a bit, remains provocative by traditional drama club st
Global Update: Study Shows Signs of Slow Progress in the Search for an H.I.V. Microbicide: The New York Times - February 17, 2009; Donald G. Mcneil Jr.; Finding a microbicide is one of the thorniest problems in AIDS research. Women in poor countries need a vaginal gel that blocks the AIDS virus but not sperm because many still want children. They also need one that can be inserted secretly: for too many women, any action that implies that a partner is infected is likel
Legal Dispute Hinges on Whether Alomar Has H.I.V.: The New York Times - February 12, 2009; Joshua Robinson and Jack Curry; A lawyer for the former major leaguer Roberto Alomar on Wednesday dismissed the merits of a lawsuit by Alomar s former girlfriend, who said that Alomar continued to have unprotected sex with her despite being infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Ilya Dall, 31, of Queens is demanding $15 million in punitive damages
City Unveils Facebook Page to Encourage Condom Use: The New York Times - February 12, 2009; Sewell Chan; In a world filled with e-mail, e-cards and e-commerce, perhaps it was no surprise that the e-condom was next. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which introduced the city s official condom on Valentine s Day two years ago, has introduced a Facebook page and Facebook application to promote the us
Young Black Men Unaware of H.I.V. Risks, Survey Finds: The New York Times - February 10, 2009; Roni Caryn Rabin; A small survey of young black men from the South who tested positive for H.I.V. in their teens and early 20s found that most had engaged in risky sexual behaviors but thought it unlikely they would be infected, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than half of the 29 gay or bisexual
Transfer of Mother's Cells Molds Baby's Immunity: The New York Times - February 3, 2009; Amanda Schaffer; Researchers have long wondered how pregnant women might shape their fetuses development -- by protecting them against later disease, perhaps, or instilling an appreciation of Mozart. Now a group in California has discovered a surprising new mechanism by which women train their fetuses budding immune systems: the mother
After Departure, No Leader for U.S. AIDS Program: The New York Times - January 31, 2009; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; The abrupt departure of the State Department s global AIDS coordinator has led to debate over who should run what may be President Bush s most important achievement: his commitment of billions of dollars to fighting AIDS overseas. The position - global AIDS coordinator and director of the President s Emergency Plan for
Editorial: Time Lag in Vienna?: The New York Times - January 30, 2009; Programs that give drug addicts access to clean needles have been shown the world over to slow the spread of deadly diseases including H.I.V./AIDS and hepatitis. Public health experts were relieved when President Obama announced his support for ending a ban on federal funding for such programs. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama
AIDS Group Opposes Frieden for C.D.C.: The New York Times Blog - January 28, 2009; Posted By Sewell Chan; Responding to a report in The Wall Street Journal that Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City s health commissioner, is being considered for a possible appointment as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Housing Works, a leading organization for people with H.I.V. and AIDS, on Wednesday urged the O
Study Refutes Claims on AIDS Drug Trials: The New York Times - January 27, 2009; Lisa W. Foderaro; An investigation into the participation of New York City foster children in clinical drug trials for H.I.V. and AIDS over a nearly 20-year period has found no evidence that any children died as a result of the trials or that the foster children were selected because of their race. In the late 1980s, as the AIDS epidemi
Martin Delaney, 63, AIDS Activist, Dies: The New York Times - January 26, 2009; Dennis Hevesi; Martin Delaney, a prominent advocate for AIDS patients who challenged the government and drug companies to expedite access to experimental treatments in the early days of the epidemic, died Friday at his home in San Rafael, Calif. He was 63. Martin Delaney in 1997 at the organization he helped to create. The cause was
OPINION: Bill Gates' next big thing: The New York Times - January 25, 2009; Nicholas D. Kristof; SEATTLE: Here s a paradox: In these brutal economic times, one of the leading advocates for the world s poorest people is one of the richest. Bill Gates will publish his first annual letter on Monday outlining his work on his twin passions - health and development in the poorest nations and education in America - and c
Top South African judge living with AIDS: The New York Times - January 25, 2009; Celia W. Dugger; JOHANNESBURG: Edwin Cameron, appointed a High Court judge by Nelson Mandela soon after apartheid ended in 1994, pulled to the side of the road, leaned his head on the steering wheel and was overcome by deep, shattering sobs, he recently recalled. It was 1999 and he had just decided to publicly disclose he was HIV-posit
Editorial: Women's Health, Ungagged: The New York Times - January 23, 2009; President Obama on Friday began dismantling his predecessor s broad and damaging assault on women s reproductive health and freedom. He lifted the odious gag rule that President George W. Bush imposed on international family planning groups and began trying to restore financing to the United Nations Population Fund.
A Soap Opera's Sex Is All for a Good Cause: The New York Times - January 23, 2009; Jennifer V. Hughes; JERSEY CITY THE scene was set and the film crew was rolling. The actress playing Valerie was calling around, trying to find friends to go bar-hopping. She would end up in the arms of another woman s man, become pregnant and become infected with a sexually transmitted disease. But the soap-opera style film shot this mon
After Hookups, E-Cards That Warn, 'Get Checked': The New York Times - January 19, 2009; David Tuller; SAN FRANCISCO - Steve, a health care worker in his 30s, had been told more than once that he had been exposed to a sexually transmitted infection. So when it happened again, he was not upset - even though this time he learned about it through an anonymous online postcard, e-mailed by a man with whom he had had sex. W
Where AIDS Efforts Are Often Praised, Prison for Counselors Is a Surprise: The New York Times - January 19, 2009; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Human rights organizations, health groups and some foreign governments have united in condemning Senegal for imprisoning nine local AIDS activists. The men were arrested Dec. 19, tried in two weeks and sentenced to eight years in prison for unnatural acts and belonging to a criminal association. Their group, AIDES Sen
Iran Says It Jailed 2 Prominent Doctors: The New York Times - January 19, 2009; NAZILA FATHI; TEHRAN - An Iranian intelligence official said Monday that two prominent doctors jailed since June were among four men sent to prison on charges of plotting against the Iranian government with the suspected backing of the United States , the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. Fars quoted the unidentified official
The Longest Mahler, Played With Urgency: The New York Times - January 17, 2009; Steve Smith; The scattered pop of flashbulbs was the clearest sign that the concert presented at Carnegie Hall on Monday night was no everyday occurrence. The event, Mahler for the Children of AIDS, was a fund-raiser for pediatric AIDS relief work done by the Catholic Medical Mission Board in Africa. On the program was a single pie
Along With a New Play, a Symposium on AIDS: The New York Times - January 16, 2009; Jan Ellen Spiegel; THE world premiere of a new work by the South African playwright Athol Fugard is a standout event for any theater. For a regional theater - even a much-heralded one like Long Wharf in New Haven, where Mr. Fugard s new play, Coming Home, opened last week - it is huge. As if that were not event enough, the play - about a
Vans Take H.I.V. Tests to Neighborhood Spots: The New York Times - January 8, 2009; Abby Gruen; DR. JOSHUA LIPSMAN, Westchester County s health commissioner, has taken the H.I.V. test. He tells his friends and family to take the test, and he wants you to take it too. He is on a mission because Westchester has the highest number of H.I.V. infections in the state outside New York City. We think that about 3,000 to
Flu Found Resistant to Main Antiviral Drug: The New York Times - January 8, 2009; Donald G. McNeil Jr.; Virtually all the flu in the United States this season is resistant to the leading antiviral drug Tamiflu, and scientists and health officials are trying to figure out why. The problem is not yet a public health crisis because this is a below-average flu season so far and the chief strain circulating is still susceptib
Editorial: America's Colonial Capital: The New York Times - January 6, 2009; Like millions of other people around the world, the citizens of Washington are eagerly awaiting President-elect Barack Obama s inauguration ceremony later this month. The ceremony carries extra meaning in the nation s capital, where voters are counting on Mr. Obama to end the humiliating second-class citizenship that C
Study Links Binge Drinking and Sexual Risk for Gays: The New York Times - January 5, 2009; Sewell Chan; Nearly one-quarter of men who have sex with men in New York City said they engaged in binge drinking, compared to a citywide rate of 15 percent for all adults, according to a study released on Monday by the city s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The study [pdf] also found that binge drinking may be responsible
Hospitals Picked to Offer Patients Free H.I.V. Tests: The New York Times - January 2, 2009; Tracy Gordon Fox; It didn t surprise Dr. Joseph U. Becker, chief resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital s emergency department, when the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that some 1.1 million people nationwide are living with H.I.V. What did surprise Dr. Becker is that the report also said one-quarter of them did

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