1996

Nicaragua braces for AIDS boom
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday, 30 December 1996.
David Koop
MANAGUA (Reuter) - Nicaragua has one of the lowest AIDS rates in Latin America, a product of its political isolation for most of the 1980s, but AIDS activists warn this may be changing in the free-wheeling 1990s. Booming prostitution, an ingrained culture of machismo and widespread ignorance about the disease make Nica


Agouron says JT is partner in HIV research
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday December 23 6:59 PM EST
TOKYO, Dec 24 (Reuter) - Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Japan Tobacco Inc 2914.T said that the anti-HIV drug for which Agouron had submitted a new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was being jointly developed by the two companies. U.S. pharmaceutical maker Agouron said on Monday that it had


Shalala Praises Time's Man of the Year
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday December 23 7:50 AM EST
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala praised Time Magazine s selection of AIDS researcher David Ho as its Man of the Year and said his findings represented a brilliant breakthrough. Shalala, speaking on CNN s Late Edition with Frank Sesno, said Ho s research did not constitute a cure,


AIDS Researcher is Time's "Man of the Year"
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Saturday, December 21, 1996 13:34:00 PM
NEW YORK (Reuter) - Time Magazine named Dr. David Ho, a leading AIDS researcher, as its Man of the Year on Saturday. Ho, the scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center which has been in the vanguard of the battle against AIDS in the medical community, pioneered the use of drug cocktails to combat HIV


HIV Drugs Voted Top Science Story
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Friday December 20 1:20 PM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The top choice for Breakthrough of the Year is the arsenal of new weapons against HIV, according to the editors of the journal Science. What swayed the editors were new drugs and basic research advances in the fight against AIDS, including the discovery that natural molecules in the immune system


Ontario drug plan covers Bristol-Myers( Bristol-Myers Squibb Co )Zerit
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday December 19 11:56 AM EST
MONTREAL, Dec 19 (Reuter) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said on Thursday that its anti-AIDS drug Zerit will be covered by the Ontario government s Drug Benefit Program for Canadian residents of the province. We are pleased that Ontario s formulary has taken the action necessary to ensure that Zerit is available to


Clinton Calls AIDS Report 'Milestone'
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday December 17, 1996.
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton Tuesday accepted a national AIDS strategy report laying out six goals to combat the epidemic, praising it as a milestone in the struggle against the disease. Clinton took delivery of the report, prepared by the Office of National AIDS Policy, in a low-key White House ceremony fro


U.S. AIDS Panel Draws Up National Strategy
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday, December 16, 1996 11:35:00 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A comprehensive national AIDS strategy calling for more research and a renewed effort to control the epidemic was endorsed and sent to President Clinton by a special advisory group Monday. The report sets six goals -- the top one being to cure AIDS and develop a vaccine. Others are to reduce and e


White House to Announce National AIDS Strategy
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Sunday, December 15, 1996 19:40:00 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The White House will unveil its first-ever national AIDS strategy this week, a spokeswoman said, charting efforts against an epidemic that has killed 343,000 people in the United States . In an accompanying statement, President Clinton describes the report as a historic document that articulates o


Paracelsian( Paracelsian Inc ) AndroVir cut HIV load in trial
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday December 12 11:10 AM EST
ITHACA, N.Y., Dec 12 (Reuter) - Paracelsian Inc said Thursday that preliminary results showed the HIV viral load fell in 13 HIV-positive people who completed a clinical safety trial of AndroVir. Paracelsian is seeking to market AndroVir, a herb-based product, as a dietary supplement for HIV-positive people. The company


Nobel Laureate to Steer AIDS Vaccine Research
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 12 December 1996, 13:52 P.M.
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A Nobel Prize-winning scientist was named Thursday to step in and try to reinvigorate the search for an AIDS vaccine at the National Institutes of Health. Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist David Baltimore will try to jump-start the frustrating search for a vaccine, which most scienti


Patient Factors Influence HIV
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday December 11 6:10 PM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- With our ever-increasing knowledge of AIDS, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: the course of the illness may depend as much on factors inside an HIV-infected person, as on the virus itself. According to a report in this week s issue of the journal Nature, everything from production of cell-


Police arrest 26 in protests against health-aid HMOs
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday, 10 December 1996.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Police Tuesday arrested 26 AIDS activists demonstrating against a Pennsylvania program that would require medical-assistance recipients to enroll in a state-run managed care health plan. The arrests took place as 300 people demonstrated outside offices of the federal Health Care Financing Admin


More bad news on AIDS vaccine attempts
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 5 December 1996.
LONDON (Reuter) - Researchers seeking a vaccine against the HIV virus that causes AIDS reported more bad news Friday -- the latest effort, like several before it, does not work. But a fellow AIDS researcher said the failure did not mean they should give up. On the contrary, the failures were helping them home in on an


Controversy fades over Missouri AIDS drug lottery
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 5 December 1996.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuter) - Missouri s decision to hold an AIDS lottery under which winners receive enough money to pay for a year s worth of drugs lost some of its sting when fewer people than expected took the state up on its offer. By late Tuesday, only 83 patients had applied for the 132 winning spaces in the lotte


HIV Status Not Tied To Suicide
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 5 December 1996.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- People who test positive for the virus that causes AIDS are not necessarily at greater risk for suicide, a new study shows. The findings reported in this week s issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association were based on a survey of 4,147 military service applicants who tested positive


Chiron Corp sees growth in viral load tests
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 4 December 1996.
NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuter) - Chiron Corp said on Wednesday that sales of its tests for detecting levels of virus in patients blood are showing strong growth. This business is literally exploding at this point in time, Edward Penhoet, Chiron s chief executive, told a Robertson Stephens Medical Conference. He said end-user


Talk show host says machismo doesn't stop AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday, 3 December 1996.
Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuter) - A popular Spanish-language talk show host told the United Nations Monday that Latin American men denied AIDS existed and hid behind a machismo tradition that ignored sexual realities. I am the lady who fights AIDS in Spanish, said Christina Saralegui, whose U.S.-based television show is broadc


Millions Gather to Mark World AIDS Day
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Sunday, 1 December 1996, 07:32 P.M.
LONDON (Reuter) - Millions of people around the globe gathered to mark World AIDS Day Sunday in moving ceremonies remembering those struck down by one of the greatest killers of the 20th century. From Bangladesh to Britain and South Africa to San Francisco AIDS sufferers, health officials, civic and church leaders a


UPDATE: Elizabeth Taylor Presses For AIDS Vaccine Research (updates with Taylor's speech at U.N. General Assembly)
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday December 2 6:22 PM EST
Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuter) - Actress Elizabeth Taylor called Monday for continued research to develop an HIV vaccine, saying the AIDS epidemic would never end as long as good health care remains a privilege of the rich. Addressing a World Aids Day conference at the United Nations, Taylor said a safe, effective and inexpen


Republicans Slam State Marijuana Measures
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday, 2 December 1996, 15:56 P.M.
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Republican senators Monday suggested stepping up enforcement of federal anti-drug laws to blunt the effect of recently passed ballot measures legalizing medical use of marijuana in Arizona and California. Charging that Arizona voters had been hoodwinked into supporting the measure by deceptive adv


India AIDS Situation Seen Out of Control
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Sunday, 1 December 1996,
BOMBAY (Reuter) - The AIDS situation in India may spin out of control in the next few years, medical authorities and volunteers fighting the virus said on Sunday. India has about five million HIV cases right now, said I.H. Gilada, secretary-general of the Indian Health Organization, a voluntary organization working aga


Gay Group Gives Failing AIDS Grade to Shalala
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Sunday, 1 December 1996, 11:27 P.M.
NEW YORK (Reuter) - Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and New York Gov. George Pataki were given failing grades for their response to the AIDS epidemic in a report card issued Sunday by a major gay legal group. In a statement to mark World AIDS Day, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Defen


Asia Marks World AIDS Day But Taboos Remain
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Sunday, 1 December 1996,
HONG KONG (Reuter) - Asians marked World AIDS Day on Sunday with calls to halt the spread of the epidemic, but experts warned that a lack of education and sexual taboos ensure the killer disease will continue to run rampant in the region. Two, 18-meter high red ribbons, the symbol of international AIDS awareness, adorn


World AIDS Day On Dec. 1
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Friday 26 November 1996 2:43 PM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- One World, One Hope, is the theme designated by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS ) for this year s World AIDS Day on Sunday, December 1. Officials with the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say 190 countries will observe the day. Activities are pla


Female Condoms Can Fight AIDS Epidemic, UN Says
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 28 November 1996 1:41 PM EST
LONDON (Reuter) - The United Nations joined forces with a contraceptive manufacturer Thursday to market a female condom in a bid to fight the still-growing AIDS epidemic. UNAIDS , the UN joint agency on the deadly HIV infection, said female condoms were an important new weapon against infection. Making the female


How HIV Affects Immune Cells
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 28 November 1996, 5:24 PM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- New information found in the blood cells of HIV-infected people may force scientists to reconsider some of the basic facts about how the virus affects the immune system, researchers report in Friday s issue of Science. It has been shown over the past few years that HIV infection targets certain cr


AIDS Still Explosive Epidemic, UN Says
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 28 November 1996.
LONDON (Reuter) - New drugs may offer hope to AIDS victims but the HIV epidemic is still exploding among women and children and gaining momentum in eastern Europe and Asia, the United Nations said Thursday. One and a half million people have died of AIDS this year, 350,000 of them children. About 42 percent of those in


AZT Urged for AIDS-Infected Mothers' Newborns
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 27 November 1996 16:32 P.M.
BOSTON (Reuter) - AZT drug treatments can limit the spread of the AIDS virus from a mother to her newborn baby but the reason it works remains unclear, according to a study in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine. The study led a team of doctors to recommend AZT treatment for any pregnant woman with the AIDS viru


AZT Reduces Maternal Transmission Of HIV
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 27 November 1996 6:20 PM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- If current public health recommendations to give AZT to all pregnant women infected with HIV are followed, fewer babies will contract the virus during pregnancy or labor and delivery, government researchers reported Wednesday. Although women with little or no detectable HIV in their blood have be


Clinton Urges Clergy to Talk About AIDS, Drugs
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday November 27 7:05 AM EST
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton urged religious leaders to commemorate World AIDS Day Sunday by reminding young people in their congregations that illegal drug use puts them at risk of contracting the HIV virus. In an appeal to thousands of religious leaders, Clinton said World AIDS Day provided an opportunity


Clinton Seeks to "Work Together" with Asia
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday, November 26, 1996 04:07:00 PM
BANGKOK (Reuter) - U.S. President Bill Clinton, wrapping up a visit to the Asia-Pacific, stressed Tuesday Washington s commitment to the region and said all nations must work together to deal with such common threats as illegal drugs and AIDS. In a speech summarizing a lengthy trip that included stops in


Teen Virgins Still Sexually Active
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Friday, 22 November 1996.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Teenagers who are virgins may still engage in behavior that puts them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases, a new survey suggests. While 42% of boys and 53% of girls in grades 9 through 12 are virgins, about 30% of those who had never had intercourse reported some sexual behavior in the previ


Fewer Infected Mothers Give Their Babies AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, November 21, 1996
ATLANTA (Reuter) - The number of newborn infants who contracted AIDS from their mothers declined 27 percent between 1992 and 1995, U.S. health officials said on Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the change came because more pregnant women were tested for HIV and, if the test was positi


Study shows high AIDS infection rate in Miami
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 20 November 1996.
Patricia Zengerle
MIAMI (Reuter) - Education about the risks of AIDS has not led to a decrease in the infection rate among some groups of gay men, posing real challenges for public health workers battling the disease, researchers said Wednesday. William Darrow, a professor at Florida International University in Miami who was a pioneer A


Stepped Up STD Prevention Halts HIV
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 20 November 1996.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A collaborative effort between the government, community and religious groups, as well as private organizations, doctors and families is needed to stop sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). These infections -- not including HIV -- cost taxpayers $10 billion a year, according to a report released W


AIDS hope does not mean cure imminent
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday, 19 November 1996.
Maggie Fox
LONDON (Reuter) - It has never looked so good for AIDS patients. New drugs, and new combinations of drugs, are flattening the HIV virus and improved tests make it possible to track the disease better than ever before. Better treatment is translating directly into empty hospital beds. The opportunistic infections that c


AIDS rate on increase in cities, study shows
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday, 18 November 1996.
LONDON (Reuter) - British emergency room doctors said Tuesday they were alarmed by a large increase in the number of patients turning up who had unreported HIV infection. Dr. Mark Poznansky and colleagues at St. Mary s Hospital in London said up to 75 percent of HIV-positive patients arriving for emergency treatment di


Researchers target how AIDS virus infects cells
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 14 November 1996.
LONDON (Reuter) - Two teams of U.S. researchers said Wednesday they had found another clue on how the HIV virus tricks a body s immune system cells into opening themselves up to infection. It uses one receptor on the cell as a sort of handle to attach itself. This then reveals a second handle that lets it take a firm h


U.S. sees priority in AIDS vaccine research
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday, 12 November 1996.
Grant McCool
NEW YORK (Reuter) - The Clinton Administration is committed to progress in combatting the AIDS epidemic and has made research to develop an AIDS vaccine a priority, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala said Monday. Shalala told reporters at the dedication of new AIDS research laboratories in New York --


Asia to see most new AIDS cases by 2000-WHO
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 6 November 1996.
Tom Wright
JAKARTA, Nov 7 (Reuter) - More new cases of HIV infection would occur in Asia than anywhere else in the world by the turn of the century, pushing up the cost of health care in the region, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Thursday. The global AIDS epidemic is now spreading in Asia faster than anywhere


Brazil's Indians under threat from AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 6 November 1996.
Michael Christie
BRASILIA (Reuter) - The Brazilian government is increasingly concerned about the threat of HIV infection to Indians and plans to launch an AIDS awareness campaign among indigenous tribes in coming weeks, officials said Tuesday. They said fears that AIDS could decimate Indian populations, as syphilis did in the last cen


Indonesia against condoms to stem AIDS - minister
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 6 November 1996
JAKARTA, Nov 6 (Reuter) - Indonesia will not promote the use of condoms to prevent the spread of the killer HIV virus as it is not culturally suitable, the official Antara news agency on Wednesday quoted Health Minister Suyudi as saying. The most suitable method for us is counselling and not distributing condoms, Suyu


Activists: AIDS Drugs Have Dramatic Effects
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, October 31, 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - AIDS activists said they would present dramatic evidence next week showing that HIV patients who got treatment with several newly approved drugs were much less likely to become seriously ill or die. The AIDS Treatment Project and the European AIDS Treatment Group said they had compiled research showin


Chemical Boosts Immune System in AIDS Patients
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, October 30, 1996
BOSTON (Reuter) - Periodic injections of the chemical interleukin-2 raises the number of crucial infection-fighting white blood cells in people with the AIDS virus, a team of doctors has found. The gradual disappearance of the cells, also known as CD4 cells, is an indicator that cancer or a life-threatening infection i


Clinton, Three Ex-Presidents Oppose Pot Measure
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, October 30, 1996
LOS ANGELES (Reuter) - President Clinton and three former U.S. presidents are taking a stand against a California proposal that would legalize marijuana use by the sick, opponents of the measure say. A group fighting the California proposal said President Clinton s drug policy chief, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, annou


Up to 31,000 Indonesians die yearly of AIDS-report
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday, 29 October 1996.
JAKARTA, Oct 29 (Reuter) - As many as 31,000 people die each year in Indonesia from the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the Jakarta Post on Tuesday quoted a research report as saying. The research figure was nearly 500 times that estimated by the government. The report by the University of Indonesia s Centr


Clinton Drug Chief Denounces Marijuana Referendum
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday, October 29, 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton s drug policy chief says the federal government would prosecute doctors who prescribed marijuana if California voters approved a measure making the drug legal for medical purposes. A physician who tries to prescribe a Schedule One drug, with or without this referendum, is subject


CDC issues warning about anti-AIDS drugs "cocktail"
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Friday, 25 October 1996
David Morgan
ATLANTA (Reuter) - Protease inhibitors, used in a new cocktail of anti-AIDS drugs, prove ineffective when administered alongside a widely used medicine for AIDS-related tuberculosis, federal health officials warned Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), seeking to lead doctors through the


Drug firms may pay $650 million in hemophilia pact
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Friday, 25 October 1996
Richard Jacobsen
NEW YORK (Reuter) - Four international drug companies said Thursday they could pay $650 million to hemophiliacs and their families opting for a settlement to resolve lawsuits over HIV-tainted blood clotting products sold in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A total of 6,900 U.S. hemophiliacs opted for the settlement, of


Drug may thwart Kaposi's sarcoma in AIDS patients
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 24 October 1996.
Gene Emery, Reuter
BOSTON (Reuter) - Injections of a hormone normally produced early in pregnancy can shrink skin tumors of Kaposi s sarcoma, the most common form of cancer among AIDS patients. In preliminary tests of 36 people, doctors injected human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) into discolored skin lesions and found the chemical was ab


Japan TV says HIV-positive candidate wins seat
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday, 20 October 1996
TOKYO, Oct 20 (Reuter) - A Japanese haemophiliac infected with the HIV virus appears to have won a seat in parliament after a campaign in which he said he wanted to be an inspiration to fellow sufferers, television projections showed. Satoru Ienishi, 36, ran in Sunday s election for the recently formed Democratic Party


A New Danger in the Age of AIDS: Florida Health Employee Accused of Sharing Names in Database
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday, 14 October 1996
Sarah Tippit, Reuter
ORLANDO, Oct. 13 -- U.S. health authorities are fighting to defend the security of medical records after a Florida health worker was accused of using confidential AIDS health records to screen potential sexual partners. William Calvert III, an investigator with the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Servic


Thousands Visit Huge AIDS Quilt in Washington
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 12 October 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The mounting AIDS toll was poignantly illustrated Saturday as relatives and friends of those who have died from the disease visited a mile-long Memorial Quilt in which each square represents a victim. This makes me think of the crosses in a war graveyard, said Dixie Ann Gabriel, of Palm Beach, Fla


AIDS Memorial Quilt Carpets National Mall
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Saturday, 12 October 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Mourners of AIDS victims carpeted the National Mall Friday with an enormous memorial quilt, each panel dedicated to one of the more than 300,000 Americans who have died from the disease. The quilt, laid out on 21 miles of black matting to create a giant grid of walkways allowing visitors to inspec


FDA Considering Drug Promotion on the Internet
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Friday, 11 October 1996
NEW YORK (Reuter) - If a pharmaceutical company s site on the World Wide Web has a link to an AIDS advocacy group promoting an unauthorized use of a drug, should the government step in and cut the connection? If a multinational firm has information on its Internet pages about use in France of a drug that has not b


Drug combinations found more effective against AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 9 October 1996
Gene Emery
BOSTON (Reuter) - A nationwide team of researchers reported Wednesday that a combination of drugs is better than the drug AZT alone for slowing the development of AIDS. But a second study released at the same time suggests that treatment with a particular combination of drugs apparently offers no added benefit for pati


AIDS epidemic looms over booming ASEAN economies
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Tuesday, 8 October 1996
Rene Pastor
SINGAPORE (Reuter) - An AIDS epidemic threatens the robust economies of Southeast Asia, with increasing trade, travel and migrant labor fueling its spread, disease control specialists from ASEAN countries said Tuesday. We in ASEAN are located in the area of the world predicted to become the center of the AIDS pandemic,


'Medical Marijuana' Debate Rages in Calif.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Wednesday, 2 October 1996
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuter) - For Anna Boyce, who watched her husband die of lung cancer, it is a matter of compassion to support a controversial California measure that would make it legal for the sick to smoke marijuana to ease their pain. Opponents, who include many California law enforcement officials, allege the propos


More evidence that gene defect can deflect AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 September 1996
Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Matching up new genetic research with long-term epidemiological studies, scientists have gathered strong evidence that a recently-discovered genetic defect can protect some people against the AIDS virus. Scientists have long sought to understand why some people exposed to the HIV virus do not beco


Clinton Signs $265.6 Billion Military Bill
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 25 September 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton signed into law Monday a $265.6 billion defense bill calling for more spending than he wanted but strengthening federal anti-stalking laws that he strongly supports. The law, a blueprint of U.S. military spending priorities for the year beginning Oct. 1, provides money for a thre


House Passes Immigration Bill and Schools Ban
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 25 September 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The House Wednesday approved a broad-ranging illegal immigration bill and a separate measure giving states power to deny schooling for children of illegal aliens. Democrats protested vigorously against provisions in the larger bill, but 76 of them joined with the majority to pass the Republican-dr


Vaccine may be possible to prevent most common STD
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 19 September 1996
NEW ORLEANS (Reuter) - It may be possible to develop a vaccine against trichomoniasis, the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world, researchers reported Wednesday. A paper presented at the 36th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy by Dr Gary Garber of the University of Ottawa,


Scientists map key part of herpes virus
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 19 September 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - Three separate teams of scientists reported Wednesday they had mapped a key enzyme of a herpes virus that can blind AIDS patients. They said their findings could help researchers design better drugs to attack cytomegalovirus ( CMV ), which affects more than 90 percent of AIDS sufferer


U.S. study says most schools teach about AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 September 1996
Mike Cooper
ATLANTA (Reuter) - More than 80 percent of U.S. schools teach middle and high school students how to prevent AIDS, but their teachers often do not explain how to use a condom correctly, federal health officials said Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 39 states and the District of C


Chemical may stimulate AIDS virus, researchers say
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 28 August 1996
Maggie Fox
LONDON (Reuter) - A special immune system protein that scientists thought offered hope for treating the HIV virus that causes AIDS may in fact make the infection worse, researchers said Wednesday. Beta-chemokines, proteins secreted by immune system cells to communicate with other cells, actually seem to help the HIV vi


Child sex campaigner asks travel industry to help
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 28 August 1996
Trevor Datson
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuter) - The head of a global anti-sex-tourism pressure group Wednesday demanded that the travel industry invest resources to combat the sexual exploitation of children. A conference in Stockholm has heard the child sex trade is worth billions of dollars a year and that at least a million new childr


AIDS fear fuels demand for sex with children -UN
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 28 August 1996
Abigail Schmelz
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuter) - Fear of contracting AIDS from women is prompting some men to turn to girl children for sex, the head of the United Nations global AIDS agency told a conference on child sex abuse Wednesday. The AIDS epidemic has become both a cause and a consequence of the trade in children, Peter Piot, ex


Counseling, condoms cut AIDS among couples-study
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 August 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Low-tech solutions such as counseling and free condoms have a good chance of keeping the heterosexual partners of AIDS patients from getting infected, the National Institutes of Health reported Monday. Citing a study of 475 Haitian couples in which one partner was infected with the AIDS virus and


Romanian government blasted for neglecting AIDS children
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. 26 August 1996
BUCHAREST, Romania (Reuter) - Romanian health workers blasted their government Monday for relying on foreign help to care for thousands of neglected children suffering from AIDS. Romania has 54 percent of Europe s juvenile AIDS cases, but the Health Ministry and government are totally indifferent and ignore these poor


Africans in Norway outraged at AIDS statement
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 August 1996
OSLO, Norway (Reuter) - Black African immigrants held a rally in Oslo Thursday to protest a warning by Norwegian authorities about Africans as potential carriers of AIDS. About 200 protesters, most of them Africans, demonstrated against a Health Department statement that there was a link between Norwegian heterosexuals


Doctors find gene mutation conferring AIDS resistance
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 August 1996
PHILADELPHIA, (Reuter) - A genetic mutation found in about one percent of Caucasians may confer resistance to the virus that causes AIDS, University of Pennsylvania researchers reported Thursday. Tests performed by the scientists suggest that, due to this genetic variation, this subset of the population is protected fr


Drugs shown to treat, prevent AIDS-related illness
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 August 1996
Gene Emery
BOSTON (Reuter) - Three teams of researchers from the United States , Canada and Europe say they may have found a better way to treat and prevent, at least temporarily, a bacterial infection that is one of the hallmarks of AIDS. The ailment, Mycobacterium avium, is the third most common infection in AIDS patients.


Deadly variant of AIDS virus spreads to Britain
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 1 August 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - A new, possibly more virulent variant of the HIV virus that causes AIDS has spread from Asia to Britain, a British science magazine reported Thursday. The subtype, known as type E, is most common in Thailand , and some studies indicate it may spread more easily than other variants. Most cases of H


Home AIDS virus test to be available in United States
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 30 July 1996
CHICAGO (Reuter) - An anonymous home test for the virus that causes AIDS that will be available immediately nationwide has been approved for marketing by the Food and Drug Administration, the developing company said. Anyone who is unwilling or unable to go to a clinic or go to the doctor now has an alternative availabl


Israel commission angers Ethiopian Jews on blood
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 30 July 1996
Daniel Sternoff
JERUSALEM (Reuter) - An Israeli state commission investigating the dumping of Ethiopian Jewish blood donations for fear of AIDS angered the community when it found Sunday that tossing the blood, while insensitive, was medically sound. The committee recommended an end to wholesale dumping of such donations and proposed


AIDS killed 1.3 million last year but UN sees hope
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 28 July 1996
Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuter) - At least 1.3 million people died worldwide from AIDS or related illnesses last year and the HIV virus is likely to cause more than 3.1 million new infections in 1996, the United Nations said Friday. But the UNAIDS program, which issued semi-annual figures on the eve of a major global conference in Van


Republican congressman fights House leaders
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 July 1996
Jim Adams
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Archconservative Robert Dornan battled in public with House leaders Friday to help write Congress s annual defence bill and keep restrictions on erotic magazines and gays in the military. Depending on how that fight turns out, the California Republican warned in a statement, I will discuss the bre


Clinton, courting gay vote, calls for AIDS funding
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 24 July 1996
Arshad Mohammed
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuter) - Seeking to shore up his support in the homosexual community, President Bill Clinton on Tuesday asked Congress to double funding for a programme that provides cutting-edge drugs to poor AIDS patients. Speaking at a dinner where he was raising money for the Democratic party, Clinton said he would


Drug firms release cocktail AIDS drug from trials
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 23 July 1996
Maggie Fox
LONDON (Reuter) - Drug companies said on Tuesday trials of a cocktail of AIDS drugs had been so successful they were giving one of the drugs, 3TC , to everyone in the trial. Glaxo Wellcome Plc said a combination of 3TC ( Epivir ) alo


Bang Bang bags Beijing's first sex shop license
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 15 July 1996
Velisarios Kattoulas
BEIJING (Reuter) - A Chinese couple giggled as they shuffled past rows of condoms, performance creams and battery-powered sex toys at a small shop just around the corner from Chairman Mao Zedong s imposing mausoleum. The pair, in their 30s, hovered over the Dream, a yellow, plastic banana on sale for $55, including bat


Drugs offer best hope in war on AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 13 July 1996
Maggie Fox
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - Powerful drug combinations that hit the AIDS virus early and hard offer the best hope for HIV patients, researchers told the 11th International Conference on AIDS, which ended on Friday. Aggressive treatments that pin down the viral invaders, pummeling them before and during their


New AIDS drugs not seen as blockbuster sellers
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 13 July 1996
Richard Jacobsen
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - New drugs that brought a ray of hope to an international AIDS conference here are not likely to turn into blockbuster sellers for the pharmaceutical companies that make them. Growing competition and a limited number of people able to pay for the drugs will keep their sales relativ


Message links AIDS and poverty, but action unknown
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 13 July 1996
Joanne Kenen
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The theme of the AIDS conference that just ended here was One World, One Hope, but for the first time, the delegates and scientists woke up to the fact that as far as AIDS is concerned, there are two worlds, one without much hope. Drugs can now buy time. Not everyone can buy the drugs.


Researchers say AIDS drugs knock out virus in test
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 July 1996
Cynthia Osterman
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A triple cocktail of drugs has wiped out all evidence of the virus that causes AIDS in a group of nine volunteers and, if the approach really works, they might be cured in a year or two, scientists said on Thursday. But they were quick to warn that the findings, announced at the 11th Inter


Europe drug approval too slow, activist says
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 July 1996
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - European AIDS activists on Thursday appealed to the European Commission to speed up its drug approval process, accusing bureaucrats of killing people with delays. Organisers of the 11th International Conference on AIDS invited the European AIDS Treatment Group on stage to make an appeal di


Researchers reveal key HIV virus protein section
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 July 1996
WASHINGTON - Researchers have revealed the egg-like structure enclosing the genetic material of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), potentially an important step to developing an AIDS-fighting drug, the journal Science reported on Thursday. Any scientist who wants to develop a new drug that interferes with HIV need


Doctors worry AIDS treatment hopes could backfire
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 July 1996
Sarah Edmonds
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Drug treatments offering new hope in the fight against AIDS could backfire horribly if they are used improperly, creating fresh and dangerous strains of the virus they were meant to kill. Participants at this week s 11th International Conference on AIDS said the triple drug cocktails -- w


AIDS researchers hold out hope for cure
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 July 1996
Cynthia Osterman
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - AIDS researchers ended a global conference on Thursday holding out hope that powerful new drug treatments might offer a cure for the deadly disease that has infected 28 million people. Dispelling more than a decade of despair, elated researchers presented evidence at the 11th International


Measles research could hold hope for AIDS - report
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 July 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - New research on measles, which kills as many as two million children each year, could help shed light on the opportunistic infections that attack AIDS patients, scientists reported Thursday. One of the ways measles kills is by attacking the immune systems of the children who contract it, leaving t


Glaxo shares rise on AIDS drug hopes
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 July 1996
LONDON - Shares in Britain s Glaxo Wellcome -- the world s biggest pharmaceutical company -- rose to a four-month high on Wednesday amid growing optimism about the sales potential of its AIDS drugs, share traders said. Glaxo s AIDS drugs, Epivir and Retrovir, have been brought to th


Former Soviet Bloc countries face explosion in HIV
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 July 1996
Sarah Edmonds / Reuters
VANCOUVER - Eastern Europe may face a catastrophic surge in HIV infection in the next few years due to an explosion in intravenous drug use and unprotected sex, according to AIDS officials from the region. Syphilis and several other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are raging through many of the former Soviet repub


Brazil judge orders state to supply AIDS medication
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 July 1996
RIO DE JANEIRO - In a landmark ruling, a Brazilian judge has ordered the state of Sao Paulo to supply an HIV-infected teacher with the latest in anti-AIDS medication, Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported on Wednesday. Judge Marco Aurelio Paioletti Martins Costa based his ruling on the Brazilian constitution, which obl


Long-term survivors may hold key to AIDS cure
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 July 1996
Maggie Fox / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Alberta Queen does not know why she is alive. Neither do her doctors. But they do know that Queen, and a few others like her with HIV, probably offer the best clues to curing AIDS. Queen, 43, is a long-term survivor. Infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS 10


World health officials warn of TB, AIDS symbiosis
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 July 1996
Joanne Kenen / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A vigorous global tuberculosis epidemic coupled with the AIDS crisis create a lethal symbiosis that must be quickly and aggressively confronted, international health officials said on Wednesday. Tuberculosis can be cured, usually at a cost of only about $11 a person, if countries follow th


Equality of sexes would help AIDS fight - experts
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 July 1996
David Ljunggren
LONDON (Reuter) - AIDS experts Tuesday called for a broad-based campaign to fight the disease, saying more effort should be made to give women in the developing world more control over their sexual and reproductive lives. AIDS rates are highest in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa where prostitution is rife and women


AIDS conference bridges Middle East politics
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 July 1996
Richard Jacobsen
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - Middle Eastern health workers are putting aside religous and political divisions and joining forces to fight the spread of the AIDS virus. In one corner of the huge 11th International Conference on AIDS here, four Palestinians, three Israelis and one Jordanian grouped in the Jerus


Japan health chief decries drug firms' AIDS effort
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
Paul Eckert / Reuters
TOKYO (Reuter) - Japan s health minister Tuesday urged his country s drug makers to step up research and development to contribute to the global fight against AIDS. We must move pharmaceutical firms in the direction of developing useful products for the world -- in the manner which Japanese electronics companies have d


Poor nations blast lack of AIDS vaccine
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
Cynthia Osterman / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Developing countries denounced the lack of progress in creating an AIDS vaccine on Tuesday, charging that industrialised nations were focusing on research into costly drugs at the expense of the world s poor. The mounting impatience of the Third World, home to 90 percent of the 21.8 millio


Babies in poor nations need AIDS protection
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - New U.S. guidelines on preventing HIV transmission from mother to child are saving lives and money, but need to be adapted to make them workable in poorer nations, experts told an International Conference on AIDS on Tuesday. The World Health Organisation estimates that more than 1.3 millio


Combo treatment said helping AIDS patients with TB
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Combination therapy has been shown to be an effective initial treatment for HIV-infected people with tuberculosis, U.S. health researchers said on Tuesday. Doctors presenting results of a new study at an AIDS conference said it was important that patients were given the medicine on an inte


Research said lagging on anti-AIDS gel
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
Joanne Kenen / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Advances in preventing women from passing the AIDS virus to their babies may lead to a new generation of children born without HIV, scientists and health officials said on Tuesday. But research on simple gels or creams that women could use to protect themselves is lagging, they said. M


Innovative ways sought to teach AIDS prevention
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
Joanne Kenen / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - In a Parisian school for the deaf, on a farm in rural Zimbabwe , in a soap opera in Vietnam , health workers and community activists are using innovative ways to teach AIDS prevention to the poor, the isolated and the vulnerable. At this week s 11th International Conference on AIDS, ac


Celgene to ask FDA approval for thalidomide in AIDS use
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
Sarah Edmonds / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - Thalidomide, the drug blamed for thousands of birth defects, may soon find new life as a treatment for dramatic weight loss in AIDS patients. Celgene Corp., a speciality chemicals firm, said Tuesday it plans to file early next year with the Food and Drug Administration for a new d


From herbs to ozone, AIDS patients seek alternatives
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
Cynthia Osterman / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - From spiritual healing to herbal extracts and controversial ozone injections, AIDS sufferers are turning to so-called alternative therapies in their race against death. Studies on alternative treatments are being highlighted at the 11th International Conference on AIDS this week in Vancouv


Crisis of women, babies with AIDS focus of conference
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
Joanne Kenen / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The growing crisis of women and AIDS hits centre stage at an international AIDS conference on Tuesday, with the emphasis on adapting drugs to prevent passing the virus to babies and developing gels or creams for women to protect themselves from HIV. Although the image of AIDS in the popula


High level of HIV found in psychiatric patients
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 July 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - Spanish scientists called Tuesday for more effective strategies to prevent the spread of HIV among psychiatric patients whom they said should be considered a high-risk group for the virus that causes AIDS. Doctors at the Department of Psychiatry at San Carlos University Hospital in Madrid found a high


Elizabeth Taylor attacks Canada, U.S. on AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Maggie Fox
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Actress and AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor bitterly attacked the U.S. and Canadian governments on Monday, accusing Washington of committing premeditated murder in failing to fund AIDS programmes. She told a private reception at the 11th International Conference on AIDS that euphoria over m


Drug companies release fresh news on AIDS drugs
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Richard Jacobsen
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Researchers released fresh information on Monday about new cocktail approaches to treating AIDS using the great new hope of drug companies -- protease inhibitors . Abbott Laboratories Inc said a triple combination of its Norvi


AIDS panel demands greater U.S. effort
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
WASHINGTON - An official U.S. advisory panel on Monday said the Clinton administration, despite an unprecedented level of investment in the cause, had still not done enough to fight AIDS. This administration has clearly made an unprecedented and laudable investment of funding, human resources and genuine personal commi


Buoyed by new drugs, AIDS researchers eye next hurdles
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Christopher Wilson
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Striking a cautiously upbeat stance, AIDS researchers on Monday tempered euphoria over new combination treatments with a warning that the search for a cure was far from over. Speakers at the 11th International Conference on AIDS drew cheers from nearly 15,000 delegates as they summed up re


Top researchers offer hope AIDS may be treatable
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Christopher Wilson
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Top AIDS researchers presented solid evidence on Monday that a disease that has killed nearly 6 million people may have become treatable thanks to complex cocktails of experimental drugs. Speakers at the 11th International Conference on AIDS drew cheers and applause from nearly 15,000 dele


HIV infections expected to double by 2000
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Cynthia Osterman
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The number of people infected with the AIDS virus worldwide is expected to double by 2000, with a huge explosion likely in India , experts on the deadly pandemic said on Monday. By the turn of the century, about 44 million people will fall victim to the HIV virus that causes AIDS, up from


Abbott says drugs keep AIDS virus at bay for 60 weeks
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Richard Jacobsen
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - A triple combination of Abbott Laboratories Inc. s Norvir and two other drugs has kept the AIDS virus at bay for 60 weeks in a clinical trial, the company said Monday. In an update presented at the 11th International Conference on AIDS, which started Sunday, Abbott sai


Reasearchers say AIDS is now a treatable disease
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Christopher Wilson
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - AIDS researchers presented solid evidence Monday that the disease that has killed nearly six million people may now be treatable thanks to cocktails of experimental drugs. Speakers at the 11th International Conference on AIDS drew cheers and applause from nearly 15,000 delegates a


Drug firm says it wants to pay AIDS community back
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Maggie Fox
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Stung by accusations that drug companies are making billions at the expense of AIDS victims, Glaxo-Wellcome Plc. (GLXO.L) said on Monday it was starting to pay the community back. It invited AIDS activists, researchers and community workers attending the 11th International Conference on AI


AIDS infection stabilizing in U.S. but at high level
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 July 1996
Joanne Kenen / Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - The rate of AIDS infection appears to be stabilizing in the United States but at an unacceptably high level, with about one in 300 Americans carrying the lethal virus, according to Centers for Disease Control figures released Saturday. Some groups are disproportionately hard hit.


Cocktails offer real AIDS hope, researchers say
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 July 1996
Maggie Fox
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, - Cocktails of drugs that battle the deadly AIDS virus are starting to offer real hope to sufferers, researchers said on Sunday. Pharmaceutical companies kicked off the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver with announcements that trials using various mixtures of drugs helped p


AIDS conference starts amid hope, urgency
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 July 1996
Christopher Wilson
VANCOUVER, Canada - The world s biggest-ever AIDS conference started on Sunday with scientists excited by the promise of new multi-drug treatments, but still daunted by the relentless spread of the disease and the remoteness of a cure. The last six months have brought breakthroughs with the introduction of drug treatme


AIDS Forum Opens Amid Scientific Optimism
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 July 1996
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - AIDS researchers start the largest-ever conference on the disease on Sunday with a new sense of optimism over scientific breakthroughs even as the killer virus continues to rage, infecting five people every minute. The week-long 11th International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver,


AMA wants to help doctors, patients discuss AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 July 1996
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - In an ambitious bid to help doctors and patients talk about AIDS prevention, the American Medical Association Saturday said it is sending out a new guide to every U.S. family practitioner, internist, pediatrician and gynecologist. Portions of the explicit guide, like a section on


Research into AIDS vaccine languishes
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 July 1996
Cynthia Osterman
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The best hope of conquering AIDS lies in the development of a vaccine, but governments and drug companies are virtually ignoring this critical area of research, scientists said. After more than a decade of AIDS research, no vaccine has advanced to large-scale trials in humans and researche


Chretien under fire for shunning AIDS conference
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 July 1996
TORONTO - Canadian AIDS activists said on Friday they regretted Prime Minister Jean Chretien s decision to shun an international AIDS conference in Vancouver and urged him not to give up the fight against AIDS. The 11th International Conference on AIDS opens on Sunday in Vancouver, but Chretien has said he is too busy


Rare AIDS strain found for first time in U.S.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 July 1996
Mike Cooper
ATLANTA - A rare, new strain of the AIDS virus often missed by existing blood tests has been found in the United States for the first time, federal health officials said on Friday. An unidentified African woman in Los Angeles County, California, is one of fewer than 100 people worldwide known to have been infected with


AIDS activism transformed, now "at the table"
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 July 1996
Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Ten years ago, U.S. AIDS activists were obstructing traffic, disrupting churches, and generally screaming at the top of their lungs. Today, activists serve on the top U.S. scientific advisory committees and policy panels, helping to evaluate policy and shape the priorities of the research communit


AIDS breakthroughs beyond reach of poor nations
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. 4 July 1996
Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON - The last few months have brought gratifying advances in fighting the virus that causes AIDS, but the hefty price tags raise disturbing questions about who will have access to the life-prolonging therapies. The new drug regimes can cost $12,000 to $16,000 a year -- and nobody yet knows how many years people


AIDS conference to mix science, spectacle
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. 4 July 1996
Cynthia Osterman
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The world s biggest conference on AIDS will bring together researchers, celebrities, activists and politicians for a mix of sober science and spectacle starting on Sunday. The week-long 11th International Conference on AIDS is set to be the biggest so far in the biennial series of meetings


AIDS researchers set to meet amid new optimism
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 2 July 1996
Cynthia Osterman / Reuter
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuter) - Breakthroughs in the fight against AIDS have dispelled a decade of despair, creating a mood of optimism as the world s top AIDS researchers prepare to meet Sunday for a week-long conference. Scientists are reporting a flurry of major advances in the fight against the killer pandem


Cradle of AIDS still its worst victim
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 1 July 1996
Maggie Fox
LONDON - Poverty and population growth have become lethal partners of the HIV virus that causes AIDS, helping it reach epidemic proportions in the developing world. Africa, the cradle of AIDS, is still the region hardest hit by the deadly syndrome, but Asia is quickly catching up. More than 90 percent of all adults wit


Scientists testing new blood cell AIDS weapon
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 27 June 1996
Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON - U.S. Navy scientists on Thursday announced a novel experiment that has enabled them to produce huge numbers of white blood cells that seem to resist the AIDS virus in the laboratory. The new technique has not yet been tested on humans but clinical trials are likely to start in a month or so. Many treatment


Two Albanians die of AIDS, 23 infected - doctors
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 27 June 1996
TIRANA, Albania (Reuter) - Two Albanians have died of AIDS and 23 others have contracted the virus which causes the deadly disease, a top physician said Wednesday. Health authorities were making great efforts to raise AIDS awareness and considered education the only preventive measure, Agim Kociraj told Reuters. W


Diana shrugs off criticism to visit AIDS clinic
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 27 June 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - Princess Diana, already under fire for her perceived media stunts, shrugged off renewed criticism to make a high-profile visit to a London AIDS clinic Thursday. AIDS is hogging the charity stage, the Evening Standard newspaper said before the visit. Isn t it time support was directed toward less fashi


Immune system drug helps AIDS patients - study
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 27 June 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - U.S. biotechnology firm Amgen Inc s immune system-boosting Neupogen helps AIDS patients fight life-threatening infections and may help some to live longer, researchers said Thursday. The drug, just licensed for use for AIDS patients in Britain, has a definite effect on the immune system, doctors told


France to put deadly epidemics on G7 agenda
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 June 1996
LYON, France (Reuter) - French President Jacques Chirac said on Wednesday he will ask leaders of the Group of Seven industrialised nations to boost medical research to counter epidemics like AIDS and mad cow disease. In an interview to the regional French daily Le Progres published on Wednesday, the French head of stat


AIDS virus may lead to aging of cells, study shows
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 June 1996
LOS ANGELES, June 26 (Reuter) - There is new evidence that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, may lead to premature ageing of cells and trigger irreversible damage to the immune system, a study said on Wednesday. The findings by scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Geron Corp (GERN.O)


Euro-body weighs AIDS sufferer's case against UK
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 25 June 1996
STRASBOURG, France (Reuter) - The European Commission of Human Rights has agreed to weigh the case of a jailed AIDS sufferer fighting his expulsion from Britain on the grounds that he would be deprived of good medical care. Upon arrival in Britain in January 1993, the applicant, who prefers to remain anonymous, was arr


Singapore team finds herbal HIV inhibitor
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 25 June 1996
SINGAPORE - A team of Singapore scientists has isolated a chemical compound from traditional herbs that inhibits the growth of an HIV enzyme, a team member said on Tuesday. Sim Keng Yeow, a chemistry professor at the National Univeristy of Singapore, said tests by the four-member team were very preliminary, but had i


Australian politician with AIDS seeks euthanasia
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 25 June 1996
Bradley Perrett
CANBERRA, June 25 (Reuter) - An Australian politician with AIDS said on Tuesday he wanted an assisted death, but the government is considering quashing the world s first euthanasia law which would let doctors help him. I hope that I can hold out my arm one night or one day and have a little needle which takes me off qu


Japan court finds hole in ruptured condom case
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 21 June 1996
TOKYO, June 21 (Reuter) - A Japanese court has rejected a damages suit by a man who complained his condom ruptured during paid sex, saying he should not have slept with a prostitute if he was worried about AIDS, a newspaper reported on Friday. The man who had brought the suit, described only as a company president, was


China says 3,341 HIV-infected, 117 have AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 21 June 1996
BEIJING, June 21 (Reuter) - China has diagnosed 3,341 people infected with HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS, with 47 percent of cases found in 1995, the Health Daily said on Friday. Of those infected, 117 had developed full-blown AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), including 52 new cases detected in 1995, s


Toronto doctor charged with assisted suicide
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 21 June 1996
TORONTO, June 21 (Reuter) - A Toronto physician was arraigned on Thursday in what is believed to be the first case in Canada of a doctor charged with assisted suicide. Toronto police said Maurice Genereux, 49, was charged with helping an AIDS patient end his life on April 11 in Toronto. The Canadian Medical Associa


Man gets AIDS virus from bite
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 21 June 1996
LONDON, June 21 (Reuter) - A Slovenian man became infected with the virus that causes AIDS when his HIV-positive neighbour bit him, doctors reported on Friday. They said it was the first documented case of someone getting AIDS from a human bite. Ludvik Vidmar and colleagues at the Department of Infectious Diseases in L


Australian medical, church groups challenge euthanasia law
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 18 June 1996
SYDNEY, June 18 (Reuter) - Australian church and medical groups have launched a legal challenge to the validity of the world s first law permitting assisted suicides, a doctor and a clergyman who filed the complaint said on Tuesday. Australian Medical Association (AMA) official Dr Chris Wake and Uniting Church Reverend


Clash of the activists animal rights vs AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 18 June 1996
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuter) - A feud between AIDS advocates and animal rights activists spilled out of Hollywood and the tabloids and into Washington Tuesday as the city girded for animal rights rallies this weekend. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) held a news conference in which it blasted AIDS-rel


Act-Up blamed in French AIDS fund-raising fiasco
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 17 June 1996
PARIS, June 17 (Reuter) - A day of action by French media and charities to fight the spread of AIDS raised only a fraction of its target sum, a failure organisers blamed largely on a televised outburst by an AIDS militant against the government. Sidaction on June 6, which was capped by a five-hour star-studded programm


V.P. Gore announces infectious disease effort
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 12 June 1996
WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuter) - Vice President Al Gore announced on Wednesday that the United States will promote a global system to detect deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola and tuberculosis and take action against them. Emerging infectious diseases present one of the most significant health and security challeng


Brazil to give teens junior-sized condoms
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 June 1996
BRASILIA (Reuter) - Brazil s health ministry will distribute five million small condoms to adolescents in an effort to increase AIDS awareness among teen-agers, a ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. They will have a diameter 0.15 inch smaller than the normal 2.1 inches, the spokesman said. The Correio Braziliense newsp


Oral sex may be riskier than thought for AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 June 1996
Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuter) - New studies on AIDS and monkeys suggest that the risk of contracting the virus through oral sex is greater than previously thought, scientists said on Thursday. It seems there is a perception out there that oral sex is safe if there are no cuts or disease in the mouth. Our animal experimen


Younger people withstand AIDS better, study finds
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 June 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - Younger people fight off the HIV virus that causes AIDS more successfully than older people, a team of British doctors reported Friday. A study of hemophiliacs who got the deadly virus from infected blood showed that older patients progressed much more quickly to full-blown AIDS and death than the you


U.S. recommends AIDS treatments for health workers
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 June 1996
David Morgan
ATLANTA (Reuter) - The federal government Thursday recommended for the first time that health-care workers exposed to the AIDS virus be treated with antiviral drugs including AZT . The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said recent studies show that antiviral treatments can sharply reduce the risk of


Oral drug reduces risk of AIDS-related blindness
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 June 1996
BOSTON (Reuter) - People in advanced stages of AIDS who commonly suffer from an infection that can lead to blindness and even death can significantly reduce the risk with a new drug, according to a new report. There remains no cure for the infection caused by cytomegalovirus or


Court rejects appeal on tainted blood charges
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 29 May 1996
PARIS (Reuter, May 29) - A French court turned down Wednesday an appeal by Dr. Michel Garetta, former head of the national blood bank, to head off a second round of charges in a decade-old scandal over AIDS-tainted blood products. Garetta, now believed to be residing in the United States , was sentenced in 1992 to f


AIDS seen undermining S.African employee benefits
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 27 May 1996
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Reuter) - South Africa is following the rest of sub-Saharan Africa into an AIDS crisis and the epidemic is going to force a radical review of employee benefits, a life assurance expert said Monday. Our worst-case scenario is that we follow the rest of sub-Saharan Africa and I think we are on tr


Living with monsters, real and imagined
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 24 May 1996
Gene Emery
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Reuter) - Aside from being told you have cancer, few diseases can stoke the fires of anxiety the way AIDS can. But if you have, in fact, been told recently that you carry HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, or you need to help someone who has acquired the infection, ``Living with HIV is one of the most a


Viral load tests better predictor in AIDS cases
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 24 May 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - New tests that measure viral load in people infected with the HIV virus can accurately show how fast someone will become sick and die of AIDS, scientists said Thursday. In research appearing in Friday s edition of the journal Science, Dr John Mellors and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh


U.S. AIDS carrier spreads fear in Florida town
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 21 May 1996
APOPKA, Fla. (Reuter) - Many residents of a small central Florida town were deeply shaken Tuesday after reports that a young man may have infected as many as 40 teen-agers and young adults with the virus that causes AIDS. Health officials said the 18-year-old boy in Apopka, near Orlando, may have had unprotected sex wi


New trial in rape of U.S. toddler who died of AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 21 May 1996
MONTGOMERY, Ala., (Reuter) - A 41-year-old Montgomery county man went on trial Tuesday for the second time on charges of raping a four-year-old girl who later died of AIDS. Willie Doneal Robinson was charged with first degree rape of the toddler, for whom he was babysitting. A retrial was ordered after a deadlocked jur


WHO warns of 'global crisis' in infectious diseases
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 20 May 1996
Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuter) - Infectious diseases, already the leading cause of premature death, are increasingly resistant to antibiotic drugs, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in its annual report Monday. The United Nations agency also called for more funds to fight major diseases such as malaria, cholera and tuberculo


Clinton signs Ryan White AIDS care bill extension
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 20 May 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton signed into law Monday a five-year extension of the Ryan White program, which provides federal grants to states, cities and civic organizations to care for people with AIDS. This legislation offers hope for another five years. Let us all pray that no president will ever have to s


Thai man with AIDS virus kills family, self
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 17 May 1996
BANGKOK - A Thai man, distraught after being diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS, killed his family and then himself, police said on Friday. The 29-year-old man, his wife and their baby son were found dead in their home in northeastern Thailand s Nakorn Rachasima province. The man, who apparently strangled his wi


Green fungus threatens hospital patients - experts
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 16 May 1996
GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuter) - A green fungus that lives everywhere from the basement walls to the black pepper you shake over your spaghetti is threatening hospital patients and becoming impervious to drugs, doctors said Thursday. Several experts speaking to a medical conference painted a frightening picture of bacteria


New drug offers unique virus hope, expert says
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 16 May 1996
Maggie Fox
GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuter) - A new drug developed to help AIDS patients who go blind could help treat other illnesses including herpes and cervical cancer, a top expert said Thursday. Cidofovir, still being tested, has been found to delay the progression of viruses and in a few cases seems to have completely stopped th


U.S. says drug users spread AIDS among hetrosexuals
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 16 May 1996
Mike Cooper / Reuter
ATLANTA (Reuter) - Intravenous drug users are continuing to develop AIDS and are spreading it to their heterosexual partners, accounting for most cases of the disease among women and heterosexual men, federal health officials said Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that 85 percent


Babies, prostitutes offer AIDS research clue--expert
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. 15 May 1996
GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuter) - Any truly effective therapy for AIDS as the world s most serious public health problem is a long way off, but babies and prostitutes offer hope, a leading expert on the deadly disease said Wednesday. Drugs tested so far have been disappointing, but research hope is offered by babies and pro


FDA approves 'home' test system for AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 14 May 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The Food and Drug Administration Tuesday approved the first home test kit for detecting the virus that causes AIDS. The test kit system, called the Confide HIV Testing Service, was developed and is being marketed by Direct Access Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson . In


AIDS epidemic reaches Russia, government says
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 14 May 1996
MOSCOW (Reuter) - Russia is facing an AIDS epidemic after keeping the deadly disease at bay for years, a senior health ministry official said Tuesday. Alexander Goliusov, the ministry s chief AIDS expert, told Interfax news agency that Russia, with a population of 150 million, had 1,157 registered HIV-positive cases.


10,000 march in Paris anti-AIDS rally
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. 13 May 1996
PARIS (Reuter) - About 10,000 people, including artists, politicians and AIDS sufferers, took part in a march for life in Paris Sunday to raise cash for victims of the disease. In a carnival atmosphere with dancers and drums, they marched from the Charlety stadium to the Champs de Mars by the Eiffel Tower. Some brandis


India elections trigger condom shortage
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 May 1996
NEW DELHI, May 10 (Reuter) - The Indian government has been so busy organising the world s biggest elections that it has failed to set condom prices with manufacturers, leaving millions of couples in the lurch, a family welfare expert said on Friday. Whatever else the elections may have cost us, they have meant eight m


Kenyan government bans sales of anti-AIDS drug
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 May 1996
NAIROBI (Reuter) - The Kenyan government has banned sales of a controversial herbal drug said by its discoverer to combat AIDS, newspapers said on Wednesday. The Daily Nation said the government decided on Tuesday to ban sales of the drug, known as Pearl-Omega, until a report was issued by the Ministry of Health s Phar


Discovery of protein helps in understanding AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 May 1996
Joanne Kenen / Reuter
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A newly discovered protein molecule dubbed fusin explains in part how the AIDS virus can enter a human cell and start doing its lethal damage, scientists said Thursday. In research appearing Friday in the journal Science, molecular biologist Edward Berger and colleagues at the National Institute o


Two Cypriots suspected of spreading AIDS - police
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 May 1996
NICOSIA, Cyprus (Reuter) - Cyprus police suspect two men may be deliberately spreading the HIV virus which can lead to AIDS among foreign female nightclub entertainers on the resort island, a spokesman said Thursday. Police were conveyed information that two youths ... are acting in a manner which may transmit a danger


Immunizations raise production of AIDS virus
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 May 1996
BOSTON (Reuter) - Tetanus shots can spark a dramatic jump in the amount of virus produced in the bodies of people infected with the AIDS virus, U.S. government researchers have discovered. The findings, to be published in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine, may explain why frequent bouts of illness seem to make


Pakistan combats hidden AIDS menace
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. 8 May 1996
Alistair Lyon
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuter) - AIDS, long a hidden scourge in Pakistan s conservative Islamic society, is looming as a far deadlier menace because the nation continues to tiptoe around the taboo subject of safe sex, health workers warn. For days on end, Akbar Ahmad s job as a bus driver keeps him from home. He seeks t


U.S. House passes bill requiring AIDS test for infants
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 1 May 1996
Sue Kirchhoff / Reuter
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The House passed a compromise bill Wednesday which would give states the chance to cut the rate of AIDS transmission or demonstrate voluntary pre-natal testing before requiring mandatory AIDS testing of infants. The AIDS testing provision was part of a compromise House-Senate bill extending the Ry


British Aids charities say govt prompted HIV panic
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 April 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - British charities accused the government Saturday of causing panic by announcing problems with an HIV blood test over a holiday weekend, leaving thousands of worried people without access to clinics and doctors. The health ministry said Friday that some 20,000 people who were given the all-clear would


Canada's blood supply system blamed in AIDS deaths
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 30 April 1996
Sarah Edmonds / Reuter
TORONTO - When Anne Marie Landry discovered that the blood products designed to preserve the lives of her twin sons were in fact their death sentence, she thought it was just a cruel twist of fate. Back then, who the hell were we going to be angry at? Landry asked in an interview from New Brunswick. But a sweeping two-


South Asia's prostitutes gather to press rights
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 30 April 1996
Rupam Banerjee
CALCUTTA, India , - More than 1,000 South Asian prostitutes gathered on Tuesday at a conference to discuss AIDS prevention and ways to legalise their business. The prostitutes, from India and neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh , als


Delavirdine Available Through Expanded Access Program
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 30 April 1996
KALAMAZOO, MI - Pharmacia & Upjohn announced that it began supplying its anti-HIV investigational drug, Rescriptor (delavirdine), to patients in the U.S. through an expanded access program. Delavirdine is a member of the non-nucleoside rev


AIDS hits Africa most, but Asia set to overtake
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 28 April 1996
Buchizya Mseteka
NAIROBI - Nearly 13 million men and women in sub-Saharan Africa have the killer disease AIDS, a U.N. agency said on Sunday. Africa is the continent most highly affected by AIDS but Asia is set to overtake it, the agency said. U.N.AIDS, in a briefing to Kenyan government officials and heads of U.N. agencies, said sub-Sa


Firm offering unapproved AIDS cure charged with fraud
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 April 1996
Gene Ramos / Reuter
WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it sued a Pennsylvania company for enticing people infected with the AIDS virus to buy its stock in return for lifetime free treatments with an unapproved AIDS therapy. The SEC alleged that Lazare Industries Inc. and its chairman and chief executive, Richa


Glaxo Stumbles On Patent Concerns; Pfizer Debunks Merger Rumors
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 April 1996
LONDON - Shares in Glaxo Wellcome Plc stumbled to a six-month low on Thursday amid concerns the British giant will lose an impending legal battle over patent infringement of Zantac, analysts said. Under the additional weight of a selloff in U.S. drug stocks overnight, Glaxo lost 9-1/2 pence to close at 780-1/2 in Londo


Triangle Pharmaceuticals Acquires Exclusive Rights To Three Antiviral Compounds
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 April 1996
DURHAM, NC - Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that the company has acquired exclusive rights to develop and commercialize three novel anti-HIV compounds, including FTC, from Emory University. Two of these compounds, CS-92 and DAPD, were jointly licensed from Emory University and the University of


United Blood Services Under Investigation By Government
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 25 April 1996
NEW YORK - The U.S. government is investigating United Blood Services, based in Phoenix, Arizona, for hundreds of violations of federal blood safety guidelines, including allowing HIV-infected people to donate blood, CBS reported Monday. According to government documents obtained by CBS, United Blood Services was cited


Isis Presents Data On Fomivirsen For CMV Retinitis
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 23 April 1996
CARLSBAD, CA - Fomivirsen (ISIS 2922) provides prolonged control of CMV retinitis in AIDS patients, according to the president of Isis Pharmaceuticals . Dr. Daniel L. Kisner presented the data to participants at the International Consensus Symposium on Advances in the Diagnosis, Treatment and Prophylaxis of CMV infecti


Baxter Sets Its Settlement Share At $128 Million
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 19 April 1996
DEERFIELD, IL, - Baxter Healthcare Corp. is participating in a proposed $600 million settlement to resolve lawsuits that charge that Baxter and other companies sold blood products contaminated with HIV to hemophiliacs. Baxter said its share of the settlement is $128 million, which is within its previously established r


Bayer settles HIV lawsuits in U.S. with $270 million
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 19 April 1996
LEVERKUSEN, Germany - German chemicals giant Bayer AG Friday said it had offered to pay around $270 million dollars to settle several U.S. lawsuits accusing the group of selling HIV-tainted blood products to hemophiliacs. However, the offer was not likely to be accepted by the plaintiffs.


Engineered AIDS vaccine not effective - U.S. study
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 17 April 1996
Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON, - A five-year clinical study of a genetically engineered AIDS vaccine has shown it to be ineffective in helping to halt progress of the deadly disease, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. The study of the candidate vaccine gp160, made by Microgenesys Inc. of Meriden, Connecticut, was conducted by Walter Re


Hepatitis strain rare among U.S. blood donors
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 3 April 1996
CHICAGO - A strain of hepatitis blamed for most cases of post-transfusion infection is found in less than one percent of U.S. blood donors but is more common among less educated and younger men, researchers said on Tuesday. Only 3.6 out 1,000 blood donors tested positive for hepatitis C based on data from 862,398 donor


Repeat HIV tests reassure thousands of Britons
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. 16 April 1996
LONDON) - Thousands of Britons who rushed to hospitals and AIDS clinics last week after doubts were raised about the reliability of HIV testing have now been reassured that they are safe, the government said on Monday. Health minister John Bowis told parliament that out of 25,000 samples tested with a questionable kit,


Thalidomide: Used To Treat Chronic Diarrhea In HIV-Positive Patients
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 16 April 1996
WARREN, NJ - Celgene Corporation said it initiated a Phase II clinical trial of its thalidomide drug, Synovir, for the treatment of chronic intractable diarrhea in HIV-positive patients. The study has begun enrollment of study volunteers in London with further sites expected to open soon in the U.S. and


Immune Response's HIV Agent Promising; Hybridon HIV Drug Tests Get Underway
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 15 April 1996
CARLSBAD - Immune Response Corp announced late last week that 12 of 25 HIV-positive patients have responded positively to a trial of its Remune agent. One patient died 5 years after initiation of the study in 1987, and 11 are still alive and using the drug, a company spokesman said. In the open-label study, the 25 who


Children Unaware Of Diseases Prevalent 25 Years Ago
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 12 April 1996
WASHINGTON - After a quarter-century of successful immunization programs, few American children recognize the words for some of the most common diseases of the former generation, according to results from a survey released Wednesday. The survey, done at the behest of Merck & Co., revealed that 600 children betw


AIDS virus can shuttle repair genes to brain
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 April 1996
WASHINGTON - A modified, harmless version of the AIDS virus may someday be put to good use as a breakthrough tool in gene therapy, scientists said Thursday. In gene therapy, a vector such as a harmless virus or a virus modified to be rendered harmless in human beings is needed to shuttle the therapeutic gene to its tar


Amgen To Seek FDA Approval For Three Drugs
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 11 April 1996
THOUSAND OAKS, CA - Amgen plans to seek FDA approval for three drugs in the next 12 months while starting human trials on five more, the company announced. The five new drugs headed for trials this year are ob protein to treat obesity, glial-derived neurotrophic factor for Parkinson s disease, recombinant human keratin


Genzyme Tissue, Sequus Report Results
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 April 1996
CAMBRIDGE, MA and MENLO PARK, CA - Genzyme Corp s tissue repair division, Genzyme Tissue Repair, said it saw strong first-quarter growth in the leading performance indicators of its Carticel cartilage cell culturing service and expected sales growth to accelerate in coming quarters. The Carticel service uses a propriet


Britons swamp HIV clinics after test scare
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 April 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - Anxious Britons rushed to hospitals and AIDS clinics on Tuesday after spending Easter holidays wondering whether they needed re-testing for the deadly HIV virus. Britain said on Friday that 20,000 people who were given the all-clear would need to be re-tested after doubts about the reliability of the


Switzerland Withdraws Abbott HIV Test
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 9 April 1996
BERNE - Switzerland said on Sunday that it joined other European countries in withdrawing an AIDS test made by U.S. drug company Abbott Laboratories Inc. A Swiss official for the Federal Health Agency said the withdrawal order would stand until the cause of the test failures had been determined.


Immune Response Corp Announces Addition To The Board
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 April 1996
CARLSBAD, Calif., Apr 08 (Reuters) - The Immune Response Corporation has appointed Melvin Perelman, Ph.D., to the company s Board of Directors. During his 36 year career at Eli Lilly and Company, Dr. Perelman held numerous executive positions, including president of Lilly International from 1976 until his appointment a


Thousands To Be Retested After Faulty AIDS Test Discovered
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 8 April 1996
LONDON, Apr 08 (Reuters) - Up to 20,000 people in Britain who may have received a false-negative HIV test result will be retested for the AIDS virus, the government said on Friday. Officials with Britain s National Health Service said a small proportion of people who are HIV-positive may have been falsely reassured tha


Indonesia finds 39 bags of blood infected with HIV
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 April 1996
JAKARTA - The Indonesian Red Cross has since 1992 discovered 39 bags of blood carrying HIV, the virus which can cause AIDS, the official Antara news agency reported on Sunday. Antara quoted Buntaran, head of the Red Cross blood transfusion unit, as saying on Saturday the bags of blood were among the 2,465,000 such bags


Switzerland withdraws Abbott HIV test
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 April 1996
BERNE, April 7 (Reuter) - Switzerland said on Sunday it had joined other European countries in withdrawing an AIDS test made by U.S. drug company Abbott Laboratories Inc. An official for the Federal Health Agency confirmed news reports that the Abbott test had been withdrawn on April 3. Chicago-based Abbott stopped


French health minister expect AIDS test problem
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 April 1996
PARIS (Reuter) - France does not expect the same problems as Britain over a controversial HIV blood test since suspected French AIDS sufferers had to have two separate tests, Health Minister Herve Gaymard said Saturday The British Health Ministry said Friday that some 20,000 people who were given the all-clear would ne


Nkomo accuses whites of bringing AIDS to Zimbabwe
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 April 1996
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuter) - Zimbabwean Vice-President Joshua Nkomo Saturday accused whites of bringing AIDS to his southern African country to wipe out blacks, the state news agency reported. ZIANA quoted Nkomo as telling a funeral gathering for his son Ernest Thuthani, who he said died of AIDS Wednesday, that whites w


Worried Britons swamp AIDS helplines over test
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 April 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - Worried Britons swamped AIDS helplines with calls Friday after hearing that one test for the deadly HIV virus had been withdrawn after manufacturers said it had produced false negative results. British health officials tried to justify their decision not to announce that the test had problems earlier


Faulty AIDS test leaves thousands in anguish
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 April 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - Thousands of people across Europe who were cleared of having the HIV virus that causes AIDS will face an anguished wait for new checks after the withdrawal of a test kit found to be unreliable. The British Department of Health said a small proportion of people who are HIV positive were falsely given n


Worried Britons swamp AIDS helplines over test
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 April 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - Worried Britons swamped AIDS helplines with calls Friday after hearing that one test for the deadly HIV virus had been withdrawn after manufacturers said it had produced false negative results. British health officials tried to justify their decision not to announce that the test had problems earlier


Thousands to be retested after faulty AIDS test
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 April 1996
LONDON, April 5 (Reuter) - Up to 20,000 people in Britain who were cleared of having the HIV virus that causes AIDS will have to be re-tested because of unreliable tests, the government said on Friday. The Department of Health said a small proportion of people who are HIV positive were falsely given negative results in


AIDS virus breeds well in adenoids - study
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 April 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The AIDS virus breeds well in the adenoids -- the wrinkled, mucous-covered lymph glands in the throat -- in patients who have the virus but have no clinical symptoms, researchers reported Thursday. The discovery could be a key to finding how the AIDS virus is transmitted through mucous membranes,


U.S. prisons offering less AIDS prevention
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 April 1996
David Morgan / Reuter
ATLANTA (Reuter) - The number of American prison systems offering effective AIDS prevention programs is falling at a time when inmate populations have risen dramatically, federal health officials said Thurdsay. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued figures showing 75 percent of state and fede


Norwegians, Danes drop Abbott AIDS test
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 April 1996
OSLO, April 4 (Reuter) - Norwegian health authorities on Thursday joined the Danes in banning the use of a new test for the HIV virus after Swedish doctors discovered that it could give a negative result even when HIV antibodies were present. Norwegian Health Agency head Svein Erik Ekeid told Norwegian radio that donat


Abbott withdraws one of its AIDS tests from market
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 5 April 1996
FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuter) - The German unit of U.S. drug company Abbott Laboratories Inc. said Thursday it has stopped selling one of its tests used to detect antibodies of the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, since March 25. Abbott GmbH said shipments of the test -- IMx HIV-1/HIV-2 3rd Generation Plus -- were stopped a


Sri Lanka counts cost of AIDS among Mideast maids
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 4 April 1996
COLOMBO - Nearly 40 percent of confirmed female AIDS patients in Sri Lanka are housemaids newly returned from the Middle East, the bureau of foreign employment said on Thursday. There were only 44 confirmed female AIDS patients in the country, but 17 or 18 of these were returning maids, indicating a serious problem,


Abbott Stops HIV Test Shipments
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 4 April 1996
FRANKFURT - The German unit of U.S. pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories Inc said on Thursday it had voluntarily stopped shipping one of its HIV tests. A spokeswoman for Abbott said the test -- known as IMx HIV-1/HIV-2 3rd Generation -- has been sold on a worldwide basis since July, 1995. Abbott said its other HI


ALZA To Promote Bayer's Mycelex Troche
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 4 April 1996
PALO ALTO, CA April 04 (Reuters) - ALZA Corporation announced the signing of a promotion agreement for Mycelex (clotrimazole) Troche, an antifungal agent for the treatment of oral thrush , with Bayer Corporation. Under terms of the agreement, ALZA will promote Mycelex Troche in the U.S. for three years and will share p


Neuromedical Systems Patents Confirmed; Interferon Gets Patent For U.S. Treatment
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 4 April 1996
SUFFERN, NY and NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ Apr 04 (Reuters) - Neuromedical Systems Inc. said on Tuesday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed or found patentable every claim of the company s three re-examined patents. The company said that a party it would not name had tried to invalidate its patents. Two of t


Unimed Androgel-DHT Trials Starts
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 3 April 1996
BUFFALO GROVE, IL - Unimed Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it won orphan drug status from the FDA for its new drug, Androgel-DHT. The company also said it started Phase II clinical trials at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston to test the drug s safety and efficacy. Androgel-DHT is meant to treat HIV wasting syndrome and low test


Chiron And Ortho Settle Abbott Suit
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 3 April 1996
EMERYVILLE, CA Apr 03 (Reuters) - Chiron Corp and Ortho Diagnostic Systems Inc, a unit of Johnson & Johnson said on Monday that they have settled a patent infringement suit with Abbott Laboratories Inc. The suit, brought in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by Chiron against Abbott, cl


Safe sex on the menu at Vietnam cafe
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 3 April 1996
HANOI, April 3 (Reuter) - Vietnam , faced with a growing AIDS problem and traditional taboos, has opened a cafe in bustling Ho Chi Minh City dispensing coffee, condoms and a telephone hotline for advice on safe sex. The cafe opened last Saturday and was set up with financial help from Medecins du Monde, a European aid


Child-sex tourism may turn to Africa -experts
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 2 April 1996
Richard Meares
JOHANNESBURG, April 2 (Reuter) - Experts fighting child prostitution have warned that Africa risks becoming a new haven for foreign sex tourists being pushed out of Asia. Children were sometimes at risk from Western aid workers and even United Nations peacekeepers, according to representatives from a pressure group to


Pharmacia Upjohn To Supply AIDS Drug To U.S.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 2 April 1996
KALAMAZOO, Apr 02 (Reuters) - Pharmacia Upjohn Inc. said it has begun supplying its anti-HIV investigational drug, delavirdine, or Rescriptor , to certain patients in the U.S., through an expanded access program. The drug is a member of the antiretroviral class of agents called non-nucleoside reverse transc


Mongolia cracks down on growing prostitution
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 2 April 1996
ULAN BATOR, April 2 (Reuter) - Mongolian police arrested 170 prostitutes in raids on hotels and bars across the capital, Ulan Bator, and subjected them to AIDS tests before releasing all but 10, police said on Tuesday. The police swooped on regular haunts for prostitutes last weekend and held most of the women in custo


Senate Panel Votes To Privatize Some FDA Duties
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 29 March 1996
WASHINGTON, Mar 29 (Reuters) - A Senate committee voted Wednesday to try to privatize some of the government duties designed to assure consumers that the drugs and medical devices they are using are safe. The votes were part of a bigger FDA reform effort that has strong bipartisan support. But the future of the Sen


Cell Sciences And ArQule Sign Joint Discovery, Development Agreement
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 March 1996
NEEDHAM, MA Mar 26 (Reuters) - T Cell Sciences Inc. and ArQule announced a joint discovery and development agreement aimed at identifying small molecules that can suppress or activate T cells. The collaboration has the potential to yield therapeutics for a wide range of diseases, including transplantation, autoimmune d


Apollon Gets FDA OK To Start HIV Vaccine Trial
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 26 March 1996
MALVERN, PA Mar 26 (Reuters) - Apollon Inc. said on Monday that the FDA granted permission for a clinical trial of its DNA-based vaccine aimed at protecting against HIV infection. The privately held company has a partnership deal with American Home Products Corp for the vaccine. The Phase I/II trial is being conducted


U.S. TB rate drops but authorities fear complacency
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 22 March 1996
Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuter) - The renewed fight against tuberculosis in the United States is yielding results, with the number of cases dropping for the third consecutive year, but experts said on Friday another lapse into complacency could be lethal. According to statistics released on Friday by the Centres for Dise


AIDS patients to die from tuberculosis in '96
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 22 March 1996
GENEVA, March 22 (Reuter) - Tuberculosis has become the leading cause of death among people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and is expected to kill 250,000 this year, the United Nations said on Friday. Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the U.N. inter-agency programme on Acquired Immune Defiency Syndr


Serono Hopeful On FDA Feedback On Serostim
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 22 March 1996
GENEVA, Mar 22 (Reuters) - Ares-Serono said it was looking forward to feedback from the FDA next week regarding the use of its recombinant human growth hormone, Serostim, for the treatment of AIDS wasting. Ares-Serono chief executive Ernesto Bertarelli said he was hopeful that its Massachusetts-based U.S. affiliate, Se


Leading AIDS Researcher Warns of Second Epidemic
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 22 March 1996
SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 22 (Reuters) - Warning that a second AIDS epidemic may be making its way to the United States , Dr. Max Essex took the floor at the Eighth National AIDS Update conference in San Francisco. Dr. Essex, chairman of the Harvard AIDS Institute, says the world is currently fighting two very different types


Celgene Gets Added Thalidomide Approval
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 21 March 1996
WARREN, NJ Mar 21 (Reuters) - Celgene Corp said the FDA approved orphan drug status for thalidomide to treat cachexia. Celgene said it is sponsoring clinical trials of Synovir, Celgene s thalidomide drug, to treat cachexia and is supplying the drug with cost recovery under an FDA-approved arrangement.


All but one of Japan haemophiliacs take compromise
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 20 March 1996
TOKYO, March 20 (Reuter) - All but one of 456 Japanese haemophiliacs infected with the AIDS virus decided on Wednesday to accept a settlement to end their long legal battle against the state and five firms over the spread of HIV-tainted blood products. Television and media reports said they made the decision when two g


S.Africa insurer (METJ.J.) launches HIV policy
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 20 March 1996
Nicole Mordant
JOHANNESBURG, March 20 (Reuter) - South African life insurer Metropolitan Life Ltd (Metlife) (METJ.J.)has launched what it says is the world s first life cover for people infected with the HIV virus. The company said the service, designed for applicants who had been refused life cover because of HIV infection but who d


Tuberculosis rise adds to Vietnam's AIDS problem
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 20 March 1996
HANOI, Vietnam , Mar 20 (Reuter) - One of Indochina s biggest killers, tuberculosis, is on the rise in Vietnam with an estimated 130,000 people now being infected by the disease every year, a health expert warned Wednesday. A senior doctor working with Vietnam s Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases told Reuters


Austria vows crackdown on child sex tourism
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 20 March 1996
VIENNA (Reuter) - Austria s ruling party vowed to crackdown on pedophile tourism Wednesday saying it would fight for the prosecution and imprisonment of Austrians committing sex crimes abroad. Child-sex tourism is a booming industry in parts of Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, largely because of poverty and fear of con


Judge rules against firm selling AIDS-insurance
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 20 March 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A federal judge has ordered Waco, Texas-based Life Partners Inc. not to resume selling interests parceled from insurance policies of AIDS victims under purported revised procedures, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday. Judge Royce Lamberth, who issued the order after the SEC file


Trial begins Thursday in "cybersmut" case
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 20 March 1996
Randall Mikkelsen
PHILADELPHIA, Mar 20 (Reuter) - A federal court trial begins Thursday in a major lawsuit that could set a new standard for free speech rights on computer networks. A three-judge federal court panel is to hear witnesses on the lawsuit contesting the Communications Decency Act, signed into law Feb. 8 by President Clinton


Japan ministry fails to resolve tainted blood case
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 19 March 1996
TOKYO, March 19 (Reuter) - An investigation by the Japanese health ministry into the spread of HIV-tainted blood products has failed to determine why it happened or who was to blame, a senior ministry official said on Tuesday. A project team was set up in January to study the issue, particularly the process by which a


Senate votes to repeal new HIV ban
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 19 March 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The Senate voted Tuesday to repeal Congress s new law requiring the dismissal of military people infected with the AIDS virus. The Senate approved the repeal by voice vote and with no debate as part of a comprehensive federal spending bill. The House would have to agree for the repeal to take effe


Merck Protease Inhibitor Trials Begin In Japan
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 19 March 1996
TOKYO, Mar 15 (Reuters) - Banyu Pharmaceutical Co., a Tokyo-based company, plans to begin clinical trials of indinavir ( Crixivan ) in Japan . Crixivan is the HIV protease inhibitor manufactured by Merck and Co.


Nippon Shares Up After Merck HIV Drug News
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 18 March 1996
TOKYO, Mar 15 (Reuters) - Shares in Nippon Soda Co Ltd rose strongly on Friday after Merck and Co announced that it had obtained Food and Drug Administration clearance to market Crixivan . Some traders said the rise was fueled by talk that Nippon Soda would benefit from supplying ingredients for the drug to Merck.


Serono In Ongoing Talks With FDA On Serostim
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 18 March 1996
NORWELL, Mass., Mar 15 (Reuters) - Serono Laboratories Inc, the U.S. affiliate of Switzerland s Ares-Serono Group, said on Friday it was in talks with the FDA regarding the New Drug Application for Serostim. Serostim is the company s mammalian cell-derived recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGHm). It is intended for


Indian industry to fight AIDS through workplace
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 15 March 1996
Lisa Vaughan
NEW DELHI, India (Reuter) - Industrialists in India, the emerging epicenter of an Asian HIV/AIDS epidemic, Friday launched a nationwide campaign to educate workers about the deadly virus and help prevent its spread. HIV is the virus that can lead to AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It is normally transmitt


South Africa AIDS musical has costly message
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 15 March 1996
Richard Meares
JOHANNESBURG, March 14 (Reuter) - Sarafina, the schoolgirl revolutionary from Soweto who captivated Broadway 10 years ago has returned as a condom-toting social worker with a new struggle -- to stop AIDS engulfing South Africa . Her 14.2 million rand ($3.7 million) message has taken the country by storm -- but it s a s


Policy aims to help AIDS kids at school
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 15 March 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Schools should have policies in place to allow children and teachers with AIDS to participate as fully as possible in all classroom and athletic activities for as long as they can, a national education group said Friday. The National Association of State Boards of Education released a revised and


Merck Gets FDA Approval For Crixivan
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 15 March 1996
WEST POINT, PA, Mar 15 (Reuters) - Merck and Co Inc. announced on Thursday that it received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance to market Crixivan ( indinavir ), an HIV protease inhibitor. The company said the drug was approved under the FDA s accelerated review process.


Chiron Viagene And VRI Plan HIV Drug Development
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 15 March 1996
SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 15 (Reuters) - Chiron Viagene, a subsidiary of Chiron, has entered into a research and development collaboration with the Virus Research Institute of Cambridge, MA. The two organizations plan to develop intracellular immunizing agents for HIV and other infectious diseases. Intracellular immunization


Drug Makers Accept HIV Court Decision
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 15 March 1996
TOKYO, Mar 15 (Reuters) - Five pharmaceutical companies Thursday admitted responsibility for transmission of HIV through unheated blood products to close to 2,000 hemophiliacs. Green Cross Corp., Nippon Zoki Pharmaceutical Co., the Semo Chemo Therapeutic Research Institute, Baxter Ltd. and Bayer Yakuhin Ltd. apologized


Intense Drive for AIDS Vaccine Urged for NIH
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 14 March 1996
Joanne Kenen / Reuter
BETHESDA, Md (Reuter) - The National Institutes of Health should spearhead a renewed drive for an AIDS vaccine and improve coordination of other aspects of its $1.4 billion a year AIDS research, a high-level scientific advisory panel said Thursday. The so-called Working Group did not recommend setting up a new scientif


Kessler Defends FDA On Approval Of Drugs; Seeks New Fees
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 14 March 1996
WASHINGTON, Mar 14 (Reuters) - FDA Commissioner David Kessler defended the agency s record on approval of new drugs and said he wanted to impose new fees for approval of medical devices and oversight of imported foods and other products. In testimony to a House Appropriations subcommittee, Kessler asked for $1.02 billi


Gilead Science's VISTIDE Available On Temp Basis In France
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 14 March 1996
FOSTER CITY, CA Mar 14 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences , Inc. announced that it has made VISTIDE (cidofovir intravenous) available in France for use under an ATU (Autorisations Temporaires d Utilisation) Program for the treatment of relapsing cytomegalovirus retinitis in patients with AIDS.


Abbott Labs To Step Up Shipment Of AIDS Drug To France
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 14 March 1996
PARIS, Mar 14 (Reuters) - On March 4, Reuters Health reported that Abbott Labs had no plans to expand a European distribution program in which ritonavir would be supplied to 2,000 patients with advanced HIV infection. On Wednesday, French Prime Minister Alain Juppe said that Abbott Lab


U.S. likely to consolidate AIDS research
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 13 March 1996
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A high-level advisory panel has recommended that the National Institutes of Health restructure and consolidate many AIDS research and clinical testing programs, activists who have seen the report said Wednesday. The NIH will officially release the study by the Working Group Thursday. It is the res


Specialists help HIV patients live longer
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 13 March 1996
BOSTON (Reuter) - Confirming a notion that seems like common sense, a medical study has found that AIDS patients who seek help from physicians highly experienced in treating the deadly disease tend to live significantly longer. The study of 403 AIDS patients, to be published in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicin


U.S. firm to sell more AIDS drug to France
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 13 March 1996
PARIS (Reuter) - French Prime Minister Alain Juppe said Wednesday a U.S. drugmaker would step up shipments of a new anti-AIDS drug, ending a row over whether a lottery would be needed to select patients who would benefit. Juppe told the National Assembly that Abbott Laboratories had pledged immediately to provide the


Lawyer argues that "Philadelphia" is true story
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 12 March 1996
Gail Appleson, U.S. Law Correspondent
NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuter) - The film Philadelphia was not a fictional movie, as Tri-Star Pictures says, but the true story of an attorney who sued the world s largest law firm for firing him because he had AIDS, a lawyer argued on Tuesday. The allegation was made during opening arguments in a case brought by the fami


Money Shortage Delays Coverage Of HIV Drug Combination Therapy
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 12 March 1996
NEW YORK, Mar 12 (Reuters) - At the same time that new combination drug protocols are giving hope to HIV-positive patients, a shortage of money in state programs is forcing many of the states to delay or deny coverage for the therapies and to drop coverage of other drugs, as well. Compounding factors are the budget bat


Pomegranates could help in battle against AIDS
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 March 1996
LONDON (Reuter) - A substance derived from pomegranates could prove a new weapon in the fight to prevent the spread of AIDS, British scientists said Friday. Professor Gordon Stewart, Nottingham University s head of applied biochemistry and food science, said: It could eventually be used to control the spread of herpes


US says better AIDS tests protect blood supply
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 March 1996
ATLANTA (Reuter) - The rare case of a Utah man with AIDS who sold blood plasma after testing negative for HIV antibodies does not raise doubts about the nation s blood supply, federal health officials said Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there was no risk of HIV transmission bec


Japan courts unveils fresh compromise in HIV case
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 March 1996
TOKYO (Reuter) - Two Japanese courts Thursday unveiled a final proposal paving the way for an out-of-court settlement in a suit filed by 400 hemophiliacs who contracted AIDS from tainted blood. The Tokyo District Court and Osaka District Court recommended the state and five pharmaceutical firms pay $1,428 every month t


Celgene Corp. Dispenses Synovir AIDS Drug
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 March 1996
WARREN, NJ Mar 07 (Reuters) - Celgene Corp. said on Wednesday that it began dispensing its experimental thalidomide drug, Synovir, under an expanded access protocol approved late last year by the FDA . Last December, Celgene finalized plans for increasing production of Synovir to 10 million capsules annually, which is


AmBisome Compassionate Use Protocol Initiated
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 7 March 1996
BOULDER, Mar 07 (Reuters) - NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that investigators associated with a compassionate use protocol for AmBisome, the company s liposomal formulation of the antifungal agent amphotericin B, have initiated patient enrollment. Previously, the FDA had accepted the company s protocol design


Medtronic's Sequestra 1000 Cleared By FDA; FDA Clears Chiron's Eye Drug Delivery
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 March 1996
MINNEAPOLIS, MN and CLAREMONT, CA Mar 06 (Reuters) - Medtronic Inc. said the FDA cleared for commercial use Sequestra 1000, a new blood processing system used to conserve blood during major surgery. Sequestra 1000 performs autotransfusion. In addition to conventional autotransfusion, the Sequestra system simplifies the


Viragen, Inc. To Conduct HIV/AIDS Study With Natural Human Interferon
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 March 1996
MIAMI, Mar 06 (Reuters) - Viragen Inc. announced that it will conduct an investigational study in Florida, in collaboration with Biodoron, of Viragen s natural human alpha interferon product Alpha Leukoferon for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in hemophiliacs. Charles F. Fistel, Viragen s executive vice president, also annou