WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Women may be infected by the HIV virus in a different way than men, according to a study released on Monday, suggesting it could be even harder to develop a vaccine that would work well on women. The findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, showed most women in the study initia
ONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have developed a blood test which may transform HIV treatment around the world and end up saving millions of lives, newspapers reported on Tuesday. They said the test, developed by a team led by Dr Sunil Shaunak at London s Hammersmith hospital, could tell doctors when the AIDS viru
BANGKOK, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Representatives of the estimated one million Thais infected with HIV set up camp outside Thailand s Health Ministry on Wednesday to demand that the government break a U.S. drug firm s monopoly on an AIDS drug. About 100 protesters, wearing yellow T-shirts, called on the government to issue a
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The HIV virus that causes AIDS slides into a cell s nucleus using a tube that takes it right into the heart of a cell, researchers said on Wednesday. Like a firefighter sliding down a pole, the virus uses the tube, known as a microtubule, to get into a cell s nucleus, the researchers told a meeti
BOSTON (Reuters) - An international team of researchers said that an HIV drug combination that includes efavirenz is significantly more effective than standard therapy with the drug indinavir . Efavirenz s manufacturer, DuPont Co unit DuPont Pharmaceuticals, paid for the study o
LONDON (Reuters) - American scientists have identified two functions of a protein essential for the replication of the HIV virus that could provide a new drug target to halt the spread of the disease. A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester said a molecule, called the HIV ma
LONDON (Reuters) - American scientists have identified two functions of a protein essential for the replication of the HIV virus that could provide a new drug target to halt the spread of the disease. A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester said a molecule, called the HIV ma
TOKYO (Reuters) - The number of new AIDS cases in Japan jumped in the first half of 1999, the country s sharpest-ever increase over a sixth-month period, a health ministry official said on Wednesday. The release of the data coincided with World AIDS Day. There were 145 new AIDS patients in the January-June period, with
LONDON (Reuters) - Barbie, the world s most famous doll, is the latest recruit in the fight against AIDS as more than 50 top names in art and fashion reinvented the icon to raise money on World AIDS Day Wednesday. The Art of Barbie exhibition was a way to celebrate 40 years of the doll as well as help a worthwhile caus
LONDON (Reuters) - The world marked the last World AIDS Day of the millennium Wednesday with ceremonies, protests and calls for greater efforts to fight the disease in the next millennium. In London and South Africa public buildings were dramatically bathed in red light as World AIDS Day dawned, while in Washington hun
LONDON (Reuters) - St. Paul s Cathedral, one of London s most famous landmarks, was bathed in red light late Tuesday in a spectacular start to ceremonies around the globe marking World AIDS Day. The London project, which is twinned with the red lighting of South Africa s parliament in Cape Town, is one of dozens of eve
LONDON, NOV 30 (Reuters) - Complacency was the watchword as countries around the world prepared to mark World AIDS Day on Wednesday in remembrance of the 16 million people who have died of the disease and the 33 million still living with it. From Cape Town to Calcutta, from London to Los Angeles, cities and nations pla
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenya has declared AIDS a national disaster after more than half a million Kenyans died of the disease. Amazingly to some, however, the government still refuses to encourage condom use and, despite new measures to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS, the epidemic looks set to continue its deadly
LONDON (Reuters) - More than 2.6 million people died from AIDS this year -- the highest number since the epidemic began -- and the death toll is set to rise in the new millennium, AIDS experts warned on Tuesday. UNAIDS , the UN agency charged with combating the spread of the deadly HIV virus, reported 5.6 million new i
VIENNA, Va., Nov 22 (Reuters) - Cel-Sci Corp. (AMEX:HIV - news) said Monday that preliminary results of a Phase II study suggest that its HIV vaccine for subtype C -- the HIV subtype dominant in Southern Africa, India and China -- is safe and induces immune responses.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Liver disease has become the leading cause of death among HIV patients at a Massachusetts hospital, a report issued on Friday said. Many patients who are infected with HIV, especially those who contract the disease through intravenous drug use, are also infected with hepatitis-C virus, said Dr.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. agencies warned consumers on Wednesday that home test kits for the AIDS virus may not give accurate results, and said it was acting against people and companies selling unapproved test kits. Only one kit is approved for home use, the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) and
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Myriad Genetics Inc. said Thursday that it has identified a novel drug target for the treatment of HIV that represents a new approach to treating AIDS. Myriad said that the new target may enable the creation of an entirely new class of therapeutics, distinct from the
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists had more bad news for HIV patients on Thursday, saying they found that, within days of infecting someone, the virus manages to find hiding places that no drug currently in use is able to reach. The finding is another setback to doctors who had hoped that perhaps HIV could be stopped ea
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - An eminent U.S. medical research center will release lab specimens from a 1950s polio vaccine project in Africa in hopes of dispelling claims that its scientists inadvertently caused the AIDS epidemic, officials said Monday. For more than a decade, the Wistar Institute and two of its leading sc
CARLSBAD, Calif., Nov. 4 (Reuters) - Immune Response Corp. (NasdaqNM:IMNR - news) said data on the performance of its immune-boosting drug Remune showed that the drug increased HIV patients anti-viral activity. Based on results from a recent 120-week study involving 2,500 HIV-infected patients, the data showed viral lo
PRINCETON, N.J., Nov 2 (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY - news) on Tuesday said U.S. regulators had approved a once-a-day form of the AIDS drug Videx , a medicine launched in 1991 that until now has required twice-a-day dosing. The New York-based drug maker said the U.
NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Shares of Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) were down 22 percent Tuesday after a federal advisory panel rejected its anti-HIV adefovir dipivoxil pill developed against resistant strains of the virus that causes AIDS. Shares of Gilead were down 14-3/16 at 49 in heavy volume of more
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa remains cautious about using Glaxo Wellcome s AZT anti-aids drug in its hospitals despite the drug giant offering it at a 70 percent discount to world prices, the health minister said Tuesday. It still remains a very expensive drug.
DURHAM, N.C., Oct 26 (Reuters) - Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday that in a study, a drug cocktail consisting of its lead anti-viral drug candidate, Coactinon, plus two other drugs, significantly suppressed of replication of the AIDS virus, and was well tolerated. In a randomized, double blind study of 162 HI
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Details on a new clinical trial to determine differences between the sexes in the treatment of HIV were released Monday at a National Conference on Women and HIV/AIDS. Scientists and doctors don t know if women and men should be taking the same prescribed dosages. We hope this study will help us
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Immunex Corp. (NasdaqNM:IMNX - news) made false and misleading claims last May that its cancer drug Leukine was shown in a clinical trial to help fight the AIDS virus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has charged. The FDA , in a warning letter released Tuesday, said Seattle-based Immu
BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. researchers believe they may have found a chink in the armor of the AIDS virus, which could lead to a new generation of drugs designed to disable the virus before healthy cells are infected, according to a study in Friday s issue of the journal Cell. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research a
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A man who received a baboon liver in an experimental transplant became infected with a virus from the animal -- which throws another obstacle in the way of efforts to make animal-to-human transplants possible, researchers said Wednesday. The man, a 35-year-old HIV patient, died of his liver di
BOSTON (Reuters) - Unless the search for a cure for AIDS accelerates or preventive methods improve, the worst of the HIV epidemic has yet to come, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases predicted Wednesday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, said what b
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two popular HIV drugs may cause birth defects and should be avoided by pregnant women until more is known about their effects, German researchers said Tuesday. They found the two drugs, both members of a class known as protease inhibitors , caused abnormal eye development in baby rats. Ka
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A new class of HIV drugs known as fusion inhibitors may work to help patients who have failed other combinations of drugs, researchers said Monday. The drugs stop the AIDS virus from ever getting into cells in the first place. They are still experimental and must be injected twice a day, but e
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DuPont Pharmaceuticals said Monday that preclinical trials showed four new compounds it is developing were more effective than some existing drugs in fighting mutant strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The new compounds could be important in developing new drugs to help treat HIV-infecte
NEW YORK, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Shares of Trimeris Inc. (NasdaqNM:TRMS - news) fell on Monday after the drug maker released a study about an experimental AIDS treatment whose results appeared to fall short of some investors hopes. Stock in the Durham, N.C., company dropped as much as 7 to 17, before recovering to close d
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 -- The United States said today it defused a controversy over access to AIDS drugs for millions of poor South Africans, an issue that had strained the two countries relations and hounded Vice President Al Gore s presidential campaign. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said the United St
BRASILIA, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Brazil s Health Ministry on Thursday issued a comprehensive study on the incidence of HIV infection showing 536,000 of the country s 165 million people carried the virus that can lead to AIDS. Health officials have long suspected that Brazil, which suffers one of the world s highest incide
Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday September 15, 11:50 AM
Manoah Esipisu
LUSAKA, Sept 15 - UNICEF head Carol Bellamy sounded a wake-up call to African leaders on Wednesday, saying the fight against AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa was doomed to fail without their absolute commitment. In an interview with Reuters at the 11th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, the h
LUSAKA, Zambia Older men having sex with teenage girls are spreading AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a study released in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, on Tuesday. The 1997-98 study was designed to examine the striking differences in the speed at which HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was spreading in Africa. It
SHEFFIELD, England (Reuters) - British researchers will begin safety trials in the spring on a new vaccine to fight the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Professor Andrew McMichael of John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, who is heading the research, said Monday the dual vaccine, which is designed to stimulate T-cells in the im
LUSAKA, Zambia (Reuters) -- Eight-year-old Sepho Sitali urged governments in Africa on Sunday to declare AIDS a disaster to secure a future for children. In a welcoming speech at the 11th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (ICASA), Sitali spoke of the desperation in the anti-AIDS campaig
PRINCETON, N.J., Sept 8 (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY - news) on Wednesday said U.S. regulators have cleared two of its AIDS drugs for use in combination therapies to fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the drugs,
LONDON (Reuters) - A cheap and easily administered drug may offer new hope of preventing mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus in Africa and the developing world, doctors said Thursday. Up to 30 percent of women in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with the deadly virus that causes AIDS and a quarter of them will
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Prison inmates are five to 10 times more likely than non-inmates to have AIDS or the virus that causes it, and recently released prisoners account for one-sixth of the nation s AIDS cases, researchers said Tuesday. The first comprehensive effort to estimate the prevalence of AIDS and HIV among the n
ATLANTA (Reuters) - A survey in seven major U.S. cities found alarming levels of HIV infection and unsafe sex among young gay males, federal health officials said Monday. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the poll of boys and men aged 15 to 22 found that 7 percent were infected with HIV
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Health officials tracking an outbreak of syphilis cases have followed the virus into cyberspace, identifying an Internet chat room as ground zero for infection. Jeffrey Klausner, director of the sexually transmitted disease unit at the San Francisco Department of Health, said investigators qui
CHICAGO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - AIDS-infected mothers who give birth to healthy babies risk transmitting the virus to their babies through breast milk, especially in the first few months of breast-feeding, researchers said on Tuesday. A total of 47 out of 672 babies studied in the southeast African nation of
LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Five-year-old Lukman Ibrahim and his father Umar came to the Synagogue of All Nations in the hope of a cure for AIDS. Even among those seeking treatment at Prophet T.B. Joshua s church in Nigeria s biggest city, not everyone is convinced by his promise that God removes the HIV virus from all
LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish researchers have discovered why the progression of the HIV virus that causes AIDS is delayed in some sufferers, which could provide a new approach to fighting the disease. HIV infects the body through receptors for chemokines -- signaling chemicals that activate specific types of white blood
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to offer all pregnant women HIV tests in a bid to cut the number of babies born with the virus that can cause AIDS, Health Minister Tessa Jowell said on said Friday. If we look at the rest of Europe, we have done very well in this country in preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS. It is in
NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a publicly-traded Las Vegas, Nev., company on Friday with making false claims to have virtually eliminated AIDS-causing HIV in patients. At the same time, the U.S. Attorney s office in Manhattan said it arrested Alfred Flores, a convicted felon
Johannesburg (Reuters) - The HIV/AIDS epidemic is spreading like wildfire through SA s mining industry, threatening to kill up to 10% of the workforce a year and impair economic growth, an AIDS activist said on Wednesday. The rate of infection with HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, among SA s mineworkers is 7 to 17% ab
BANGKOK, July 26 (Reuters) - Bangkok police said on Monday they had launched a manhunt after several women complained a man had stabbed them with a needle he said was HIV-contaminated. At least six women, mostly teenagers, have reported in the past seven days that a man on red motorcycle stabbed them in the back with a
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The AIDS epidemic has devastated the lives of children across Africa leaving eight million as orphans and crushing rates of child survival, the United Nations children s agency UNICEF said Thursday. A staggering 48 percent of the world s HIV/AIDS cases are in eastern and southern Africa, and the vir
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A pulsed light system can eradicate the virus that causes AIDS as well as other viruses from blood products and biopharmaceuticals, the company that developed the technology said Tuesday. Maxwell Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:MXWL - news) said that independent testing of the system, known as PureBri
WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) - An ingredient used to coat pills to help them last longer in the digestive system could offer a new avenue for preventing transmission of the AIDS virus, researchers said Monday. They said the ingredient kills not only the HIV virus that causes AIDS, but the herpes virus and the bacteria
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - Just two doses of an anti-HIV drug called nevirapine can help prevent mothers from infecting their babies with the virus at birth, researchers said on Wednesday. When the mother gets one dose of the drug during labor and her baby gets one dose within three days of birth, the baby s risk
WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - An experimental AIDS vaccine that combines two approaches against the deadly virus seems to be doing its job without side-effects, researchers said on Tuesday. They said they could not tell whether the vaccines were actually preventing infection but said more than 400 volunteers had show
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - Swiss drug giant Roche said on Monday it will help a small North Carolina company develop a promising new class of HIV drugs that may stop the virus from infecting cells. The drugs, known as fusion inhibitors, are the mainstay of Durham, North Carolina-based Trimeris Inc., which hopes th
LONDON, July 9 (Reuters) - British drugs group Glaxo Wellcome Plc said on Friday that it had received approval from the European Commission to market its HIV/AIDS treatment Ziagen across all 15 countries of the European Union. In a statement, the company said the drug, which is intended to be taken in c
LONDON (Reuters) - Migrant working populations and high levels of sexually transmitted disease are fuelling a South African AIDS epidemic which shows no sign of abating, an African researcher said Tuesday. South Africa has six percent of the global population but carries 10 percent of the burden of HIV infection with a
LONDON (Reuters) - A natural compound found in coconut oil and packaged in a special gel can destroy sexually transmitted bacteria and viruses, including the AIDS virus HIV, in laboratory experiments, Icelandic scientists said Tuesday. Monocaprin is a simple fat but when it is dissolved in a gel it can kill HIV, herpes
LONDON (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged big business Friday to join the battle against AIDS, warning that its own interests were at stake. Annan said AIDS was wiping out economic gains in developing countries and the economic impact could spread in the same devastating way as the virus
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Fewer Americans are seeking anonymous testing for the virus that causes AIDS, possibly because of new rules on confidentiality of test results and a decline in the stigma associated with the disease, U.S. health experts said Thursday. The number of anonymous HIV tests, in which people do not have to
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS activists met with a senior White House official Tuesday to discuss concerns over a U.S. trade policy they say undermines efforts to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa. After a meeting with AIDS policy director Sandra Thurman, participants praised the Clinton administration for hearing their
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations AIDS agency called Tuesday for more research to find a vaginal cream or gel that would protect women from the deadly HIV virus. In a statement, the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS said it had sponsored a trial of a gel in Benin , Ivory Coast ,
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy said Friday that its scientists had developed a portable blood irradiator that should help make it easier to treat patients for leukemia, HIV infection and other diseases. The device, about the size of a well-used pencil, uses a radioactive element known as thulium-1
STOCKHOLM, June 21 (Reuters) - Drugs company Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK - news) said on Monday that Swedish authorities had approved its HIV/AIDS treatment drug Stocrin. Merck said in a statement clinical tests show the drug, with the active ingredient efavirenz , may be the most important addition to HIV/AIDS treatme
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS activists vowed Friday to dog Vice President Al Gore at every campaign stop unless he promises to support a South African law designed to bring patients cheaper medicines. Protesters disrupted Gore s speech Wednesday announcing he was running for president and confronted him at two campaign
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government warned consumers Friday to beware of HIV home tests sold over the Internet that promise quick results but can give false readings on whether patients have the virus that causes AIDS. The Federal Trade Commission, on its Web site, said consumers should not trust tests saying pa
WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - Nations must act right now against infectious diseases, from HIV to malaria, before it is too late, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. It issued a report saying the world has dangerously underestimated the risks from infectious diseases and may soon miss whatever opportunity
BETHESDA, Md., June 9 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton dedicated a new research center devoted to developing a vaccine against the AIDS virus on Wednesday, but AIDS groups said the government was not spending enough on AIDS research. The Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center will initially be devoted to the
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - U.S. drugs group Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY - news) said on Thursday a once-a-day version of its AIDS/HIV treatment Videx had been approved for sale across the European Union. In a statement, Bristol-Myers said the new version of the drug would make life easier for people taking
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Education and counseling programs in eight large U.S. cities with high rates of AIDS have increased condom use by high school students and reduced the number of sexually active youths, health officials said Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said surveys of more than 40,0
BOSTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Three people infected with a weak form of HIV more than 14 years ago have begun to show signs of immunological damage, reducing hope that such HIV strains could be used to develop AIDS vaccines, a medical journal reported on Wednesday. The three were infected with a weakened form of HIV in
The Asian Development Bank yesterday unveiled an US$8.2 million (HK$63.4 million) plan to tackle the spread of Aids in six Mekong region countries, where some top policy-makers are still reluctant to acknowledge the problem. The region includes areas among the worst hit in Asia by the spread of HIV, which a bank offici
WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - Researchers said on Tuesday they had struck another blow against the HIV virus that causes AIDS, although they stressed they have not cured anybody yet. They said they had teased out one of the hiding places of the virus, allowing strong drugs to then attack the virus and clear much of it
WILMINGTON, Del., June 1 (Reuters) - DuPont Co. s DuPont Pharmaceuticals division said Tuesday that it has been granted authorization to market Sustiva , its anti-HIV drug, in Europe. Sustiva, which is taken once a day, was approved for sale in the United States last September.
BANGKOK, May 28 (Reuters) - Five-year-old Kanika has dreams of becoming a famous singer one day. But Kanika, whose name means flower in Thai, has AIDS and may not make it into her teens, let alone stardom. Doctors say the bright-eyed Thai orphan will soon wilt and become a pale shadow of her former self as the disease
WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) - The thymus, which produces important immune system cells, does not shut down at puberty as scientists have long believed, researchers said on Thursday. They said they had found evidence that the organ, located in the chest, keeps producing the cells -- named T-cells -- at least until the
BOSTON (Reuters) - New tests on people harboring HIV, the AIDS virus, suggest they may need to take powerful new anti-AIDS drugs for a decade or longer to eliminate the virus from their bodies. A team led by Linqi Zhang of Rockefeller University reported in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine that the number of
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government said Friday it was getting into the business of selling marijuana -- although only to bona-fide researchers. The problem is, it doesn t know how much to charge and has no idea how many people will be interested in buying. Two months after a government-commissioned study found
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court Monday let stand a ruling that a dentist violated a federal civil rights law by insisting that a patient with the virus that causes AIDS go to a hospital for treatment. The court rejected without comment or dissent an appeal by a Maine dentist who was found to have discrimi
NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) - Shares of Immune Response Corp. (Nasdaq:IMNR - news) tumbled Monday after the company was advised to halt a trial of its Remune vaccine -- a killed and altered HIV virus being tested to see if it can boost the immune systems of patients already infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Immu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the president and military officials may discharge an Air Force officer with the AIDS virus who was convicted of various offenses for having unprotected sex. The justices said the military s highest court overstepped its powers by issuing an order
In May 17 CARLSBAD story, second graph, pls. read ... AGPH.O ... instead of AGHP.O ... correcting ticker symbol for Agouron Pharmaceuticals. A corrected repetition follows. CARLSBAD, Calif., May 17 (Reuters) - Immune Response Corp. (Nasdaq:IMNR - news) said Monday that an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board recomm
TOKYO, May 12 (Reuters) - Leading Japanese pharmaceutical maker Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd said on Wednesday it had developed a new medicine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in cooperation with Kagoshima University in southern Japan. The company said in a statement that the new medicine inhibits the CCR5 recept
PRINCETON, N.J., May 6 (Reuters) - The research chief of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY - news) said on Thursday the company plans to increase its pharmaceuticals research and development budget by over 20 percent, in 1999 to $1.5 billion. In a Reuters interview, Peter Ringrose said the bolstered drug R&D budget was
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - Drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY - news) said on Thursday it would spend $100 million to fight AIDS in five southern African nations by setting up local medical research and community outreach programs. The company, which makes three drugs used against the HIV virus that causes AIDS, s
LOS ANGELES, May 3 (Reuters) - Immunex Corp. (IMNX - news) on Monday said its cancer drug Leukine helps AIDS patients stay on their drug cocktails longer without developing resistance to the drugs -- so long as they were started early. Leukine, which stimulates the immune system, kept the virus suppressed and extended
BOSTON, April 28 (Reuters) - AIDS sufferers whose immune systems have rebounded with the help of new medicines may no longer need to take other drugs to prevent AIDS-related pneumonia, Swiss researchers report in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, a person with an immune
TARRYTOWN, N.Y., April 26 (Reuters) - Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (PGNX - news) has developed a monoclonal antibody that, in in vitro tests, showed it could stop the infection cycle of HIV in AIDS patients, the company said Monday. The antibody, called PRO 140, binds and blocks a specific protein in the body named C
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the body for as long as 60 years, even when patients take strong cocktails of drugs, scientists said on Monday. Their findings are bad news for those who had hoped the drugs, which can suppress the virus to near-zero levels, could eventually wipe o
WASHINGTON, (April 26) - Researchers said on Monday they may have come up with a new approach for an AIDS vaccine, one that would not prevent infection but might help stop the virus from being passed on. The researchers worked with monkeys infected with an artificial version of HIV -- the closest they can get to a huma
BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - The conflict-ridden central African state of Burundi launched a campaign against AIDS Friday as the country s health minister said 160,000 children were orphans as a result of the disease. The day can be considered the real beginning of the war against AIDS in our country, National Assembly Presi
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in Washington Wednesday to protest at policies which they say protect drug companies but make AIDS drugs too expensive for people in Africa. Chanting, waving signs and in some cases defying police, AIDS activists and environmental and trade groups demonstrated in
WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) - Rich countries are spending $350 million to fight the AIDS epidemic, but their spending is not keeping up with the spread of the virus, a U.N. study released on Wednesday found. Twenty years into the epidemic, it is alarming that AIDS is expanding three times faster than the funding to
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Al Gore, who has called for urgent measures to slow the AIDS epidemic in Africa, has at the same time quietly worked to soften a law that consumer groups say could help AIDS victims there, according to a government report provided to Reuters. As head of the U.S.-
WASHINGTON, April 11 - The U.S. government, on behalf of drug companies, is bullying developing countries into abandoning a trade remedy that could help them fight the escalating AIDS epidemic, health and consumer groups say. Organisations from the United States and abroad, including the humanitarian group Doctors With
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - A beefy American in a loud Hawaiian shirt has been turning heads in the emerald green paddy fields of rural Vietnam. At five feet tall and 260 pounds, Dr. John Chittick cuts an unlikely figure slogging through the steamy southern provinces. But Chittick, who recently packed up his life in B
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has an estimated 400,000 people with HIV, although the confirmed cases are only about 11,000, the China News Service said Thursday. It quoted Zheng Xiwen, vice director of the Ministry of Health s AIDS Prevention and Controlling Center as saying cases had been found in every Chinese province.
NORTH CHICAGO, Ill., March 31 (Reuters) - Drug maker Abbott Laboratories Inc. said Wednesday it filed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for a new capsule form of its Norvir anti-AIDS drug, which had been in short supply because of production problems last year.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) - Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that Cambodia s AIDS epidemic is killing 22 people a day and is more serious than the country s long civil war. In a speech concluding a first national conference on AIDS, Hun Sen urged a mass campaign to increase awareness of the disease and called
WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - Researchers said on Monday they have found a second barrier that keeps most drugs from reaching the brain, a discovery that could help scientists make drugs more effective. Both of the barriers are patrolled by proteins that act like chemical bouncers or doormen, and it might be necessa
SYDNEY, March 29 (Reuters) - Human trials of Australian HIV vaccines could begin within months and eventually include thousands of people in Southeast Asia, researchers said on Monday. Trials of the vaccines, which have already protected monkeys against HIV when exposed to the virus, are awaiting government approval, s
CARLSBAD, Calif., March 26 (Reuters) - Biopharmaceutical company Immune Response Corp. (Nasdaq:IMNR - news) said Friday that a review of the Phase 3 trial data of its HIV drug REMUNE has been postponed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board until virological data from the trial is also available for review. REMUNE, which
ALMATY, Kazakhstan , Mar. 25, 1999 -- (Reuters) Ex-Soviet Kazakhstan, threatened by the spread of AIDS through growing drug abuse, is targeting the young this year in its battle against the disease, senior health officials said on Wednesday. Turar Chaklikov, head of Kazakhstan s AIDS center, told reporters children and
ATLANTA (Reuters) - A U.S. health agency Thursday discounted reports that needles infected with the AIDS virus had been found in such places as the coin return slots of pay telephones. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency had received many inquiries about reports that drug users infected
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Glaxo-Wellcome s HIV drug Epivir for use in children, the company said Wednesday. The FDA said the drug, known commonly as 3TC or lamivudine, could be used in children as
NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) - Biotech company Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday reported that its anti-HIV drug, HE2000, lowered the viral load and extended the survival of test animals. In a study conducted by the Washington Regional Primate Center at the University of Washington, macaque primates infecte
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A vaccine against the HIV virus will not be available for at least another decade, the head of the United Nations agency responsible for combating AIDS said Wednesday. If we are realistic, we will not have a vaccine for at least 10 more years, said Peter Piot, Belgian executive director of
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The viruses that cause measles, AIDS, Ebola and influenza may all be distantly related, perhaps descended from a common ancestor, researchers reported Friday. Scientists who have imaged the viruses say they all use a very similar mechanism to enter the cells they infect. The structure of this mol
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists said Friday they had figured out how the immune system remembers enemies it has encountered in the past, a discovery that could lead to better vaccines and perhaps treatment for the AIDS virus. A report in the journal Science shows that so-called memory T-cells are extremely slow learn
LONDON (Reuters) - Triple drug combination therapy has reduced the death rate and the progression of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in a large study of Swiss patients, doctors said Friday. In a report in The Lancet medical journal, doctors at University Hospital in Zurich said that 2,674 HIV-positive patients on highly
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 11 (Reuters) - Procept, Inc. (Nasdaq:PRCT - news) said Thursday that its PRO 2000 Gel topical microbicide has shown in studies on monkeys evidence of protection from vaginal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. The company said results from a small study indicated that PRO 2000 Gel r
WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - More people are receiving help to pay for drugs to treat AIDS and HIV infection, but some states are not supplying drugs to all who need them, a study published on Tuesday showed. The number of patients taking such drugs has grown by 22 percent over the past year, with spending on drugs
LONDON (Reuters) - Medical experts defended the use of placebos, or dummy pills, in clinical trials to test the effectiveness of drugs to treat the HIV virus that causes AIDS. In a consensus statement printed in The Lancet medical journal Friday, researchers, ethicists and experts in public health and policy from aroun
LONDON (Reuters) - A short course of the drug AZT could halve the number of HIV positive mothers transmitting the killer virus to their babies, doctors said Friday. Three studies published in The Lancet medical journal showed the benefit of using AZT, known generically as zidovudine, to prevent the spread of AIDS in po
LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 4 (Reuters) - Shares of drug company Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq:GILD - news) rose more than 14 percent on Thursday following encouraging results from trials of its anti-HIV drug, Preveon. Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead rose $5.68 to $47.62 in afternoon trading on Nasdaq, making it one of
FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 3 (Reuters) - Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq:GILD - news) said Wednesday based on preliminary Phase III trial results of its low-dose HIV drug Preveon, it plans to seek U.S. marketing approval for the drug in the second quarter. The company said one of Preveon s advant
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Reuters) - A range of invisible, odorless substances holds the prospect of putting women -- especially in Africa -- in control of preventing AIDS. But microbicides are not getting the major research push they deserve because drug firms see little chance of making big profits, experts say. Sc
BRASILIA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - The United Nations AIDS-fighting agency launched a campaign on Thursday to increase awareness about the fatal and incurable disease among children and young adults. Working with people under 25 is perhaps the best hope we have today of bringing the epidemic under control, said Peter Piot, t
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of Canadians who say they were infected with the AIDS virus and hepatitis C from imported U.S. blood in the early 1980s said Wednesday they plan to sue the United States , and perhaps even President Clinton. They say the blood was taken from inmates at prisons in Louisiana and Arkansas du
WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - It was March 1983 when Dana Kuhn first started to bleed. He knew he was a hemophiliac but had not needed the donated blood proteins that others with his condition depend on. But in 1983 his luck ran out, and he rushed to the emergency room for an infusion of Factor VIII, one of the blood
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai chemists have stopped six years of trials on a type of bitter cucumber as a cure for AIDS saying they had no proof it worked. The Government Pharmaceutical Organization said Tuesday it ended the trials on mara khi nok (momordica charantia). The trial of mara khi nok has been stopped, a spokeswo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A common detergent found in shampoo and toothpaste can kill not only the AIDS virus but the viruses that cause cervical cancer and herpes infection, researchers said Friday. The compound, sodium dodecyl sulfate or SDS, can also kill the bacteria that cause chlamydia, the most commonly sexually tr
LONDON (Reuters) - Antibiotic treatments to curb the spread of venereal diseases could help prevent transmission of the HIV virus in its early stages, doctors said Friday. In a commentary in The Lancet medical journal on the effectiveness of treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV, they said the seem
WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Hard on the heels of the first AIDS vaccine trial in Africa, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday they had permission to start an advanced trial of an HIV vaccine in Thailand . VaxGen Inc., a California-based company spun off from the biotechnology firm Genentech
WEST POINT, Pa., Feb 5 (Reuters) - Merck & Co. Inc. said Friday that Crixivan , in combination with two other antiviral drugs, kept HIV levels below detection in patients taking the drug cocktail for three year. The latest results from Merck s 035 study, the longest study of a protease inhibitor-based combinat
CHICAGO (Reuters) - AIDS experts got another piece of bad news Thursday -- patients are passing on strains of the virus that resist one or more drugs from the very start. That means that the minute some people get infected, there will be some drugs that are probably a waste of time. Now the question is will it be worth
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A huge gamble that involves going off lifesaving drugs for a while to lure out the last remnants of HIV infection may actually pay off, AIDS researchers said Thursday. They described the first tests in a tentative and dangerous experiment, which gave signs that a few -- a very few -- HIV patients wh
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new blood test being tried on first-time blood donors has confirmed researchers suspicions about the AIDS epidemic -- it is moving fastest in the U.S. southeast and among minority groups. Dr. Michael Busch of the Blood Centers of the Pacific in San Francisco told an AIDS conference in Chicago that
BRIDGEWATER, N.J., Feb 3 (Reuters) - Swedish drug group Pharmacia & UpJohn said Wednesday preliminary results of an ongoing clinical trial suggest that its HIV drug, Rescriptor , significantly decreases viral lode when taken in combination with other HIV drugs. Researchers presented the study results at an AIDS
CHICAGO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - United Nations researchers said on Wednesday they were checking records from an AIDS study to see if there is any evidence that drugs meant to battle the infection can sometimes cause a rare and fatal brain disease. Dr. Joseph Saba of the UNAIDS program said he had been troubled by a French r
CHICAGO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Doctors expressed concern on Wednesday that a growing number of HIV patients are becoming careless about the risks of spreading the virus, lulled into a false sense of security by drug cocktails that keep them feeling healthy. Others are refusing to face up to their infection -- or do not kno
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Women infected with the virus that causes AIDS also run a high risk of infection with human papilloma virus (HPV), believed to be a major cause of cervical cancer, according to a study published on Wednesday. Dr. Joel Palefsky of the University of California at San Francisco said the st
CHICAGO (Reuters) - AIDS experts say they have discovered fresh evidence that a simple and relatively inexpensive course of just a few drugs can reduce the risk that HIV-infected mothers will pass on the virus to their newborns. Tests conducted in Africa showed that women infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,
CHICAGO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Drug developer Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday that preliminary clinical data show its Agenerase anti-AIDS drug ( amprenavir ), a protease inhibitor taken twice a day, is potent and has few significant side effects.
CHICAGO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Only about half of all people infected with the AIDS virus in the United States are getting treatment, researchers said on Tuesday. But they said more study is needed to find out who is slipping through the cracks -- and why. Half of all adults with HIV infection are not getting regular care,
CHICAGO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Doctors trying to find ways to prevent the transmission of the AIDS virus to babies reported some disturbing news on Tuesday -- some babies are inheriting drug-resistant infections. While drug treatment during pregnancy can greatly reduce the risk that a mother will infect her baby -- those b
CHICAGO (Reuters) - AIDS experts say they have even more evidence that a simple and relatively inexpensive course of just a few drugs can reduce the risk that HIV-infected mothers will pass on the virus to their newborns. Tests in Africa show that women infected with the virus that causes AIDS, who were given just a fe
LONDON (Reuters) - The discovery of strong evidence that the human AIDS virus originated in chimpanzees could speed up the search for a vaccine or better treatments, experts said Monday. Researchers in the United States announced the breakthrough Sunday, appearing to remove any doubt about the origin of the virus that
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - news) Inc. and researchers Monday presented what they called promising results from Abbott s new anti-AIDS drug, a key feature of which is the minimal list of side effects reported so far. Abbott s drug, an advanced-generation protease inhibitor called ABT-378, has be
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - AIDS vaccine researchers got a setback on Monday when a study confirmed what many had feared -- the so-called live vaccine does not work in monkeys. Tests on macaques show that a live but genetically crippled version of the virus somehow manages to reconstitute itself in the body, giving t
CHICAGO, Feb 01 (Reuters Health) -- The origin of HIV-1, the virus responsible for the AIDS epidemic, appears to be a chimpanzee subspecies indigenous to West Africa, Dr. Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham announced at a medical conference on Sunday evening. The finding suggests that HIV may have
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A chimpanzee named Marilyn has helped confirm that the AIDS virus first passed into people from chimps, researchers said Sunday. They said genetic tests show the HIV virus is closely related to a virus that infects chimps but does not make them sick. It would have been first passed to humans when
BOSTON (Reuters) - Pregnant women infected with the AIDS virus can dramatically reduce the chance of passing the disease to their child if the baby is delivered by Caesarian section before labor has begun, according to ground-breaking analysis of 8,533 births released Thursday. The finding offers a new twist to the com
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The availability of powerful new drugs to treat HIV and AIDS may be encouraging gay men to discard the safe-sex practices that have slowed the epidemic in the past, federal health officials said Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said rates of male rectal gonorrhea at sex
NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Investors on Wednesday signaled their support for Warner-Lambert Co. s (NYSE:WLA - news) planned acquisition of Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:AGPH - news) by bidding up the shares of both companies, an enthusiasm matched by most Wall Street analysts. Agouron shares closed up $2.3
Warner-Lambert s acquisition of Agouron is another demonstration of our commitment to sustain our position among the fastest growing companies in the pharmaceutical industry. We have already made significant progress by more than doubling our worldwide pharmaceutical business in less than two years. In 1996, our world
ANAHEIM, California (Reuters) - Wide use of drugs that suppress the HIV virus that causes AIDS could end up making the epidemic even worse, scientists warned. Once the drugs are widely used in the community, people get sloppy about taking them, which allows resistance to develop and makes the virus even more likely to
BOMBAY, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Saliva Diagnostics Systems (SDS) (OTC BB:SALV - news), a small U.S. company, has tied up with Zydus Cadila of India to market a new HIV blood test so simple it could be used at home, officials of both companies said on Thursday. The test, which is being checked by the National Institute o
LONDON, Jan 20 - A third of gay men with HIV in Britain don t know they have the deadly virus that causes AIDS, researchers said on Wednesday. The figures from Britain s Public Health Laboratory Service are taken from surveys that measure how many people are living with HIV in different communities. The government agen
ABERDEEN, Md. (Reuters) - A female U.S. soldier infected with the AIDS virus will spend three years in a military prison for having unsafe sex with nine men, the Army said on Wednesday. Pfc. Gerland Squires, a 21-year-old stationed at Maryland s Aberdeen Proving Ground, had pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assau
WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) - The AIDS community, locked in a herculean struggle to contain the ever-rising cost of life-sustaining HIV drugs, has come up with a new watchword in its long battle against big drug companies -- dialogue. After one of the most contentious years on record, AIDS activists have met privately in
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists who managed to freeze the AIDS virus in the act of infecting a cell said Thursday their experiment could lead to a vaccine that will actually work against the deadly virus. They said tests in mice showed the immune system responded to the frozen version, raising hopes that a broadly us
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers said Thursday they had found a possible way to use the HIV virus that causes AIDS as an effective delivery system for gene therapy. Tests in mice show a crippled version of the deadly virus -- one in which only a single gene is intact -- might be used to deliver new genes that can hel
BOSTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Women were twice as likely as men to contract gonorrhea, hepatitis B and other sexually transmitted diseases, with minority women disproportionately affected, researchers reported on Wednesday. The study also found that providing culturally relevant preventive information to black and Hispani
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Scientists said on Wednesday they had harnessed a protein that can force cells infected with the AIDS virus to commit suicide. They smuggled this protein into some infected cells using new technology that might be used to fight other bugs, such as the viruses that cause hepatitis and herpe
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The AIDS virus not only kills off T-cells in the body s immune system, but also blocks the production of healthy new versions of these vital cells, according to a study released Monday. The California study, which involved the first direct clinical evidence of cell production in the human bloo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists who have mapped all the genes of an Indian subtype of the HIV virus said Friday it had a frightening knack for swapping genes with other strains, which will make it extremely hard to develop a vaccine against it. They found major differences in genes throughout the virus -- not surpris
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