2001

Mbeki Urges South Africa to Stop Wave of Baby Rapes: Reuters NewMedia - Friday December 28, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki used his New Year s message on Friday to call on South Africans to stop a wave of rapes of babies and children. As the year came to its end, we concentrated on rape and in particular the rape of children and infants. This demands that everybody should be involved in fighti
Zambia's Tembo Promises Cheaper AIDS Drugs: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday December 27, 2001; Manoah Esipisu; MAKENI, Zambia (Reuters) - Zambian presidential contender Christon Tembo tried to woo voters on the eve of Thursday s poll with a promise of cheaper AIDS drugs to help combat the epidemic that is decimating the professional class. Tembo said his Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) would boost the fight against HI
Controversy simmers over "too healthy" AIDS ads: Reuters NewMedia - Friday December 21, 2001; Christopher Michaud; NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, patient advocates lobbied hard -- and for the most part, successfully -- to dispel the image of AIDS and HIV patients as helpless victims. Some 20 years after the disease burst onto the scene, activists may have the opposite problem. They are now work
WHO Launches Health Aid Blueprint for Poor Nations: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday December 20, 2001; Christopher Noble and Patricia Reaney; BOSTON (Reuters) - Rich countries must spend an additional $38 billion a year on health aid by 2015 to break a cycle of disease, war and poverty in the world s poorest countries, according to a report launched on Thursday. The extra money would save 8 million lives each year, said the report by 18 of the world s top ec
WHO Urges Massive Health Aid for Poor Nations: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday December 20, 2001; Christopher Noble; BOSTON (Reuters) - The world s rich countries must spend an additional $38 billion a year on health aid by 2015 to break a devastating cycle of disease, war and poverty that grips the globe s least-developed economies, a World Health Organization panel reported Thursday. That new money, six times more than current expe
South Africa Government to Appeal AIDS Case Ruling: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday December 19, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s government said Wednesday it would appeal a high court ruling that HIV-positive pregnant women are entitled to a drug found to reduce a newborn s risk of contracting the virus. We have instructed our legal counsel to appeal the judgement to the Constitutional Court on this matter
Roche presents promising studies on HIV drugs: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 18, 2001; ZURICH, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Swiss drug firm Roche said on Tuesday that it had presented new studies showing promising results of two experimental and one approved HIV drug at a conference in Chicago. A spokesman said in reply to queries that a study on novel fusion inhibitor T-20 showed expected results and good toleran
Three-quarters new US HIV cases resist drugs-study: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 18, 2001; Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent; WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - More than three-quarters of all U.S. patients with the AIDS virus have an infection that resists one or more of the drugs used to treat it, researchers reported on Tuesday. They said the grim news meant that drug-resistant HIV had spread even faster than was feared, and the lifesaving coc
Ivory Coast's Prostitutes Learn to Live with AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday December 15, 2001; Silvia Aloisi; DALOA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - You can have her body for just over a dollar but no amount of money could persuade Joanna to have sex without a condom, or at least that s what she says. A beautiful 18-year-old with big, velvet eyes, Joanna is one of a group of AIDS-savvy prostitutes working at the Bataclan, a brothel in
South African Activists Win AIDS Drug Case: Reuters NewMedia - Friday December 14, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African activists won an important court ruling Friday in their campaign to force a reluctant government to help HIV-positive pregnant women save their babies from AIDS. Pretoria High Court Judge Chris Botha ruled that the government was obliged to provide the AIDS drug
Elton John Puckers Up to Model Lipstick: Reuters NewMedia - Friday December 14, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - He s hardly cover model material, but flamboyant pop legend Elton John is to pucker up as the face of a new lipstick. The British singer, never one to shy away from outrageous behavior, will help promote cosmetic company MAC s new Viva Glam IV, the latest in a line of lipsticks sold to raise money fo
Gene Therapy Shown to Help Sickle Cell Patients: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday December 13, 2001; Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers using a gutted AIDS virus and a custom-made gene said on Thursday they had corrected sickle cell anemia in mice and that the approach holds promise for people. If so, gene therapy could be used to treat one of the most common genetic diseases. But the researchers, who published their
Clinton Says Time Running Out in War on AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday December 13, 2001; Jeremy Lovell; LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Thursday no one was immune to the AIDS epidemic sweeping the planet and called for innovative and urgent solutions to avert a catastrophe. Unless we deal aggressively with AIDS now it will make us all poorer and less secure, he told a packed auditorium as he
S.Africa's Gold Fields agrees workplace AIDS deal: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday December 12, 2001; JOHANNESBURG, Dec 12 (Reuters) - South African miner Gold Fields Ltd , facing a growing AIDS crisis, said on Wednesday it had ratified a deal with unions to combat the disease that affects at least one in four of its 50,000 workers. Gold Fields -- the country s second biggest gold producer -- said the agreed workplace
Ivory Coast's Prostitutes Learn to Live with AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday December 12, 2001; Silvia Aloisi; DALOA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - You can have her body for just over a dollar but no amount of money could persuade Joanna to have sex without a condom, or at least that s what she says. A beautiful 18-year-old with big, velvet eyes, Joanna is one of a group of AIDS-savvy prostitutes working at the Bataclan, a brothel in
UN: Africa Needs $5 Billion a Year to Fight AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 11, 2001; Mathieu Bonkoungou; OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Africa needs $5 billion a year to fight AIDS -- 10 times the amount currently being spent on combating the disease, the head of the United Nations AIDS group said. In Africa it would require $5 billion to organize effective prevention, to care for people living with HIV and to support AIDS orpha
Study: Teens Turn to Web for Health-Related Issues: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 11, 2001; Reshma Kapadia; NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teens and young adults are flocking to the Web for health-related information as much as they are downloading music and playing games online and more often than shopping online, according to a national survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation released on Tuesday. A survey conducted by the foundatio
Drugmaker Plans Human Trials of New HIV Treatment: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 11, 2001; NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. said on Tuesday it plans human trials next year of a new treatment against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, describing it as a potential breakthrough medicine. Merck, speaking to analysts and investors in a meeting at company headquarters in Whitehouse Station, New Je
US Foundations Start Mother-Child AIDS Project: Reuters NewMedia - Monday December 10, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - US foundations announced on Friday a $100 million project to study and treat mothers who are at risk for passing HIV to their unborn children or to infants through breast feeding. The program, expected to last two to three years and operate mainly in Africa, would attach itself to 100 sites w
South Africa Reels From Horror of Baby Rapes: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday December 6, 2001; Wambui Chege; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Just what sort of person rapes a baby girl? This is a question shocked South Africans are asking after a spate of baby rapes. All the victims are girls and the most recent attack, last weekend, was on a five-month-old. Anti-rape activists citing police statistics say a woman is raped every 26 s
Hong Kong AIDS Group Makes Video on HIV Dangers: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday December 6, 2001; Chee-may Chow; HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong AIDS awareness group has launched the most candid publicity campaign yet in the territory--an explicit video about the dangers of having sex with prostitutes across the border in mainland China . The film s graphic language and scenes were a deliberate attempt to grab the
Agriculture Seen Key to Winning War on AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday December 5, 2001; David Brough; ROME (Reuters) - Agricultural development is key to winning the war on AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa as grinding poverty is fueling prostitution and worsening the pandemic, delegates at a United Nations seminar said on Wednesday. People who have enough food do not need to sell their body to get food that day, Marcela Vill
South Africans Protest Rape of Five-Month-Old Baby: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 4, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - An angry crowd hung a washing line of blood-stained diapers outside a South African court on Tuesday in outrage over the rape of a five-month-old baby at the weekend. The rape is the latest in a growing number of infant-rapes, fueled by a myth that sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV /AIDS
Drug Addicts in Fresh Rehab Breakout: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 4, 2001; HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam s efforts to clear its streets of drug addicts ran into further problems last week when inmates at a drug rehabilitation center staged the second mass breakout in the country in less than two weeks. Officials in the southern coastal town of Nha Trang said 19 addicts broke out of a center there
Ethiopian Opposition Blasts Govt. AIDS Program: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 4, 2001; ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian opposition parties dismissed the country s HIV/AIDS program as ineffective on Tuesday and called on the government to declare a state of emergency to stop the spread of the disease. An estimated 3 million Ethiopians are believed to be HIV-positive, making the Horn of Africa country one
Week On, Week Off Might Help AIDS Patients -Report: Reuters NewMedia - Monday December 3, 2001; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Letting patients with HIV take their medicines on a one-week-on, one-week-off schedule might save some money and might help reduce side-effects, researchers said on Monday. They said such a regime -- carefully monitored by an expert doctor -- worked to control the AIDS virus well. Patients could
Malawi Says It Will Cut AIDS Drugs Prices by 20%: Reuters NewMedia - Monday December 3, 2001; LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi s government said on Monday it would slash the price of antiretroviral AIDS drugs by at least 20% early next year to make them more affordable for an estimated one million Malawians living with the disease. The cost of a month s supply of the drugs will go down again by April. They should go
In China, Heroin Drawn to Cities: Reuters NewMedia - Monday December 3, 2001; John Ruwitch; BEIJING (Reuters) - It didn t take long for the clean-cut Beijing real estate broker to get hooked on heroin after a friend introduced him to it this year. I was curious, explained Li Qiang, who injected the drug from the start and was soon shooting up two or three times a day, spending about $97 a week to feed his hab
AIDS Drugs Prices in China to Be Slashed: Reuters NewMedia - Monday December 3, 2001; Tamora Vidaillet; BEIJING (Reuters) - Drug giants Bristol-Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline are preparing to slash the prices of their HIV drugs in China as the country faces up to the prospect of a major epidemic, industry sources said on Monday. Squibb is drawing up formal documents to lower the price of its two HIV drugs sold
Botswana HIV Lab Aims to Finish Trials in 5 Years: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday December 1, 2001; GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana President Festus Mogae dedicated a $6 million AIDS laboratory on Saturday -- designated World Aids Day -- which is expected to complete trials of an HIV vaccine within five years. The project is a joint venture between the Botswana government, the pharmaceutical companies
China Ends AIDS Silence: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday December 1, 2001; Jeremy Laurence; LONDON (Reuters) - A veil of secrecy still shrouds AIDS in some countries 20 years after it first reared its head but on Saturday China , the latest convert to openness, marked World AIDS Day by airing a shocking TV drama on the disease. In South Africa , where more people live with HIV/AIDS than in any other countr
World AIDS Day: Mandela Calls for Drugs, Leadership: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday December 1, 2001; Brendan Boyle; CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela called on Saturday for AIDS victims to be given access to drugs that fight the disease and said heads of state must take the lead in raising awareness of the illness. Nothing threatens us more today than HIV/AIDS...AIDS is a scourge threatening to undo
Suffer South Africa's AIDS Children: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday December 1, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - There isn t even enough money to bury the dead AIDS orphans at the Cotlands baby sanctuary. Instead the ashes of 23 babies, the youngest just a month old, will be interned at a painful and moving memorial in a modest Johannesburg cemetery on Friday ahead of World AIDS Day. It will bring a digni
Young HIV Patient Fights Youth Complacency in US: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 30, 2001; Claire Soares; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Promise contracted HIV at age 16 when her first boyfriend raped her. But all she could think about as her doctor diagnosed the illness were her plans to party that night. Six years later, it is this memory that spurs her on as she travels the country with her braided hair and short skirts, trying
Thais Rally for Cheap Access to AIDS Drugs: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 30, 2001; BANGKOK (Reuters) - Over 1,000 HIV-positive Thais rallied outside parliament on Friday, demanding cheaper access to anti-AIDS drugs and protesting against their exclusion from government-subsidised medical care. Dressed in yellow and waving banners reading we are being discriminated against , the protesters asked to be
Nigeria Has 8.7% of World AIDS Cases--Officials: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 30, 2001; LAGOS (Reuters) - Nearly one in 11 of the world s 40 million people infected with HIV/AIDS are in Nigeria , Nigerian government figures showed on Friday. Nigeria has 3.47 million cases, some 8.7% of the global total estimated by the United Nations. Government officials said the number of cases in Nigeria had risen from
Ex-envoy Holbrooke enlists firms in AIDS fight: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 30, 2001; Jean Scheidnes; NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - An anti-AIDS group headed by former U.S. ambassador Richard Holbrooke urged corporations on Friday to do more to combat the disease among their own staff, particularly in Africa. We re asking companies to take greater responsibility for their own workplace first, Holbrooke, instrumental in
Ill-Equipped Nigeria on Threshold of AIDS Disaster: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 30, 2001; D'Arcy Doran; LAGOS (Reuters) - Georgina Ahanefule was on the brink of death a year ago when a U.S. charity sent her new life in the form of AIDS drugs she could never afford in Nigeria . I was very, very sick last December, Ahanefule said. If I stood, a breeze would blow me over. The hopes of 3.47 million Nigerians, like Ahanefule,
AIDS, Ebola Use Same Mechanism to Spread - Study: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 30, 2001; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The viruses that cause AIDS and Ebola, two deadly, contagious and highly feared diseases, spread through the body using the same mechanism, U.S.-based researchers said on Friday. The researchers, led by Dr. Paul Bieniasz of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at New York s Rockefeller Universi
Drug Company Cuts AIDS Drug Prices in S. Africa: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 30, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Europe s biggest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will slash 20% off the price of two key AIDS drugs in South Africa starting next year, the company said on Friday. The discount on 3TC (lamivudine) and
U.S. Epimmune, Dane Bavarian enter HIV vaccine pact: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 29, 2001; COPENHAGEN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Danish biotech firm Bavarian Nordic and U.S. Epimmune Inc. (NasdaqNM:EPMN) said on Thursday they entered a collaboration agreement to combine technologies to develop vaccines for the treatment of HIV infection. The pact could eventually lead to a merger, the Danish company s chief executi
China Might Try AIDS Vaccine on Humans: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 29, 2001; BEIJING (Reuters) - China could begin human testing of a potential HIV vaccine by the end of next year, a leading Chinese scientist said on Thursday. If Chinese drug authorities approve the tests on the serum, developed at the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine together with the University of Regensburg in
AIDS Orphans Confront 'Silent Genocide' in Rwanda: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 29, 2001; David Mageria; KIGALI (Reuters) - Scores of young Rwandan boys and girls crowd into a dimly lit classroom and painstakingly put the finishing touches to paintings daubed on worn-out pieces of brown paper. Many are AIDS orphans, learning the skills to cope with the legacy of an epidemic made harsher by the devastating impact of the co
World AIDS Epidemic on Rise; E.Europe Cases Swell: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 28, 2001; Clara Ferreira-Marques; MOSCOW (Reuters) - AIDS is continuing its grim march around the planet, with countries of the former Soviet bloc now facing the world s fastest growing infection rate, a United Nations report said Wednesday. An estimated one million people in Russia , other countries of the former Soviet Union and ex-communist states i
U.S. Syphilis Rate Drops to All-Time Low-Officials: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 28, 2001; Paul Simao; ATLANTA (Reuters) - The rate of syphilis infection in the United States fell to an all-time low last year, bolstering hopes the potentially fatal sexually transmitted disease can be eliminated, federal health officials reported on Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributed the decline to an on
Prejudice, Discrimination Haunt AIDS Sufferers: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 27, 2001; Patricia Reaney; LONDON (Reuters) - Twenty years into the AIDS epidemic, HIV sufferers in Britain still face prejudice and discrimination, AIDS activists said on Wednesday. A review by the Terrence Higgins Trust charity of AIDS research showed that one in five people with HIV have encountered discrimination during the last 12 months.
Forget Bin Laden, Fight AIDS, Cameroon Tells West: Reuters NewMedia - November 27, 2001; YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The West should mobilize a worldwide campaign against AIDS similar to the international coalition against Osama bin Laden, Cameroon s government said. I am amazed by the magnitude and rapidity with which the global coalition was set up to combat terrorism after the sad September 11 events, Cameroon
S.African Govt. Says Key Anti-AIDS Drug Too Costly: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 27, 2001; Wambui Chege; PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) - The South African government, under heavy pressure to provide a key antiretroviral drug to pregnant mothers with HIV-AIDS, said Tuesday it could not afford to provide the treatment nationwide. AIDS activists and doctors this week took the government to court in a bid to force it to pr
Merck Plans No More AIDS Drug Price Cuts: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 26, 2001; NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co. Inc. is not planning further cuts in HIV drug prices for poor nations, despite a World Trade Organization agreement this month that could lead to competition from cheaper copycat medicines, a company official said. Guy Macdonald, Merck vice president of anti-infectives, said generic
Hip Hop Superstar Combs to Fight AIDS Ignorance: Reuters NewMedia - November 26, 2001; Paul Majendie; LONDON (Reuters) - Hip hop superstar Sean P Diddy Combs (formerly known as Puff Daddy) Monday warned millions of teen-agers around the world that AIDS knows no frontiers and can kill anywhere. HIV and AIDS touches everyone, it kills without conscience, rich or poor, black or white, young or old, he said, launching a do
S.Africa AIDS Groups in Court Over Key Drug: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 26, 2001; Wambui Chege; PRETORIA (Reuters) - AIDS activists and doctors took the South African government to court Monday in a bid to force it to provide a key antiretroviral drug that cuts the risk of pregnant women passing the deadly disease to their babies. Activists say South Africa, which has more people living with HIV-AIDS than any oth
Singapore Group Calls for AIDS Drug Subsidies: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 26, 2001; SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore AIDS welfare group Monday called for the government to rethink its lack of drug subsidies as more than 70 percent of those infected in the city state cannot afford the life-prolonging treatments. Singapore is considered third world as far as HIV is concerned, Action for AIDS (AFA) sec
S.Africans Protest Baby-Rape, Case Postponed: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 23, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Hundreds of people protested outside a South African court on Friday, demanding death sentences for six men charged with raping a nine-month old baby, police said. In a case that has shocked the nation, the six men made a brief court appearance on Friday in the north-western town of Upington, b
Test Developed to See if Anti-AIDS Drugs Working: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 22, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in the United States have developed a quick method to test anti-AIDS treatments that could improve their effectiveness and prevent drug resistance, they said on Friday. Until now doctors were unable to determine whether a particular combination of drugs was fighting HIV until four to eight
Junior Doctors Ignorant of HIV Safety Steps -Survey: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 21, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - Most junior doctors know the risks they run of exposure to HIV but many are unaware that they can protect themselves by taking a course of drugs immediately after exposure, according to a survey published on Thursday. The postal survey carried out by researchers in Australia said two-thirds
Adult HIV Treatments Work for Children as Well: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 21, 2001; BOSTON (Reuters) - The protease inhibitor treatments that have dramatically reduced the death rate from AIDS in adults are also effective in children and adolescents, Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine reported. Until now, doctors had suspected that the drugs prevented deaths in younger patients the way they ha
Ending Silence on China AIDS a Breakthrough -UNICEF: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 21, 2001; Tamora Vidaillet; BEIJING (Reuters) - By breaking its silence on AIDS, China has taken a major step toward preventing an epidemic in a country where new HIV cases are rising by up to 30 percent every year, U.N. officials said on Wednesday. Mehr Khan, the Thailand-based East Asia Director for the United Nations Children s Fund, hailed Ch
Cannabis Still Europe's Favorite Illegal Drug: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 20, 2001; Martin Roberts; LISBON (Reuters) - Cannabis remains the most commonly used illicit drug in the European Union, with at least one in 10 adults in the 15-nation group having used it, according to a report published on Tuesday. The Lisbon-based European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said in its annual report for
African Study Backs Infant Formula for HIV Moms: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 20, 2001; CHICAGO (Reuters) - A study done in Kenya provides additional backing for the use of formula over breast feeding by women in poor countries who carry the virus which causes AIDS, researchers reported on Tuesday. While previous research has verified that the AIDS virus can be transmitted to babies via breast milk, the n
Spreading the Word on AIDS in Mozambique: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 19, 2001; Charles Mangwiro; RIBAUE, Mozambique (Reuters) - Almelia Joao has changed her life after hearing an anti-AIDS message, but many in northern Mozambique deny the killer disease exists and refuse to change. There are still people who remain ignorant--some willfully--of southern Africa s health time-bomb despite programmes to distribute con
South Africa AIDS Groups Go to Court Over Key Drug: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 19, 2001; CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - AIDS activists in South Africa said on Monday they were pressing ahead with a court case to force the government to supply a vital drug cutting the risk of pregnant women passing the disease on to their babies. South Africa has more people living HIV and AIDS than any other country, and activists
UN Official: Development Key to Fight Against AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 16, 2001; ROME (Reuters) - Economic development and easing patent laws to allow cheaper drugs are key to combating AIDS, a senior United Nations official said on Friday. AIDS is an extremely complex problem, and the main solution to the problem is development, said Marcela Villarreal of the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Org
EU Ministers OK New Rules on Blood Transfusions: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 15, 2001; BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Thursday agreed to stricter rules for the use of blood in transfusions in a bid to prevent future contamination scandals linked to HIV or the human form of mad cow disease. The decision of the EU s 15 health ministers is aimed at increasing the quality and safety standards for
Words Fail Africa in Fight Against AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 15, 2001; Matthew Green; NAIROBI (Reuters) - If African leaders could cure AIDS with speeches, the epidemic scything its way across the continent would have been vanquished long ago. More than six months after African presidents abandoned years of denial to declare the AIDS epidemic an emergency at a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria ,
China firms offer drugs, and hope, to AIDS victims: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 15, 2001; Edwin Chan; SHANGHAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A handful of Chinese drug firms are gearing up to beat foreign pharmaceutical giants at their own game, lobbying the government for approval to start producing the country s first drugs to combat AIDS at rock-bottom prices. While the big foreign firms attach price tags of thousands of dolla
EU Ministers OK New Rules on Blood Transfusions: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 15, 2001; BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Thursday agreed to stricter rules for the use of blood in human transfusions in a bid to prevent future contamination scandals linked to AIDS or the human form of mad cow disease. The decision of the EU s 15 health ministers is aimed at increasing the quality and safety standa
Poor nations score big win on WTO health front: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 14, 2001; Rawhi Abeidoh; DOHA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Poor nations, displaying rare unity and preparedness, on Wednesday won a World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal that allows them better access to cheap drugs. The agreement was formally approved by trade ministers of the 142-nation WTO after six days of gruelling negotiations at a conference in
China's Gay Activists Cheer New Openness on AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 14, 2001; ohn Ruwitch; BEIJING (Reuters) - In a country that has long kept homosexuals in the closet and AIDS under wraps, gay activists in China at last have something to cheer about. The Chinese Psychiatric Association dropped homosexuality from a list of psychiatric disorders this year. And this week, the first national conference on AIDS
Brazil hails victory on WTO drug patents accord: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 14, 2001; Katherine Baldwin; BRASILIA, Brazil , Nov 14 (Reuters) - Brazil celebrated its role on Wednesday in helping broker a World Trade Organization deal on medical patents that will give poor countries better access to discounts on drugs for AIDS and other major killers. Brazil, emboldened by its own success in challenging drug companies over
China Opens First Ever National AIDS Conference: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 13, 2001; Jeremy Page; BEIJING (Reuters) - China s health minister vowed Tuesday to curb the spread of AIDS as he opened the country s first national conference on the disease, featuring top Chinese media stars and a giant yellow inflatable condom. But Health Minister Zhang Wenkang offered no new initiatives or policy changes at the opening
China AIDS Victims Crippled by High Treatment Cost: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 13, 2001; Jeremy Page; BEIJING (Reuters) - Zhang Xiaqin looks like a healthy eight-year old. But her father s face is lined with anxiety as he struggles to find affordable treatment in China for the girl, infected with the HIV virus by a blood transfusion six years ago. As China opened its first national conference on AIDS and HIV Tuesday, Z
U.N. AIDS Chief Urges China to Break Taboos: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 12, 2001; Jeremy Page; BEIJING (Reuters) - U.N. AIDS chief Peter Piot urged China s leaders on Monday to get personally involved in the fight against the disease to pull the country back from the brink of a major epidemic. The day before China opens its first national conference on AIDS and the HIV virus , Piot also urged the government to f
Austrian Researchers Test Flu Vaccine Against HIV: Reuters newMedia - Monday November 12, 2001; Louis Charbonneau; VIENNA (Reuters) - Researchers at Vienna s Institute of Applied Microbiology say they are testing a possible way to prevent HIV infection with a modified flu vaccine. Dr. Boris Ferko, a member of the Austrian research team, said laboratory mice inoculated with flu viruses laced with material from the HIV/AIDS virus exh
U.N. AIDS Chief Urges China to Break Taboos: Reuters newMedia - Monday November 12, 2001; Jeremy Page; BEIJING (Reuters) - U.N. AIDS chief Peter Piot urged China s leaders on Monday to get personally involved in the fight against the disease to pull the country back from the brink of a major epidemic. The day before China opens its first national conference on AIDS and the HIV virus, Piot also urged the government to fa
Trimeris posts wider loss; HIV drug on track: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 8, 2001; DURHAM, N.C., Nov 8 (Reuters) - Biotech company Trimeris Inc. (NasdaqNM:TRMS - news) on Thursday posted a wider third-quarter loss due to higher research and development costs, and said its experimental drug to treat patients with HIV remains on track. Trimeris, which is developing an anti-HIV drug called T-20 with Swi
Vatican Blasts U.N. Manual on Refugee Sexual Health: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 8, 2001; Philip Pullella; VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican on Thursday blasted the U.N. s refugee agency, saying a field manual it published on reproductive health offended the dignity of people because it promoted irresponsible sexual relations and abortion. The Vatican criticism was contained in a document sent to bishops conferences arou
New TB Vaccine Trials Set to Start in Britain: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 7, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - Trials of the first new vaccine against tuberculosis in Britain in 80 years will begin early next year, a research charity said Wednesday. The Wellcome Trust said the new prime boost vaccine will be tested on volunteers in the first part of a study of the treatment to protect adults against the disea
South Africa Sees Launch of Rape Insurance Scheme: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 7, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A healthcare company on Wednesday launched a low-cost rape insurance scheme in South Africa , which faces the world s highest incidence of sexual assault. The 15 rand (US$1.58) per month policy offered by LifeSense Group, a private South African company, aims to help victims deal with the traum
Bristol-Myers to launch slate of drugs by '05: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 7, 2001; Ransdell Pierson and Jed Seltzer; NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY - news) said on Wednesday it plans to seek U.S. approval for five new drugs within the next 12 months and launch three new potential blockbuster drugs annually between 2003 and 2005. Speaking to analysts and investors at a conference in New Y
Meet Bono, Activist for Africa Post-Sept.11: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday November 7, 2001; Timothy Gardner; PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - It s 5:00 p.m. on a Friday and a man looking rather like a motorcyclist from the future is sitting in a hotel lobby soothing a cough with a cup of black coffee. Over the last two hours, he has met with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Ivory Coast s prime minister, Affi N Guessan, an
Cheap, High Quality Condoms Needed in SE Asia: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 6, 2001; BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (Reuters) - Southeast Asia wants to cap rising HIV/AIDS cases in the region by stocking up cheap, but high quality condoms for use by its people. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said on Tuesday it would campaign against the disease by promoting condom use for safe sex. Am
Brazil seeks WTO allies in AIDS-drug patent fight: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 6, 2001; BRASILIA, Brazil , Nov 6 (Reuters) - Brazil plans to seek allies at this week s World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar to support its ground-breaking fight to ease patent laws on AIDS drugs, Health Minister Jose Serra said on Tuesday. Serra, who will attend the WTO meeting in Doha Nov. 9 to 13, said Brazil will ask
Southeast Asia Agrees to Step Up AIDS Battle: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 5, 2001; BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (Reuters) - Southeast Asian leaders agreed on Monday to step up the fight against HIV, which has infected about 1.6 million people in the region. Leaders of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), in Brunei for their annual summit, issued a declaration vowing to spend
AIDS Myth Fuels S. Africa's Child-Rape Scourge: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 5, 2001; Sue Thomas; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa is in shock over a surge in the rape of children and even babies, fuelled by a myth that sex with a virgin will protect a man against AIDS, activists said on Monday. When six men appeared in court in the Northern Cape town of Upington for the rape of a 9-month-old girl on Monday, s
Drug Industry Under Fire at World Trade Meeting: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 5, 2001; Ben Hirschler; LONDON (Reuters) - The global drugs industry, accused by critics of profiting from AIDS in Africa and bioterrorism in the United States , faces a rough ride at world trade talks in Qatar this week. Executives were on the backfoot at an industry conference in London on Monday, warning of a slippery slope as developing
China AIDS Patient Uses Internet to Help Others: Reuters NewMedia - Monday November 5, 2001; BEIJING (Reuters) - The Web site of a Chinese AIDS patient, which acts as a forum for growing numbers of infected Chinese seeking advice on how to handle HIV/AIDS, has been publicized just days before a key conference on the disease. The pink-hued site of AIDS sufferer Xiao Cai is at http://aidscare.netsh.net and featu
Ghana to Produce Cheap Drugs to Fight AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 2, 2001; Kwaku Sakyi-Addo; ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana plans to begin producing its own generic versions of drugs for managing HIV/AIDS, so sufferers in the poor West African country can afford them, a government minister said. We re negotiating with the WHO (World Health Organisation) and the Ministry of Public Health in
HIV Rise in Russia May Lead to TB Epidemic -Doctors: Reuters NewMedia - Friday November 2, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - A rapid rise in the number of people infected with HIV in Russia could lead to a tuberculosis epidemic there, scientists warned on Friday. An estimated 16 million people, or one in six, in Russia are already infected with tuberculosis, a highly infectious airborne bacterial infection that affects the
Hundreds Protest Over AIDS Drug Patent Debate: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday November 1, 2001; Lisa Richwine; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS activists protested outside U.S. trade negotiators offices on Thursday, accusing the officials of keeping cheaper medicines from poor nations while getting a discount on an anthrax drug at home. The protesters were trying to send a message ahead of a World Trade Organization meeting in Doha,
S.Africa AIDS Activists Welcome Increased Spending: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday October 31, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - AIDS groups welcomed on Wednesday a decision by the South African government to boost spending on combating its HIV-AIDS epidemic, but said the funds needed to be properly spent to curb the disease. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced on Tuesday the country would quadruple state spending f
South Africa to Increase Spending on AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday October 30, 2001; Brendan Boyle; CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday announced significantly increased spending on South Africa s twin scourges of HIV/AIDS and crime. Bypassing the reservations of President Thabo Mbeki, who has yet to publicly acknowledge that HIV causes AIDS or that AIDS kills more South Afri
Brazil Calls U.S. Stand on Drug Rules Inconsistent: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday October 30, 2001; Shasta Darlington; RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - US opposition to more flexible rules on drug patents is unreasonable given its own demands for cheaper anthrax-fighting Cipro, a top Brazilian health official said on Tuesday. The situation with US demands for cheaper Cipro is very similar to our demands for lower prices on AIDS drugs
New 'Fusion' AIDS Drug Fights Off Resistant Virus: Reuters NewMedia -Tuesday October 30, 2001; ATHENS (Reuters) - A revolutionary new AIDS drug, which could help thousands of people who fail to respond to conventional therapy, has produced promising results in clinical trials, researchers said on Tuesday. T-20, being developed by Switzerland s Roche Holding AG and U.S. biotech firm Trimeris Inc, is the first of
RESEARCH ALERT - Robertson Stephens raises Gilead: Reuters NewMedia - Monday October 29, 2001; NEW YORK, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Robertson Stephens on Monday said it raised its rating on biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) to a buy rating from a market perform rating, citing regulatory approval for an anti-HIV drug. Robertson Stephens also said that it expects a loss of $1.28 per share f
Study: Bristol-Myers AIDS Drug Avoids Fat Problem: Reuters NewMedia - Monday October 29, 2001; ATHENS (Reuters) - A new AIDS drug being developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co appears to avoid the fat-in-blood problems experienced by patients taking other similar medicines, a conference was told on Monday. Atazanavir , an experimental once-a-day drug in final Phase III clinical trials, belongs to the powerful
South Africa Urges Revised AIDS Drugs Deal: Reuters NewMedia - Monday October 29, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa urged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Monday to make AIDS drugs cheaper for the developing world and said the drug industry put patents before lives. South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said trade ministers should change a law on drug patents, known as TRIPS o
Gilead says FDA approves HIV-fighting drug Viread: Reuters NewMedia - Friday October 26, 2001; Foster City, Calif., Oct 26 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) announced on Friday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) has approved Viread , a new type of AIDS medicine that could help patients who have developed resistance t
South Africa's Mbeki Wants More Data on AIDS Threat: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday October 24, 2001; Brendan Boyle; CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki said Wednesday his government would not alter its approach to the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping South Africa until it had assessed new data on the disease and gathered additional information. I do not believe that at this particular moment, the government is going to do anything
South Africa and drug industry clash over AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday October 23, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG, Oct 23 (Reuters) - An uneasy peace between South Africa and the drug industry appeared under threat on Tuesday after Pretoria accused big companies of trying to peddle highly toxic AIDS drugs with the help of AIDS activists. Drug company executives denied allegations by the ruling African National Congres
South Africa Lashes Out at Firms on AIDS Drugs: Reuters NewMedia - Monday October 22, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa said on Monday that HIV drugs were ineffective and produced side effects almost as bad as the disease itself. The African National Congress (ANC) government accused an alliance led by the pharmaceutical industry, and including HIV/AIDS activists and churches, of trying to force it
S. African Baby with HIV Sues Govt. for Negligence: Reuters NewMedia - Friday October 19, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A six-month-old baby who contracted HIV from her mother is suing South African authorities for failing to prevent it, lawyers and health officials said on Friday. Lawyers acting on instructions from baby Tinashe s 19-year-old mother--the family name was not made public--have demanded a provinci
"One Week" undone by weak script: Reuters NewMedia - Friday October 19, 2001; Robert Koehler; HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - The melodramatic wheels spin and soon fall off the lumbering One Life, a dubious, contrived, cautionary tale about the hazards of not facing up to the facts about HIV. Underneath the somewhat fading topicality of sexually transmitted disease in the black community is just another example in a long
Europe panel advises approval of Gilead HIV drug: ReutersNewMedia - Thursday October 18, 2001; LOS ANGELES, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) announced on Thursday that a European advisory panel has backed approval of the company s HIV-fighting drug Viread , a new type of AIDS medicine that could help patients who have developed resistance to other drugs.
Feds Nudging Bayer on Anthrax Drug Patent: ReutersNewMedia - Wednesday October 17, 2001; Jim Wolf; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is talking to German drug maker Bayer AG about relaxing its patent on Cipro, which has become the drug of choice for those worried about anthrax, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said on Wednesday. Asked on NBC s Today show whether he had nudged Bayer to
AIDS Is South Africa's Biggest Killer, Says Report: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday October 16, 2001; Brendan Boyle; CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa s Medical Research Council challenged President Thabo Mbeki s stance on AIDS on Tuesday, saying the disease accounted for a third of all deaths in the country this year. A report by the state-appointed council (MRC) contradicted Mbeki s statement in a BBC television interview in Augus
China Mulls First Public Appearance of HIV Patient: Reuters NewMedia - Monday October 15, 2001; Tamora Vidaillet; BEIJING (Reuters) - Battling widespread ignorance of the virus that causes AIDS, China is debating whether to allow an HIV patient to speak publicly about the disease for the first time, state media reported on Monday. An unidentified patient has put his name forward to speak at a China conference on AIDS prevention in
Austrian Researchers Test Flu Vaccine Against HIV: Reuters NewMedia - Friday October 12, 2001; Louis Charbonneau; VIENNA (Reuters) - Researchers at Vienna s Institute of Applied Microbiology say they are testing a possible way to prevent HIV infection with a modified flu vaccine. Dr. Boris Ferko, a member of the Austrian research team, said laboratory mice inoculated with flu viruses laced with antigenic material from the AIDS vir
Afghanistan Bombing Could Cause AIDS Explosion: Reuters NewMedia - Friday October 12, 2001; Wendy Pugh; MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The US-led attacks on Afghanistan will eventually disrupt the flow of opium from one of the world s top suppliers and could cause heroin-injecting to surge in neighboring Pakistan , leading to a potential AIDS catastrophe, researchers said on Friday. Heroin prices on the Pakistan-Afghan border
U.N. and Annan Share Centenary Nobel Peace Prize: Reuters NewMedia - Friday October 12, 2001; Alister Doyle; OSLO (Reuters) - The United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan won the centenary Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for working for a more peaceful world in the 21st century by tackling challenges from poverty to terrorism. The choice brought a flood of praise from around the globe, except from survivors of the 1994 gen
Asia-Pacific Ministers Vow War on AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday October 10, 2001; MELBOURNE (Reuters) - While world attention is focused on the crisis caused by the deadly attacks on the United States , Asia-Pacific ministers warned on Wednesday that HIV/AIDS also posed a serious threat of destabilisation. Global attention is currently on security threats of a different kind, but HIV/AIDS cannot be
CAT in HIV research deal with Merck: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday October 10, 2001; LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - UK biotechnology firm Cambridge Antibody Technology Group Plc (CAT) said on Wednesday it had entered into a license agreement with U.S. pharmaceuticals giant Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK - news) for the research and development of treatments for HIV. Under the terms of the five year agreement, Me
Drug Royalty to get royalty from Celgene's Thalomid: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday October 9, 2001; TORONTO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Canada s Drug Royalty Corp. Inc. said on Tuesday it had bought a royalty interest in global sales of Celgene Corp. s (NasdaqNM:CELG - news) Thalomid, a drug derived from thalidomide, which was pulled from the market in the 1960s for causing birth defects when used to control morning sickness.
AIDS vaccine seen within reach in next decade: Reuters NewMedia - Sunday October 7, 2001; Victoria Thieberger; MELBOURNE, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Scientists are increasingly optimistic that an AIDS vaccine will be available in the next six to 10 years, although the first one may not be 100 percent effective, researchers said on Sunday. And because the design of any ultimately successful vaccine is not yet known, the cost could vary f
S.Africa's Tutu says AIDS is "new apartheid": Reuters NewMedia - October 7, 2001; JOHANNESBURG, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Veteran anti-racism campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Sunday that HIV-AIDS was South Africa s new apartheid and criticised his country for dithering while people died of the disease. This is the new apartheid, the new enemy, Tutu told SABC public television s Newsmaker programme
Glaxo gives up rights to AIDS drugs in South Africa: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday October 6, 2001; Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent; LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Sunday it had handed over rights to its market-leading AIDS medicines in South Africa to a local generic drug firm, in an attempt to defuse a continuing row over access to treatment. The move comes six months after 39 pharmaceutical companies backed down in a landma
AIDS Could Spread Exponentially in Asia-Experts: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday October 6, 2001; Victoria Thieberger; MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The spread of AIDS in Asia risks rising exponentially unless renewed prevention efforts are undertaken in the next few years, health experts told a regional conference on Saturday. At the opening of the five-day International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, around 3,000 delegates were to
Annan Renews Push for Lower AIDS Treatment Costs: Reuters NewMedia - Friday October 5, 2001; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with top officials of seven major drug companies on Thursday to renew efforts to bring down the cost of treating AIDS in the world s poorest countries, a spokesman said. The meeting focused on improving access to AIDS drugs, lowering drug prices, expanding
'Explosive' AIDS Epidemics Hit Asian Sex Workers: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday October 4, 2001; Wendy Pugh; MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Prostitutes in China , Indonesia and Vietnam are falling victim to explosive AIDS epidemics which will spread to their customers wives and girlfriends, a U.N.-funded report said on Thursday. While large-scale preventative action had kept the disease at bay in parts of Asia, t
New Drug May Help Patients with Rare Lung Disease: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday October 4, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - An experimental drug for a rare but life-threatening lung disease helps to reduce its debilitating symptoms and improve patients quality of life, doctors said on Friday. Bosentan, produced by the Swiss biotechnology company Actelion under the brand name Tracleer, is the first oral drug for the treatm
U.S. FDA panel backs Gilead's HIV-fighting drug: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday October 3, 2001; Lisa Richwine; SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. advisory panel on Wednesday backed Gilead Sciences Inc. s (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) HIV-fighting drug, Viread , a new type of AIDS medicine that could help patients who have developed resistance to other therapies. The need for new drugs to suppress HIV is growing as t
Vietnam Barbers Spread Anti-AIDS Message: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday October 3, 2001; Angela Takats; HAIPHONG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Barber Tien snips away at the mop of dark hair in front of him, chatting with his young male customer. You really must use condoms if you are sleeping with more than one woman because you don t know who could have AIDS, he says as he trims. What if you got AIDS and then passed it on to you
Gilead HIV drug gets favorable FDA staff review: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday October 2, 2001; Lisa Richwine; WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. s experimental drug Viread on Tuesday received a favorable review from U.S. regulatory scientists, who said the pill appeared to help reduce levels of the deadly HIV virus. The assessment from Food and Drug Administration reviewers was posted on the agency s
Visible Genetics HIV drug-resistance test approved: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday September 26, 2001; TORONTO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Visible Genetics Inc., a developer of products that use genetic information to improve patient care, announced on Wednesday that U.S. regulators have approved its kit for determining resistance to HIV drugs. The Toronto-based company said it received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Ad
Gilead's Viread Drug Shown to Help Lower HIV Level: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday September 25, 2001; FOSTER CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. on Tuesday said its experimental HIV drug combined with other antiretroviral drugs was shown to reduce a more significant reduction in the level of HIV in patients compared to those who received a placebo. The drug
RESEARCH ALERT-Goldman initiates Gilead Sciences: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday September 25, 2001; NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs said it initiated coverage of Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) on Tuesday with a market outperformer rating and a price target of $60 to $65 per share, saying the company s future growth is linked to an AIDS drug. The bank said the company had established a strong
Insurers: 5 Million S.Africa AIDS Deaths in Decade: Reuters NewMedia - Friday September 21, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African insurance actuaries, worried about the impact of AIDS on that industry, said on Friday that five million people could die of AIDS in the next decade if there is no widespread change in sexual behaviour or medical intervention. According to its latest model, the Actuarial Society o
Worried Bulgaria Awaits Libyan HIV Trial Verdict: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday, September 20, 2001; Galina Sabeva; SOFIA (Reuters) - A Libyan court is expected to announce on Saturday its verdicts in an unprecedented trial of six Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor charged with deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. The defendants, detained in Tripoli in early 1999, are accused of intentionally infecting
Drug Companies Warn AIDS Research Could Dry Up: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday September 19, 2001; Robert Evans; GENEVA (Reuters) - Leaders of the international pharmaceutical industry warned on Wednesday that research and development into AIDS drugs could dry up if current global trading rules on patents were loosened. The warning was issued as delegates to the World Trade Organization (WTO) met to discuss whether the body s TRI
Men to Be Fined a Cow for Sex with Teenage Girls: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday September 18, 2001; SHESELWENI, Swaziland (Reuters) - Swaziland s king has forbidden Swazi men from having sex with teenage girls for the next five years and slapped a fine of one cow on those breaking the law. Those of us who were about to propose love to these girls should wait until the end of the five-year period, the girls will be re
Lymphoma treatments expected to broaden: Reuters NewMedia - Monday September 17, 2001; Deena Beasley; LOS ANGELES, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Options for treating lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, look likely to broaden after Tuesday s support by a U.S. regulatory panel of Zevalin, an experimental drug that targets radiation to tumors. But makers of a potential rival drug called Bexxar said Zevalin, developed by San Di
Report Says AIDS Leading Cause of Death in S.Africa: Reuters NewMedia - Sunday September 16, 2001; JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - AIDS is now South Africa s leading cause of death and the disease accounted for 40 percent of all those who died last year between the ages of 15 and 49, a local newspaper reported Sunday. The Sunday Times, citing a South Africa Medical Research Council report that has not yet bee
S. Africa to Fight AIDS Lobby on Nevirapine Demand: Reuters NewMedia - Friday, September 14, 2001; Brendan Boyle; CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - The South African government will oppose a court bid by AIDS campaigners to force it to provide drugs that cut mother-to-child HIV transmission at birth, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. Yesterday was the deadline for us to respond. We have indicated that we intend to opp
Doctors Group to Export Brazil AIDS Program, Drugs: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday, September 12, 2001; Shasta Darlington; RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders said on Wednesday it is working with Brazil to export the country s successful anti-AIDS program and its locally made AIDS drugs to other developing countries. The president of the Nobel Prize-winning organization, Bernard Pecoul, said he wi
AIDS Killing Millions of Africa's Farm Workers: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday September 12, 2001; David Brough; ROME (Reuters) - HIV /AIDS is devastating farming and worsening hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations world food body said on Tuesday. In Africa s 25 most affected countries, 7 million farm workers had died from AIDS since 1985 and 16 million more might die within the next 20 years, the UN Food and Agricultu
Dutch Study Finds AIDS Drugs Misused: Reuters NewMedia - Monday September 10, 2001; CHICAGO (Reuters) - Only about half of HIV -infected patients in a study published Sunday were found to be taking their antiretroviral drugs according to directions, opening the way to treatment failure and possible drug resistance. Such drugs are prescribed on a complicated schedule, often requiring multiple doses two
S.Africa's Mbeki Again Disputes AIDS Is Main Killer: Reuters NewMedia - Monday September 10, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has attracted a storm of controversy for questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, has stated once again that AIDS is not the biggest killer in the country. In a letter to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, dated August 6, 2001 and published by B
Scientists, Companies Clash Over Research: Reuters NewMedia - Sunday September 9, 2001; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The editors of the world s most prestigious medical journals unveiled a new policy on Sunday aimed at limiting the influence of pharmaceutical companies in research they fund involving their own products. Following are examples of some recent controversies. -- In 2000, scientists at the Universit
Sex with teacher fuels AIDS tragedy: Reuters NewMedia - September 9, 2001; Lucy Jones; BANGUI (Reuters) - Lucy Nadine Igala stares straight ahead as she describes the fate of her friend at Miskine grammar school on the outskirts of the Central African Republic s capital. Aged 15,and hoping to escape Bangui to live in Paris, her friend was diagnosed as HIV-positive. She caught it from one of the teachers.
Early AIDS Vaccines May Help Developed Countries: Reuters NewMedia - Friday September 7, 2001; David Morgan; PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Early AIDS vaccines are likely to offer only partial protection against HIV , but could still have a significant impact in North America and Europe, where the epidemic has already slowed, researchers said on Friday. The race to find a vaccine, which began soon after AIDS was first identified as
Brazil Targets Older People in Anti-AIDS Program: Reuters NewMedia - Friday September 7, 2001; SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil s health ministry said on Thursday it is stepping up efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS among older people with education campaigns and the distribution of condoms. The ministry decided to address AIDS and HIV among Brazil s older generations after statistics showed that the dise
Vaccine Using Live Virus Blocks AIDS in Monkeys: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday September 6, 2001; Will Dunham; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vaccine using a weakened form of a virus commonly found in livestock engineered to carry AIDS virus proteins succeeded in protecting monkeys from the deadly disease and offers great promise for people, researchers said on Thursday. Lead researcher John Rose, professor of pathology and cell biol
AIDS Researchers Seek Anti-HIV Antibodies: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday September 6, 2001; David Morgan; PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Despite years of research and an arsenal of new biotech weapons, medical science has made little progress toward an AIDS vaccine capable of eliminating the threat of HIV infection, researchers said on Thursday. That is because human antibodies, called upon to squash diseases such as smallpox an
Pitfalls, Hope Seen in New AIDS Vaccine Research: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday September 6, 2001; David Morgan; PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Twenty years after medical science first identified AIDS as a disease, researchers said on Thursday that a U.S.-led quest for a vaccine was entering a make-or-break phase fraught with pitfalls but with some hope for progress. Potential vaccines can require a decade of painstaking work before re
Report Details Biotech Plants, Animals on Horizon: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday September 6, 2001; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new generation of genetically engineered products, ranging from blue roses to anti-HIV spinach, is being developed to benefit consumers, the nonprofit Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology said on Thursday. The group said it had reviewed dozens of new gene-spliced plant and animal products b
Drug Co., Fla. Medicaid Reach Cost-Savings Deal: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday September 5, 2001; Ransdell Pierson; NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said on Wednesday it will help fund health services for minority patients in Florida s Medicaid program to ensure the company s prescription drugs are placed on the program s list of preferred medicines. The agreement between the nation s No. 3 drugmaker and Florida, which
AIDS Researchers Upbeat About Vaccine Prospects: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday September 5, 2001; David Morgan; PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Leading AIDS researchers said on Wednesday they were more optimistic than ever about the prospect for developing a vaccine capable of controlling, if not eliminating, the deadly HIV virus. At the first conference ever devoted to the international effort to develop such a vaccine, AIDS researche
AIDS Chief Says Few Africans Know They're Infected: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday September 5, 2001; Steven Swindells; DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - U.N. AIDS chief Peter Piot said Wednesday around 99 out of 100 Africans infected with HIV had no idea they were. He warned that the fight against the AIDS epidemic had been made more difficult by the stigma of the disease, which frightened people away from getting tested. clue that they
Cipla Says Cheap AIDS Drug Exports Taking Off: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday September 4, 2001; Sitaraman Shankar; BOMBAY (Reuters) - India s Cipla Ltd , which shook global drugmakers with an offer to supply HIV/AIDS drugs at less than $1 a day, said on Tuesday it has exported the drugs to a dozen countries and is in talks with more potential buyers. Cipla s managing director, Amar Lulla, told Reuters that the company has exported
Brazil Wins Discount on Roche AIDS Drug: Reuters NewMedia - Friday August 31, 2001; Shasta Darlington; RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Under pressure from Brazil, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche agreed on Friday to cut the price of its AIDS drug, nelfinavir, by 40 percent in the country, which the Brazilian health minister called a victory for developing nations. The discount was in line with Brazilian demands. Braz
Brazil wins 40 pct discount on Roche AIDS drug: Reuters NewMedia - Friday August 31, 2001; Shasta Darlington; RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , Aug 31 31 (Reuters) - Under pressure from Brazil, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche agreed on Friday to cut the price of its AIDS drug, nelfinavir, by 40 percent in the country, which the Brazilian health minister called a victory for developing nations. The discount was in line with Brazilian d
Elizabeth Taylor fears growing AIDS complacency: Reuters NewMedia - Friday August 31, 2001; VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Hollywood legend and veteran AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor chided the world s youth Friday for becoming too complacent about the HIV virus and the need to practice safe sex. We are doing everything in our power to find a cure, she told Reuters Television at a fund-raising dinner for AIDS rese
Africa's Largest Generic AIDS Drug Program Delayed: Reuters NewMedia - Friday August 31, 2001; D'Arcy Doran; LAGOS (Reuters) - Africa s most ambitious generic AIDS treatment program will not be ready for Nigerian patients by the September 1 target date, health officials said on Friday. The technicians who will monitor and evaluate the pilot program have not been trained, the government has not said where or how the drugs will
TB Drug Therapy Linked to Liver Injuries, Deaths: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday August 30, 2001; Paul Simao; ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. health officials on Thursday warned doctors to limit their use of a promising drug cocktail when treating cases of latent tuberculosis because the therapy caused severe liver injuries and death in some patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Thoracic Society is
Immune Response Drops AIDS Drug Trial, Seeks Approval: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday August 30, 2001; Jed Seltzer and Toni Clarke; NEW YORK (Reuters) - Immune Response Corp. said on Thursday it will abandon a pivotal trial of its Remune AIDS drug and seek marketing approval based on information it has already collected. Remune is a vaccine designed to stimulate the immune systems of AIDS patients, but unlike traditional vaccines, the drug is used
China Said to Be on the Verge of an HIV Epidemic: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday August 30, 2001; Tamora Vidaillet; BEIJING (Reuters) - China only has a few years to prevent an explosion of HIV infections that could come largely through sexual transmission, a leading US AIDS expert warned on Thursday. Despite widespread reports on the spread of HIV through tainted blood in some central China provinces, it is sex that is most likely
Researchers say drug-resistant HIV on the rise: Reuters NewMedia - August 30, 2001; Deena Beasley; LOS ANGELES, Aug 30 (Reuters) - By 2005, nearly half of all HIV patients in San Francisco will not respond to drugs now used to treat the disease, due mostly to inaccurate use of those drug regimens by doctors, a study reported on Thursday. Researchers at the San Francisco and Los Angeles campuses of the University of
South African Firms Offer AIDS Treatment Pack...: Reuters NewMedia - August 26, 2001; Brendan Boyle; CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African companies are offering treatment packages as an incentive to break the barriers of denial that surround HIV and AIDS in the country with the world s highest number of sufferers. But they differ sharply on whether they can or should offer antiretroviral drugs as part of the package. T
Brazil makes demands in Roche AIDS drug dispute: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday August 23, 2001; Shasta Darlington; RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , Aug 23 (Reuters) - Brazil upped the ante on Thursday in a feud over the high cost of AIDS drugs, demanding Swiss group Roche Holding AG slash the price of one of its drugs by 40 percent or face Brazilian production of a low-cost version. A day after Brazil said it planned to break the patent on
FDA panel to review Gilead HIV drug: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday August 21, 2001; FOSTER CITY, Calif., Aug 21 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. said on Tuesday that a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel is scheduled to review Viread , the company s drug intended to treat HIV infection, on October 3. Gilead Sciences filed a New Drug Application for Viread on May 1 and the agency gave it a
Brazil says nearer to producing Roche AIDS drug: Reuters NewMedia - Monday August 20, 2001; RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , Aug 20 (Reuters) - Brazil is stepping up pressure on Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche to cut the price of its AIDS drug or face competition from a locally made copy, an official at a government laboratory said on Monday. The director of the state-owned Far-Manguinhos said she has completed a co
Four in 10 Italian Teenagers Paid for Sex - Survey: Reuters NewMedia - Monday August 20, 2001; ROME (Reuters) - Nearly four in 10 Italian teenage males had their first sexual experience with a prostitute, according to a survey reported in Rome s la Repubblica newspaper on Saturday. The survey, conducted by Help Me, an Italian volunteer aid group, said 37 percent of 14 to 18 year-olds polled had paid for their fi
Rome Adopts Abandoned, HIV-Positive Baby Girl: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday August 18, 2001; ROME (Reuters) - Rome s city hall said on Saturday it was taking responsibility for the care of a two-month-old Nigerian girl who has become a horrifying symbol of the dark side of illegal immigration in Italy . The girl was found in the early hours of Friday lying naked next to her dead mother, a 28-year-old HIV-posit
Roche says aims to launch novel AIDS drug in 2003: ReutersNewMedia - Wednesday August 15, 2001; BASEL, Switzerland , Aug 15 (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG said on Wednesday it hoped to launch a revolutionary new AIDS drug, which could save the lives of thousands of people who fail to respond to conventional therapy, in 2003. T-20, being developed by the Swiss group and U.S. biotech Trimeris Inc , is the first of a
Long Delay in HIV Tests May Be Fueling AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday August 14, 2001; Paul Simao; ATLANTA (Reuters) - A large number of Americans infected with the human immunodeficiency virus are waiting often more than a decade before having an HIV test, undermining efforts to control the spread of AIDS , U.S. health experts said on Tuesday. A staggering 41 percent of all people diagnosed with AIDS in 25 states b
Health Officials Troubled by Latest AIDS Data: Reuters NewMedia - Monday August 13, 2001; Paul Simao; ATLANTA (Reuters) - Federal health experts said on Monday the battle against the AIDS epidemic had stalled in the United States and the disease showed signs of making a strong comeback among gay and bisexual men and parts of the black community. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its latest data from t
Asia's Growing Sex Market Underlines AIDS Risk-WHO: Reuters NewMedia - Monday August 13, 2001; David Brunnstrom; HANOI (Reuters) - Asia may have beaten the worst of the AIDS epidemic with condoms, but the region s growing sex industry highlights the need to promote wider usage to prevent new infections, World Health Organization experts said on Monday. Speaking at the start of a five-day conference in Hanoi they said the numbers
S.African Health Boss Says AIDS Drugs Too Costly: Reuters NewMedia - Monday August 13, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The head of South Africa s health system said key antiretroviral drugs to fight HIV-AIDS were still too costly for the country, which has more AIDS sufferers than anywhere else. In a BBC television interview broadcast on Monday, Health Director General Ayanda Ntsaluba said scarce resources shap
Central America Teams Up to Buy AIDS Drugs: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday August 11, 2001; TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) - Six Central American nations will try to negotiate lower prices for AIDS drugs by buying together in bulk from major pharmaceutical companies, Honduran Health Minister Plutarco Castellanos said on Saturday. We agreed to design a strategy to negotiate joint purchases of anti-retroviral
Zambia AIDS Clinic Plan Halted Amid Fear of Stigma: Reuters NewMedia - Friday August 10, 2001; LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambian health authorities have rejected plans to create a specialized clinic to deal with HIV -AIDS, a disease which carries a terrible social stigma in the southern African country. The country s National HIV-AIDS Council had proposed the clinic in an attempt to care for the estimated 200 Zambians
China Sends Government Team to AIDS-Ridden Village: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday August 8, 2001; BEIJING (Reuters) - A government AIDS control team has visited a village in the central province of Henan struck by mass infections of HIV from unregulated blood banks, the People s Daily said on Wednesday. The group, led by Vice Minister of Health Yin Dakui, visited clinics and homes of AIDS patients and people infect
S. Africa's Mbeki Disputes AIDS Is Main Killer: Reuters NewMedia - Monday August 6, 2001; CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has attracted a storm of controversy for questioning the link between HIV and AIDS , said on Monday violence, not AIDS, was the biggest killer in the country. You know what the largest single cause of death in South Africa is? The largest single cause of de
Ethiopians March for Cheap Generic AIDS Drugs: Reuters NewMedia - Sunday August 5, 2001; ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Thousands of Ethiopians, including many children orphaned by AIDS , took to the streets of Addis Ababa on Sunday to appeal to their government to import cheap drugs to combat the AIDS epidemic sweeping the country. Roughly three million Ethiopians from a population of 60 million are thought to b
Obasanjo Calls for Free Condoms for Nigeria Troops: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday August 4, 2001; John Chiahemen; IBADAN, Nigeria (Reuters) - President Olusegun Obasanjo called on Nigeria s military commanders on Saturday to consider giving free condoms to their troops to curb the spread of AIDS in the armed forces. You must not allow AIDS to ravage our armed forces, Obasanjo told top ranking officers from Nigeria s army, navy and
China Warns of 'Dangerous' AIDS Epidemic: Reuters NewMedia - Friday August 3, 2001; Jeremy Page; BEIJING (Reuters) - China has launched a drive to curb the spread of the HIV virus through tainted blood transfusions amid warnings that an AIDS epidemic is reaching dangerous levels, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. The government will spend $12 million annually on the program, which follows reports
China Launches Drive to Curb HIV in Blood: Reuters NewMedia - Friday August 3, 2001; Jeremy Page; BEIJING (Reuters) - China has launched a drive to curb the spread of HIV through tainted blood transfusions amid warnings that an AIDS epidemic is reaching dangerous levels, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. The government will spend 100 million yuan ($12 million) annually on the programme, which foll
Patients Cite 'Loss of Self' for Euthanasia: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday August 2, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - Loss of self, more than unbearable pain or prolonged suffering, is why many people suffering from life-threatening illnesses consider euthanasia and assisted suicide, researchers said on Friday. In a study that offers new insights into why people desire to end their lives scientists at the National I
HIV-Positive Rapist Denied Parole in New York: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday August 2, 2001; NEW YORK (Reuters) - An HIV-positive man who admitted and bragged in 1997 about his sexual exploits with dozens of women and girls that exposed them to the virus that causes AIDS , was denied parole on Thursday, officials said. Nushawn Williams, who also used the name Shyteek Johnson and 16 other aliases, has been serv
Clinton, Babyface Edmonds Team Up for AIDS Fight: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday August 1, 2001; Christopher Michaud; NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton and Grammy award-winning singer and producer Kenneth Babyface Edmonds announced on Tuesday they would lead a new initiative to fight AIDS in Africa and globally by raising awareness and money for the battle against the epidemic. Clinton, who on Monday moved into his ne
Medical Web Site Explains Lab Results to Patients: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 31, 2001; Julie Steenhuysen; CHICAGO (Reuters) - Patients baffled by their laboratory test results may find relief in a new, noncommercial Web site aimed at taking the mystery out of those indecipherable results. Lab Tests Online (http://www.labtestsonline.org), a site sponsored by six clinical laboratory groups, gives consumers news and informati
UN: Nigeria Sets Africa's Biggest Assault on AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 31, 2001; Irwin Arieff; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Nigeria , where nearly 3 million people are infected with HIV , will soon begin treating 15,000 of them with sophisticated antiviral drugs in the largest such program in Africa, a UN official said on Monday. It is the government s intention on September 1 to begin a process of antiretroviral
Applied Biosystems seeks approval for HIV test: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 31, 2001; LOS ANGELES, July 31 (Reuters) - A joint venture of Applied Biosystems Group and Celera Genomics Group said on Tuesday an application was filed with regulators for its gene sequencing system to detect resistance to HIV drugs. Both Celera, based in Rockville, Maryland, and Applied Biosystems, based in Foster City, Calif
African Bishops Slam Condom Use in AIDS Fight: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 30, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Catholic bishops from southern Africa on Monday condemned the use of condoms to fight the AIDS pandemic gripping the continent, saying it was immoral and dangerous. The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference wrapped up a seven-day meeting by denouncing the use of condoms, which they said
UN's Annan Hopes Racism Talks Will Heal Wounds: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 30, 2001; Sue Pleming; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Monday he hoped next month s UN conference on race, which the United States has threatened to boycott, will heal old wounds and that nations will find common ground to fight racism. The United States has threatened to boycott the racism conference set for D
Medical Web site explains lab tests to consumers: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 30, 2001; By Julie Steenhuysen; CHICAGO, July 30 (Reuters) - Patients baffled by their laboratory test results may find relief in a new, noncommercial Web site aimed at taking the mystery out of those indecipherable results. Lab Tests Online (http://www.labtestsonline.org), a site sponsored by six clinical laboratory groups, gives consumers news and
More Women Needed in AIDS Research, Doctors Say: Reuters Newmedia - Thursday July 26, 2001; Mary Jo Feldstein; CHICAGO (Reuters) - AIDS physician Jerry Cade says his patients are different from the subjects in the research studies. Cade s patients are women. Women have been excluded from clinical trials in the past because the majority of AIDS patients have been men. But women now make up more than half of the more than 36 mill
Conservative Doctors Call on CDC Chief to Resign: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 24, 2001; Letitia Stein; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative physicians on Tuesday called for the resignation of a key health official they say has misled the public on the effectiveness of condoms in protecting against many sexually transmitted diseases. At a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, they also demanded the Food and Drug Admin
Ashcroft Says Will Halt INS Bid to Deport Thai Boy: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 23, 2001; Dan Whitcomb; LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft said on Monday that he would halt efforts by immigration officials to deport an HIV -infected 4-year-old Thai boy who was brought to the United States as a pawn of smugglers. Ashcroft said at a Los Angeles press conference he would grant Phanupong Khaisri -- the boy n
Dutch Launch Glossy Magazine for Female Junkies: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 23, 2001; Abigail Levene; AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Vogue it ain t. But Mainline Lady, a new Dutch glossy magazine for female drug addicts, is perhaps the ultimate in heroin chic. Stuffed with tips on fashion, sex, beauty and health--the stock-in-trade of women s journals the world over--the new magazine bears a passing resemblance to its more stai
Baxter recalls some of product used for burn victims: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 23, 2001; CHICAGO, July 23 (Reuters) - Baxter International Inc. on Monday said it has recalled one lot of a product that hospitals use to treat burn victims and patients in shock after a test found a rare form of HIV in the plasma used to make the product. This is being recalled for quality reasons, not safety reasons, said Tan
Bush Keeps Clinton Appointees on AIDS Council: Reuter NewMedia - Monday July 23, 2001; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will retain the Advisory Council on HIV /AIDS created by his predecessor along with several members appointed by then-President Bill Clinton, the White House said on Friday. Otherwise, the council would have gone out of existence this week. Members of the administration s
United States Boosts Global AIDS Fund Contribution: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday July 21, 2001; GENOA (Reuters) - The United States has boosted its contribution to a new global health fund set up to help fight HIV /AIDS, a U.S. administration official said on Saturday. Today I can announce that the U.S. is contributing an additional $100 million, for a total contribution in (fiscal year) 2001 of $300 million to t
Experts Defend Condoms Despite U.S. Gov't Report: Reuters NewMedia - Friday July 20, 2001; Will Dunham; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Condoms effectively prevent HIV transmission but data is lacking on whether they work to block most sexually transmitted diseases, according to a report released on Friday by federal health officials. The report, a review of existing medical studies, concluded there is insufficient evidence to ju
G8 Set to Give Scant Debt, Health Help to Africa: Reuters NewMedia - Friday July 20, 2001; Luke Baker; ROME (Reuters) - Africa s hopes of receiving substantive support from the world s richest nations appeared scant as the G8 summit began on Friday, with the door shut on debt relief and funding for a health fund so far paltry. But African leaders, meeting in Rome before going to Genoa to present their plans for revitali
G8 to Launch AIDS Fund, But Short of U.N. Target: Reuters NewMedia - Friday July 20, 2001; Steve Pagani; GENOA (Reuters) - Italy , hosting a summit of world leaders in the Italian port of Genoa, said Friday a global fund to fight AIDS had reached $1.3 billion and could rise to $2 billion by the end of the year. Group of Eight leaders were expected to announce the creation of an international AIDS fund with U.N. Secretary-
Report Raises Questions About Condoms - Post: Reuters NewMedia - Friday July 20, 2001; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new report by the National Institutes of Health concluded that condoms are effective in preventing pregnancy and HIV -infection, but may not prevent the spread of most sexually transmitted diseases, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The report said there was insufficient evidence to deter
Activists attack Pfizer on pricing policy: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday July 19, 2001; Mariam Isa; JOHANNESBURG, July 19 (Reuters) - Activists and charity groups launched a blistering attack on U.S. drugs giant Pfizer on Thursday, urging it to lower the price of life-saving drugs in poor countries. UK based charity Oxfam said in a report Pfizer was using its position as the industry s most powerful lobbyist to encou
UN, G8 Leaders Gather $1 Billion for Health Fund: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday July 18, 2001; TOKYO (Reuters) - A global fund to tackle diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis will be unveiled on Friday at a meeting of Group of Eight (G8) leaders, with contributions already nearing $1 billion, Japanese officials said on Wednesday. The fund was launched last month by United Nations Secretary-General
Canada to Give C$150 Million to Global AIDS Fund: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday July 18, 2001; OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada said on Wednesday it would give about C$150 million (US$98 million) to a new United Nations global fund designed to help fight HIV and AIDS as well as tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries. International Co-operation Minister Maria Minna said the contribution would be over and above
Kenyan Family Shatters AIDS Taboo with Death Notice: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 17, 2001; Matthew Green; NAIROBI (Reuters) - A family broke a major taboo in Kenya on Tuesday by decorating a death announcement for a deceased relative with two red ribbons to show he died of AIDS . Fighting back tears, Paul Omukuba s sister said it was time Kenyans washed away the stigma preventing people confronting the reality of a disease
African Leaders Awake From AIDS Lethargy: UN: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 16, 2001; Matthew Green; NAIROBI (Reuters) - African leaders have finally woken up to a catastrophic AIDS epidemic, but unless they act soon the disease will take an apocalyptic toll, a top UN AIDS envoy said on Monday. Stephen Lewis, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan s special AIDS envoy to Africa, said governments struggling to throw off years
South African Man Must Pay Wife HIV Damages: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 16, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The South African High Court has ordered a man to pay his wife nearly one million rand in damages for infecting her with HIV , a newspaper reported on Sunday. The Sunday Times said acting judge Naren Pandya had awarded a Durban housewife 958,689 rand (US$116,400) for pain and suffering, in the
No Sex for Two Years, Moi Urges Kenyan People: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday July 12, 2001; NAIROBI Jul 12 (Reuters) - President Daniel arap Moi has urged Kenyans to abstain from sex for at least two years to try to curb the spread of HIV , newspapers reported on Thursday. Moi was speaking after the government announced plans on Wednesday to import 300 million condoms to fight AIDS , a move which has already
HIV patients back new Roche, Trimeris drug: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday July 11, 2001; LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) - HIV patients have endorsed a revolutionary new drug, despite the need for twice-daily injections, the two companies behind the product said on Wednesday. T-20, being developed by Swiss-based Roche Holding AG and U.S. biotech company Trimeris Inc (NasdaqNM:TRMS , is the first of a new class o
Virologic Aids drug resistance test improves: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 10, 2001; Toni Clarke; NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Virologic Inc. said it improved its Aids drug-resistance technology, an advance that could substantially increase its share of the resistance-testing market. South San Francisco-based Virologic s PhenoSense HIV technology can detect resistance to drugs in patients who
AIDS Therapy Not a Failure if Virus Reappears: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 10, 2001; CHICAGO (Reuters) - The reappearance of worrisome levels of the AIDS virus in infected patients bloodstreams does not mean the drug therapy they are using has failed, researchers said on Tuesday. The importance of the finding that HIV levels can rise modestly for a time and then subside again and are not a sign of a th
Zimbabwe City Wants Double Burials Due to AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 9, 2001; HARARE (Reuters) - The city council in Zimbabwe s capital Harare is calling on residents to consider double burials to save space in a capital whose graveyards are filling fast due to AIDS. Harare city curator of graves Eladinos Zimbwa told the Sunday Mail newspaper that although Zimbabwe s black majority was opposed t
Immune Response crushed as Pfizer ends HIV drug deal: Reuters NewMedia - Friday July 6, 2001; Ransdell Pierson; NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Immune Response Corp. were plunging over 50 percent on Friday after saying its partner, Pfizer Inc., was discontinuing development of experimental anti-HIV drug Remune. Near midday, Immune Response s stock was down $2.44, or 53.4 percent, at $2.14. In the past year, the shares
ViroLogic says HIV drug-resistance test promising: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday July 5, 2001; NEW YORK, July 5 (Reuters) - ViroLogic Inc said on Thursday a study suggests its PhenoSense HIV drug-resistance test might help predict which drugs might be most successful for individual patients infected with the virus that causes AIDS, spurring a rally in company shares. Shares of the South San Francisco, California
Annan Equates AIDS Battle to U.S. Fight for Liberty: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday July 4, 2001; David Morgan; PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan used the 225th birthday of the United States on Wednesday to equate the global fight against AIDS with the struggle for liberties enshrined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Annan, who received the Philadelphia Liberty Medal during a Fourth of July cerem
Drug Firms Slash Some TB Medicine Costs: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday July 4, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical companies, still smarting from a public outcry over AIDS drugs, have agreed to slash the price of five potent anti-tuberculosis medicines in poor countries, a leading medical charity said on Wednesday. Medecins Sans Frontieres, which helped broker a deal between industry and the
African Summit to Turn AIDS Words Into Action: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 3, 2001; Matthew Green; NAIROBI (Reuters) - Rose s four-year-old son spends his days watching his bed-ridden mother fade as AIDS takes her a step closer to death with every hour. The story will soon end in their Nairobi shack as it does thousands of times a day across Africa. Rose will become another digit in Kenya s AIDS toll and the boy wil
Annan to Meet African Leaders on AIDS, Conflict: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday July 3, 2001; LUSAKA (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will discuss regional conflicts and AIDS with African leaders at their annual summit in Lusaka next week, Zambian Foreign Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Annan, who is scheduled to arrive in Zambia on July 8, will be joined by the heads of the U.N. chil
Kenya's Moi Says Hang Deliberate Spreaders of AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Monday July 2, 2001; NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has demanded the death penalty for people who knowingly infect others with HIV/AIDS, to deter men from passing the disease to vulnerable younger women, newspapers reported on Sunday. We have to make laws that restrict those who deliberately infect others because youn
South Africa Says It Has Put Poverty on AIDS Map: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 29, 2001; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa said Friday it had succeeded in getting the world community to recognize the crucial role played by poverty in the devastating spread of AIDS across Africa. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said this week s unprecedented United Nations summit on AIDS had acknowledged the n
Australia Looks to Cheaper AIDS Drugs for Asia: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 29, 2001; CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia said on Friday it was negotiating with Australian-based drug companies to give developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region much cheaper access to AIDS medication. A spokesman for Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said the negotiations could lead to the annual cost of treating HIV an
Account Set Up for Donations to Global AIDS Fund: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 29, 2001; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Friday that a special account had been set up to receive individual contributions to the global fund against AIDS championed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan . The money will be held in the special account, established by the U.N. Foundation, until the fund is operat
World Bank Pledges $155m for Caribbean AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 29, 2001; Mark Egan; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday said it approved a $155 million lending program to help tackle HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean, the region hardest hit by the epidemic outside of Africa. The bank said in a statement that as part of the broad package, it approved projects for the
UN AIDS Conference Ends with Tough Declaration: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday June 28, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A major UN AIDS conference on Wednesday approved a battle plan committing nations to fight the killer disease but deleted explicit references to homosexuals, prostitutes and drug users as particularly vulnerable groups. After wrangling for weeks over whether to highlight the groups, the 189-m
S. Africa Faces 7 Million AIDS Deaths by 2010: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday June 28, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - AIDS could kill as many as 7 million South Africans by the end of the decade if the disease is not tackled with proper treatment, the country s leading medical research agency said on Thursday. The latest warning from the state-funded Medical Research Council (MRC) comes as South Africa remains
South Africa's Mbeki Visits Merck Lab, Meets Sharon: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday June 27, 2001; Deborah Zabarenko; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose views on AIDS have drawn widespread criticism, visited a Merck research lab on Wednesday and offered encouraging words on AIDS treatment. But he turned aside a direct question about whether he believes the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV causes AIDS
US Official Sorry for Remarks on Africans And AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday June 27, 2001; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Andrew Natsios, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has apologized for remarks he made about Africans and AIDS drugs that critics denounced as racist, an aide said on Tuesday. Natsios, a former aid worker in Africa, said earlier this month in an interview that the
British Minister Calls UN AIDS Fund Unworkable: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday June 27, 2001; LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s International Development Secretary Clare Short was quoted on Wednesday as saying the UN s fledgling global health fund to fight AIDS was over-hyped and unworkable. Short said in an interview with Britain s Guardian newspaper that the fund, conceived by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, was
AIDS Misery in Zimbabwe Mirrors Africa's Plight: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday June 27, 2001; Cris Chinaka; NYIKA, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - While the world s political elite meets in New York this week to plan the war against the AIDS epidemic, the people of Nyika village in Zimbabwe will be burying more of their dead. Nyika epitomizes the total devastation and human misery brought on by HIV -AIDS affecting a staggering 25 milli
Australia Calls for HIV Screening of UN Workers: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; DARWIN, Australia (Reuters) - Australia s Northern Territory called on Tuesday for the United Nations to screen its workers in East Timor for HIV, saying it had found 10 cases of the AIDS-causing virus among foreigners visiting from East Timor. Northern Territory Chief Minister Denis Burke said one Australian woman in
South Africa Faces Legal Action on AIDS Drug Denial: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s leading AIDS activist group said on Tuesday it was preparing to take President Thabo Mbeki s government to court for denying HIV-positive pregnant women drugs that cut the risk of transmitting the disease to their newborns. The South African Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said t
Activists Fear UN AIDS Meeting May Be Words Only: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Activists and charity groups were apprehensive on Tuesday that the first major U.N. conference on AIDS would leave poor governments with few resources but encourage discriminatory prevention programs. With 36 million people infected with AIDS or HIV, the virus that causes it, health experts a
House Panel Leaders Agree on AIDS Funding Boost: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; John Whitesides; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of a key House of Representatives panel agreed on Tuesday to a sharp increase in the White House s proposed spending to fight AIDS around the globe, setting up a possible battle over the U.S. commitment to halt the spread of the disease. The agreement by leaders of the International R
Drug Firms Say Nations Fail to Buy AIDS Medication: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Lisa Richwine; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Drug makers said on Monday they had done their part to fight AIDS in poor countries by lowering prices but that many governments were not taking advantage of the offer. I think it s a public failure, said Harvey Bale, director general of International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturer
Mbeki Urges Bush to Help Africa 'Turn the Corner': Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Deborah Charles; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Tuesday vowed to help promote economic growth and democracy in Africa after South African President Thabo Mbeki asked the United States to help Africa turn the corner and support its efforts to deal with violence, poverty and diseases like AIDS. You know the challenges we f
Group aims to enlist businesses to fight AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Lisa Richwine; UNITED NATIONS, June 26 (Reuters) - A new group dedicated to prodding companies to help fight AIDS said on Tuesday it hoped to enlist 200 firms to battle the killer disease, using the argument that the crisis is hurting them financially. Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the group
African Nations Want Access to AIDS Drugs: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Spurred by horrific scenes at home, African leaders appealed on Tuesday for help in combating AIDS, saying 36 million people faced death without sophisticated drugs. Crying is not enough, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa told the U.N. General Assembly on the second day of a major AIDS confe
Sweden Pledges $60 Million to Global AIDS Fund: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Irwin Arieff; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sweden announced on Tuesday a $60 million contribution to a global health fund against AIDS, bringing total pledges to a disappointing $590.2 million. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has championed the fund, estimates that $7 billion to $10 billion a year in extra spending is needed to
South Africa Teens Tune Into Hip AIDS Program: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Emelia Sithole; JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - In a country where 6 million South Africans could die from AIDS before their 35th birthday, a controversial campaign is teaching teen-agers how to be naughty but nice. Using pamphlets, newspaper advertisements, billboards, television and radio dramas and sporting events, loveLife
African Nations Want Fast Action on Killer AIDS: Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday June 26, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Armed with statistics and horrific scenes at home, developing nations appealed for help in combating AIDS, saying millions faced death because they could not afford sophisticated drugs. In Malawi , 30 percent of school teachers are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and in
U.S. Will Contribute More to Global AIDS Fund: Reuters NewMedia - Monday June 25, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - In an impassioned speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary of State Colin Powell promised on Monday the United States would provide more money for a global AIDS fund as well as research for a cure. He did not say how much more the Bush administration would contribute but said the initia
Empowering Young African Women AIDS Key, U.N. Told: Reuters NewMedia - Monday June 25, 2001; Lisa Richwine; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Winning the battle against AIDS requires empowering young African women and girls to protect themselves from the deadly disease, government officials said on Monday. AIDS infection rates are rising rapidly among young women and girls in many African countries. In Mozambique , H
United States to Give More to Global AIDS Fund: Reuters NewMedia - Monday June 25, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - In an impassioned speech to the UN General Assembly, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that the United States would provide more money for a global AIDS fund. He did not say how much more the Bush administration would contribute but said the initial $200 million US contribution was
Global AIDS Fund Donations Hit $528 Million: Reuters NewMedia - Monday June 25, 2001; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More than half a billion dollars has been pledged to a global fund championed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to battle AIDS in poor countries, UN officials said on Sunday. Annan has proposed an anti-AIDS war chest for poor countries, estimating $7 billion to $10 billion a year in addition
Poverty No Obstacle to AIDS Treatment, Experts Say: Reuters NewMedia - Monday June 25, 2001; Lisa Richwine; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Health and UN officials said on Friday they have evidence the latest AIDS treatments can work in impoverished villages, contradicting statements by large drug companies that even free anti-retroviral drugs would not help where medical support is lacking. Anti-retroviral therapy for poor count
UN AIDS Conference Opens with Plea for Money, Rights: Reuters NewMedia - Monday June 25, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Declaring AIDS had wiped out a decade of progress in some areas, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called on the world to speak frankly about the disease and its victims facing a death sentence. We cannot deal with AIDS by making moral judgements or refusing to face unpleasant facts -- a
Annan: AIDS Victims Are Human Beings with Rights: Reuters NewMedia - Monday June 25, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Declaring AIDS had wiped out a decade of progress in some areas, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called for funds to combat the killer disease and told governments to stop stigmatizing its victims. AIDS can no longer do its deadly work in the dark. The world has started to wake up, An
AIDS Conference Draws Thousands to New York: Reuters NewMedia - Sunday June 24, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Two decades after the first AIDS case was reported, the United Nations on Monday opens a high-level conference to combat the disease killing 5 million adults a year and creating a generation of orphans. The appalling figures are not in dispute for the 3,000 government leaders, advocacy groups
S.Africa's Mbeki U.S.-Bound But Will Skip AIDS Meet: Reuters NewMedia - Sunday June 24, 2001; Emelia Sithole; JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki leaves on Monday for the United States to promote an African recovery plan, but officials say he will skip a U.N. summit on the AIDS pandemic ravaging sub-Saharan Africa. Mbeki will hold talks with President Bush during an official visit from J
Canada Protests Exclusion of Gays From AIDS Panel: Reuters NewMedia - Saturday June 23, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - On the eve of a major U.N. AIDS conference, Canada protested against a group of Islamic nations seeking to keep a U.S.-based gay rights group from participating on a U.N.-sponsored panel next week. Susan Markham, spokeswoman for the U.N. General Assembly president, said on Saturday she expect
Hundreds Rally in U.S. for AIDS Drugs for Poor: Reuter NewMedia - Saturday June 23, 2001; Lisa Richwine; NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hundreds of activists, shouting medication for every nation, called on Saturday for billions of dollars in debt relief and funding to pay for drug treatment for the world s millions of poor AIDS patients. Religious, human rights and AIDS groups marched through city streets on a rainy afternoon to s
Delegates Still Deadlocked on UN AIDS Declaration: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 22, 2001; Evelyn Leopold; UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Only days before a major U.N. AIDS conference, Islamic nations and the Vatican are still trying to block language on homosexuals, prostitutes and drugs users in a plan of action 180 nations must approve. Sue Markham, spokeswoman for the U.N. General Assembly, said on Friday envoys would meet
Role of Hunger in AIDS Battle Highlighted: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 22, 2001; ROME (Reuters) - Eradicating hunger could play a key role in slowing the spread of AIDS, the UN World Food Programme said on Friday. The link between hunger and AIDS is frequently overlooked and must be addressed immediately if the international community is to truly come to grips with this crisis, Namanga Ngongi, the
Labor Body Backs Job Code to Protect AIDS Sufferers: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 22, 2001; Richard Waddington; GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Labor Organization (IL0), which brings together governments, unions and employers, Friday announced it had drawn up a new code to protect the job rights of AIDS sufferers. The code, the first such effort to spell out a policy for dealing with the killer disease at the workplace, wil
World Bank Approves Loan for Mexico Banks, Health: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 22, 2001; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Friday it had approved $855 million in new loans for Mexico , aimed at reforming the nation s banking sector and improving health services for the poor. The Washington-based lender said it had approved a $505 million loan for the banking sector, aimed at improving banks ab
Africa Wants Action, Funds From UN AIDS Summit: Reuters NewMedia - Friday June 22, 2001; Steven Swindells and Matthew Green; JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI (Reuters) - Africa will press next week s United Nations AIDS summit for urgent funds to fight a pandemic striking more than 25 million people in the world s poorest continent. The unprecedented U.N. three-day meeting kicks off in New York Monday and is expected to back a multi-billion dollar plan
New Blood Test Identifies Newly Infected TB Cases: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday June 21, 2001; Patricia Reaney; LONDON (Reuters) - A new blood test to identify people recently infected with tuberculosis could help contain the highly contagious disease, scientists said Friday. Researchers at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford said the test is more convenient and provides quicker results and f
AIDS War in Developing World to Cost $9.2 Billion: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday June 21, 2001; Will Dunham; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treating HIV-infected people and preventing future infections in the developing world will cost $9.2 billion annually, U.N. officials said on Thursday in a detailed assessment of the price of mounting an effective campaign against the global AIDS pandemic. In a report released ahead of a U.N. sum
South Africa AIDS Orphans Struggle to Survive: Reuters NewMedia - Thursday June 21, 2001; Steven Swindells; JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s AIDS crisis has left growing numbers of traumatized orphans close to starvation as they struggle to survive on their own, a study headed by former president Nelson Mandela said on Thursday. The Nelson Mandela Children s Fund, led by South Africa s first democratic leader, reveale
Selenium Research Points to Curative Powers: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday June 20, 2001; Carole Vaporean; NEW YORK (Reuters) - Once thought to be a deadly carcinogen, selenium is now seen as a new wonder mineral that lists cancer prevention, AIDS suppression, and anti-aging among its numerous benefits to humans and animals. Selenium has been recognized as an essential micro-nutrient for over 40 years, but only since the 19
UNAIDS urges business to help in AIDS fight: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday June 20, 2001; GENEVA, June 20 (Reuters) - A senior official of the United Nations AIDS body on Wednesday urged multinational companies to do their bit in the battle against the killer disease. Speaking as Coca-Cola offered its distribution and marketing expertise to fight AIDS in Africa, associate director of UNAIDS
Medicine Mines Metals to Heal And Cure: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday June 20, 2001; Sharman Esarey; LONDON (Reuters) - The basic building block of life is carbon. Or is it? If a living organism gets a disease, the answer is organic. Isn t it? The Oxford dictionary says life is the condition that distinguishes active animals and plants from inorganic, or non-carbon, matter. But medical researchers differ. Life is not
Refugee Rapes Fuel AIDS in Africa's War Zones: Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday June 20, 2001; Alistair Thomsom; ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Rape in Africa s refugee camps is fuelling the spread of AIDS and threatens to send infection rates so