LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A dramatic rise in syphilis cases has been reported among gay and bisexual men in Los Angeles, leading the largest US AIDS health care organization to accuse health officials on Thursday of ignoring the outbreak. County health officials said a recent study showed that the number of syphilis case
PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Guided by a patient in her ward, nurse Beckie Osburn found a Web site that gave her the tools to help her adult son get the medicine he needs but cannot afford. I ve always had insurance, so I didn t have to worry about it, said Osburn, an oncology nurse in Santa Cruz, California, who had
GENEVA, Dec. 20 - The United States on Friday effectively blocked agreement on a global pact to allow poor countries to buy cheap drugs to tackle epidemics such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, diplomats said. ENVOYS GOING into a late-night meeting at the World Trade Organization just an hour before the deadline for
NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. BMY.N on Friday said it submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a new drug to treat AIDS in combination with other therapies. The company s drug, atazanavir , is currently in the last phase of clinical development and is the fir
STELLENBOSCH (Reuters) - South Africa s ruling African National Congress put AIDS at the top of its development agenda Thursday, saying the deadly pandemic could derail all other efforts to build the nation. In a policy shift after what critics say has been years of neglect, the ANC said it was readying a comprehensive
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG said on Wednesday it has completed the first commercial batches of its experimental HIV drug, but will be unable to meet demand next year because it is still working to improve the manufacturing process. The Swiss healthcare group said its manufacturing plant in Boulder, Colorad
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Canadian activists for the medicinal use of marijuana celebrated a court victory on Thursday by launching an Internet site offering home delivery of cannabis for seriously ill people. Saying it would even offer tax deductions for orders, the Marijuana Party Foundation took the unprecedented step af
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s Nelson Mandela will be just another prison number again when he hosts an HIV/AIDS benefit concert on Robben Island, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in apartheid jails. The February 2 concert -- featuring artists such as U2 s Bono, Shaggy, Queen, and Macy Gray -- will be held wi
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Hollywood star Richard Gere opened a home on Wednesday for women and children suffering from AIDS in India , which has the world s second-largest number of people infected with the disease. The screen idol, who has built bonds with India through his work with AIDS victims and support for the Tibet
LOS ANGELES, Dec 16 (Reuters) - VaxGen Inc. VXGN.O said on Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has agreed to an accelerated review of its experimental AIDS vaccine -- news that sent the company s shares up as much as 28 percent. This is a significant positive for VaxGen ... once the applications are filed, the
STELLENBOSCH, South Africa (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki pledged Monday to stick to market-friendly policies and to redress South Africa s racial wrongs, saying neither leftists nor white bombers would stand in his way. In a speech to the African National Congress that was well received by nearly 4,000 delegates, M
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The United States came under fire at a UN conference Monday for its opposition to abortion and contraception, which critics said was jeopardizing an international agreement on population and development. Rights groups and ministers attending the conference of more than 30 countries in the Asia-Pacif
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A parliamentary committee urged the Canadian government on Thursday to relax its laws on possession of marijuana, setting the stage for more friction with U.S. law enforcement officials unhappy with the amount of drugs flooding in from Canada . The special committee on the non-medical use of drugs sa
GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. agencies joined governments and health groups on Thursday in launching a new drive to get life-prolonging drugs to millions of AIDS sufferers in poor countries, where currently only one-in-20 has treatment. The International HIV Treatment Access Coalition (ITAC), bringing together a host of orga
ALAMEDA, Calif. (Reuters) - Applied Biosystems Group ABI.N and sister company Celera Genomics Group CRA.N said on Wednesday U.S. regulators cleared a new gene-based system to detect resistance to the HIV virus. The system will be made by Celera Diagnostics, a joint venture of the two companies, and distributed by a uni
ROME (Reuters) - This holiday season, if you want to raise a glass of prohibitively expensive wine and share your good fortune with the world s poor, you need look no further. In a novel way to take from the rich and give to the poor, Italy s Sant Egidio religious group and some of the country s top wine producers have
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A parliamentary committee recommended on Monday that Canada establish safe injection sites as a way to cut the spread of diseases such as HIV and AIDS among drug addicts, a proposal that generated immediate criticism from police and opposition politicians. The safe-site proposal draws on experiences
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia needs to spend at least $270 million over the next 3 years to fight AIDS, which is already killing about 200 citizens of the African nation each day, Finance Minister Emmanuel Kasonde said on Monday. Kasonde said in a statement Zambia needed to raise the money from foreign donors and local sou
KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - In Kentucky, tobacco plants are turning into cancer-fighting drug factories. In Virginia, corn is being harvested to treat cystic fibrosis, and in Nebraska, researchers are hoping that fertile farm fields will yield part of a cure for AIDS. From fields of barley in Washington State to Hawaiian s
HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-led Cuba bolstered its regional position on Sunday by hosting for the first time a summit of leaders of the 15-nation Caribbean Community in which it only has observer status. Caribbean heads of state called for the immediate lifting of U.S. economic sanctions imposed four decades ago on Cu
LONDON (Reuters) - The government is considering carrying out HIV tests on all new doctors and nurses joining its NHS, a newspaper has reported. The Sunday Telegraph said the move was prompted by the discovery of 10 HIV-positive nurses working for the NHS who were recruited from South Africa , which has one of the w
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They were the odd couple, two guys in funny hats -- straitlaced U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill and Irish rocker Bono on tour in Africa last May to highlight the need for effective development. For nearly two weeks, the unlikely duo traveled through Africa exploring the desperate needs of th
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela said Friday he would host an HIV/AIDS benefit concert next year on Robben Island, where he spent 18 of his 27 years behind bars. The concert, which will feature top rock and pop artists, will be held on February 2 within the walls of the island prison,
VIENNA (Reuters) - The Austrian Ministry for Health has announced plans to introduce health tests for all immigrants from outside the European Union who wish to reside in the Alpine Republic. The announcement has received heavy criticism from health experts and refugee workers who say the tests are both medically unnec
ZURICH, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug administration has approved Roche Holding AG s ROCZg.VX COBAS AmpliScreen blood screening system, the Swiss healthcare group said on Thursday. Roche, which has the world s leading diagnostics business, said this was an important milestone for its blood screening products
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - More young South Africans are heeding safe sex campaigns and cutting their chances of getting AIDS or the HIV virus which causes it, a new survey said on Thursday, heartening the nation worst hit by the pandemic. But despite the promising trend the survey highlighted high infection levels among
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela has launched a new drive to bring costly AIDS drugs to his country s poor, saying government inaction and public apathy were sentencing millions to death. The campaign, organized jointly by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the South A
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD.O on Wednesday said it agreed to buy smaller biotech firm Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. VIRS.O for $464 million cash, in a move to boost its portfolio of drugs to treat HIV and other viruses. Gilead, which already markets four HIV and other anti-viral drugs, would pick up
ZURICH, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG ROCZg.VX dismissed as speculation on Tuesday market talk that its co-development partner Trimeris Inc TRMS.O may have problems producing novel HIV drug Fuzeon. There is no new guidance. There is nothing to correct here. There is no new information. It is just speculation, a R
MARAISBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Its space-age domes gleaming under the hot sun, Sparrow Rainbow village might seem an optimistic vision of Africa s 21st century future. Laughing children play on grassy lawns, adults gather to chat in the village square and bright laundry hangs in the breeze. But everyone at Sparro
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Millions of people around the globe marked World AIDS Day on Sunday with marches, prayers and hope amid grim statistics that show the epidemic outpacing all efforts to control it. In China , officials instructed one million students to launch a new national AIDS awareness campaign while in Brit
BEIJING (Reuters) - China , long criticized for ignoring a potential explosion of HIV infection, marked World AIDS Day on Sunday by launching awareness and prevention campaigns in the world s most populous country. The campaigns were a sign that at least some in Asia may finally be ready to overcome social taboos on ta
BEIJING (Reuters) - A team of Chinese AIDS experts has told the government it has one last chance to save 10 million people from HIV/AIDS by 2010 and avert a major epidemic, sending Beijing one of the starkest ultimatums yet to tackle the disease. China could have as many as 12 million people with HIV/AIDS by 2010 or a
BEIJING (Reuters) - China , long criticized for ignoring a potential explosion of the scourge, marked World AIDS Day on Sunday by launching awareness and prevention campaigns in the world s most populous country. The campaigns were a sign that at least some in Asia may finally be ready to overcome social taboos on talk
BEIJING (Reuters) - China , long criticized for ignoring a potential explosion of the scourge, marked World AIDS Day Sunday by launching awareness and prevention campaigns in the world s most populous country. The campaigns were a sign that Asia may finally be ready to overcome social taboos on talking about sexual act
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The U.N. s chief official for HIV /AIDS said on Saturday that stigma and discrimination remained major barriers to controlling the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa, where close to 30 million people are infected. On the eve of World AIDS Day on Sunday, UNAIDS head Peter Piot said the social prejudi
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 30 (Reuters) - From South Africa s cavernous gold mines to the lush fields of Kenya s tea estates, AIDS is stalking Africa s dreams of an economic renaissance. As the countries around the world mark World AIDS Day Sunday, the calculus of Africa s AIDS disaster is increasingly spurring the continent s
LONDON (Reuters) - New cases of HIV diagnosed in Britain this year are expected to increase by 20 percent in what public health experts described on Saturday as an extremely worrying trend. The record number of new cases is more than twice the amount being reported at the end of the 1990s. We re two decades into this a
BEIJING (Reuters) - The cost of foreign HIV treatment has dropped and cheaper home-made drugs are being produced for the first time, but China s HIV-positive poor see little reason to celebrate ahead of World AIDS Day this Sunday. Sufferers like Lao Ren believe they will only ever be able to rely on free trials of foul
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia , grappling with one of the fastest rates of HIV infection in the world, faces a huge bill it can ill afford if hundreds of thousands develop full-blown AIDS in years to come, a World Bank economist said. Christof Ruehl, the World Bank s chief economist in Russia, said on Friday that although
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New anti-HIV therapies that are practical for developing countries are critical in the fight to eliminate AIDS worldwide, the two scientists who discovered the cause of the disease said on Thursday. Writing in the journal Science, Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier said developing microbicides to bl
LONDON (Reuters) - It may not top the best seller list nor reach the dizzying popularity of Harry Potter, but author Fran Balkwill is hoping her latest book will have a much more profound impact -- saving lives. While children in western countries are mesmerized by the boy wizard, Balkwill has written a book for youngs
LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched a fresh bid to increase supplies of cheap essential medicines for the developing world where millions are dying from Aids, TB and malaria. The new scheme, backed by GlaxoSmithKline GSK.L and AstraZeneca AZN.L , proposes that pharmaceutical compan
BOMBAY, Nov 28 (Reuters) - India s Ranbaxy Laboratories , whose anti-AIDS drugs are among the cheapest in the world, said on Thursday it could cut prices even further on the back of increased production. Ranbaxy, India s top drug-maker in terms of sales and which competes with Cipla L
BEIJING (Reuters) - In a sign that China may be ready to tackle rampant discrimination against HIV head on, a female victim is due to marry her partner in Beijing on Sunday to mark World Aids Day in the first publicized ceremony of its kind. State-run newspapers have documented the couple s plans for days, using false
MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least half a million Russians will die of AIDS by 2010 given current infection rates and the authorities failure to curb the epidemic, the country s top AIDS specialist said Wednesday. Vadim Pokrovsky, head of Russia s official AIDS center, said the official number of HIV-infection cases now toppe
LONDON (Reuters) - The AIDS virus HIV demonstrated its resilience when a man whose immune system was controlling one strain of the deadly virus was infected with another, underscoring the enormous challenge facing vaccine developers. The unidentified patient had received drug therapy after the initial infection, and hi
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Africa s AIDS epidemic is the chief cause of the food crisis stalking the continent and prolonged famine could loom as millions more farmers die from the disease, a senior U.N. official said Wednesday. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, said th
WINDHOEK (Reuters) - The United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF) demanded more help on Tuesday for children orphaned by AIDS, saying the crisis threatened to send child labor, homelessness and prostitution rocketing. The disease will rob millions more children of their parents over the next few years in the worst orpha
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India hopes to begin the first phase of trials of an indigenously developed AIDS vaccine at the end of next year, the president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) said Tuesday. We re still in the preparatory stages of getting ready to do clinical trials and also thinking of doing
LONDON (Reuters) - It started as a mysterious infection among gay white men, but over two decades HIV/AIDS has exploded into the worst epidemic humanity has ever faced and is now afflicting as many women as men. AIDS will have killed 3.1 million people by the end of this year, five million more have been infected with
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS prevention efforts across the United States , including programs to promote the use of condoms and focus groups aimed at drug users, have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, researchers said on Friday. Although the number of new infections has stayed level at about 40,000 a year for the pa
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of Britons think they know very little or not enough about HIV/AIDS and a poll released Monday showed they are right. A third of 18-24 year olds think there is a cure for HIV, which causes AIDS, nearly a quarter said they could be infected with the deadly virus through kissing and one in
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Pop icons Sean P. Diddy Combs and Alicia Keys said Saturday the world knew too little about the devastating AIDS pandemic in Africa and promised to work daily to make the reality known. In South Africa for an MTV concert Saturday that will be part of a World Aids Day television special targeting a
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore will hand out anti-HIV travel packs to men traveling alone to high-risk countries as part of its efforts to combat the disease that can lead to AIDS, the Straits Times newspaper said Saturday. The packs, to be available from 2003, would contain information on the dangers of casual sex an
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Martin Luther King III, head of one of Americas s oldest civil rights groups, on Friday called on U.S. black leaders to talk more openly about AIDS an effort to stem its continued rise in the community. King, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said many blacks were in denial
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Sexual transmission was the main source of 189 new cases of HIV/AIDS in Singapore in the first 10 months of this year, health authorities said on Friday. The new cases bring the total of reported cases of HIV infection to 1788 as of October, according to government figures. About 96% of the 18
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - The MTV pop channel is using its global reach, the sparkle of its stars and the moral authority of South Africa s Nelson Mandela to send a message of AIDS awareness and tolerance to young people worldwide. Video footage from a Cape Town concert Saturday featuring stars Sean P. Diddy Combs and Alic
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African prison gangs are using HIV infection as punishment, ordering gang members carrying the AIDS virus to rape disobedient inmates in a ritual known as slow puncture, officials said Thursday. A spokesman for the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons confirmed that the new practice first cam
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. official said on Thursday any agreement to guarantee poor countries access to life-saving drugs must also contain safeguards to protect large pharmaceutical companies. As World Trade Organization members strive for consensus on the issue, one rule we should all follow ... is to make su
TORONTO (Reuters) - Police laid criminal charges against four doctors, the Canadian Red Cross Society and a US pharmaceutical company on Wednesday after a five-year investigation into the country s tainted blood tragedy of the 1980s. During that decade, thousands of blood transfusion recipients in Canad
ASMARA, Eritrea (Reuters) - A couple of blocks from the main street in the Eritrean capital Asmara, a woman in jeans, T-shirt and red scarf tells a man her price for sex -- less than $8. I am doing it to raise my child, the 19-year-old prostitute says. Hunger and war form the backdrop to this furtive exchange, for deep
GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov 21 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it planned to file a new concentrated HIV/AIDS drug for marketing approval by the end of this year, after a key clinical trial produced positive results. Thomas Stark, from the development team of GSK, Europe s biggest drugmaker, told Reuters th
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Immune Response Corp. IMNR.O , an HIV vaccine development company, warned in a regulatory filing late on Tuesday that it may have to file for bankruptcy within the next few days. On Wednesday, the company s shares fell 47 cents, or nearly 42 percent, to close at 65 cents on the Nasdaq stock mark
GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Switzerland s Roche Holding AG ROCZg.VX presented new data on Monday showing its novel AIDS drug Fuzeon works best while other HIV drugs are still active. The company added that large-scale manufacturing of the drug, formerly known as T20, is under way to try to meet high demand fo
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Shame, prejudice and poverty are fueling India s HIV /AIDS epidemic, and the country risks having the largest number of people in the world infected with the disease within a few years. Already, 4 million Indians have HIV or AIDS, making it second only to South Africa , and a U.S. intelligence
PARIS (Reuters) - Over 900 people treated at a private clinic near Paris have been offered AIDS tests after it emerged that an elderly man had been found to be carrying the HIV virus after being treated by an HIV-infected medic. The Jacques Cartier clinic in Massy, in the south Paris suburbs, said it had written to 926
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dr. Donald Francis is feeling combative these days. His company, VaxGen , is about to find out whether what could prove to be the first-ever AIDS vaccine actually works. Results from the trial, which started in June 1998, will be unveiled and analyzed early next year. Hardly anyone thinks it
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Africa s major free trade bloc has applied to the World Trade Organization for the right to manufacture cheap AIDS drugs, saying the deadly disease was the biggest threat to regional economic development, the group s secretary general said Friday. We have applied for licensing from the WTO to allow u
ZURICH (Reuters) - Health activists accused Swiss drug-maker Roche Holding AG on Friday of breaking its promise to cut the price of AIDS drugs in poor countries. But Roche insisted it was doing its part to make desperately needed drugs available for millions of AIDS victims in developing countries and said its critics
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Anti-globalization protests fizzled Friday after heavy security turned a World Trade Organization (WTO) mini-summit site in Sydney into a fortress. A ring of steel fencing, concrete barricades and hundreds of armed police, some with guard dogs, locked down the WTO conference site at the 2000 Olympic
ZURICH (Reuters) - A former doctor who failed to tell a patient he was infected with the virus that causes AIDS received a suspended jail sentence from a Swiss court on Thursday. The former chief of staff of a regional hospital said he had been trying to shelter the patient by not telling him in 1993 he was infected wi
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Nov 14 (Reuters) - ViroLogic Inc. VLGC.O said on Thursday it has signed a deal with Pfizer Inc PFE.N , the world s largest drugmaker, to supply HIV resistance testing technology for Pfizer drug development programs. As part of the deal, Pfizer will make an investment in ViroLogic resulting in Pfi
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most women over 30 can skip the annual Pap test for cervical cancer, and instead safely have the check only every two to three years, the American Cancer Society said on Thursday. Cervical cancer grows so slowly that women have plenty of time to be tested and have any preventive treatment, the or
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 14 (Reuters) - South Africa s largest gold miner, AngloGold, began distributing anti-AIDS drugs on Thursday to its HIV-positive staff, who make up about a quarter of its regional workforce. South Africa has more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other country in the world. But while antiretroviral
HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - An eight-foot tall condom greeted Microsoft chairman Bill Gates Thursday during a visit to an Indian city, a tribute to mark his generosity in fighting AIDS. The world s richest man smiled when he saw the giant air-filled condom in India s rising technology hub of Hyderabad, where his compa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dr. Donald Francis is feeling combative these days. His company, VaxGen , is about to find out whether what could prove to be the first-ever AIDS vaccine actually works. Results from the trial, which started in June 1998, will be unveiled and analyzed early next year. Hardly anyone thinks it
LONDON (Reuters) - Human trials of a novel DNA vaccine for treating AIDS are planned to start next year following encouraging results in monkeys, British vaccines company PowderJect said Tuesday. Chairman and chief executive Paul Drayson told Reuters that the vaccine, being developed with GlaxoSmithKline , showe
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates announced on Monday a $100 million grant to battle HIV /AIDS in India , which has the world s second largest number of victims of the deadly disease. The announcement came as Gates, sporting a red Hindu tika mark on his forehead, began a four-day trip to India wi
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A proponent of free expression in Turkey , the creator of a justice movement in Chad and an HIV/AIDS activist in India will be recognized by Human Rights Watch, the U.S.-based watchdog said on Thursday. The three rights activists, Sanar Yurdatapan of Turkey, Souleymane Guengueng of Cha
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials have approved OraSure Technologies Inc. s OraQuick HIV test, a blood test that delivers results in as little as 20 minutes, Health and Human Service Secretary Tommy Thompson said on Thursday. With this new test, in less than half an hour, (patients) can learn preliminary informatio
SYDNEY (Reuters) - It s Australia s new gold rush. Fortune-hunting scientists are scouring vast tracts of tropical rainforests for plants to produce new antibiotics and other drugs that could be worth billions of dollars. Australia remains the last continent to be discovered in biodiversity, says Selwyn Snell, chief ex
BEIJING (Reuters) - China s health minister has called for international help in AIDS research and training in a bid to stop the disease spreading through the world s most populous country, the official China Daily said on Monday. Prevention efforts in China are lagging behind soaring demand for AIDS treatment, the new
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - More than two years after African leaders and western donors pledged to halve the number of deaths from malaria, the disease remains one of Africa s top killers, U.N. special adviser Jeffrey Sachs said Monday. Malaria kills 1 million people in Africa each year, the majority of the
DURHAM, N.C., Nov 4 (Reuters) - Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. VIRS.O on Monday said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted its new drug application (NDA) for its HIV drug Coviracil. The company said it hopes to have its NDA approved by the FDA as early as the third quarter of 2003.
LONDON (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela announced on Saturday that his charity is to link with Princess Diana s memorial fund to combat AIDS in South Africa. The move, which came as Mandela neared the end of a visit to Britain, aims primarily to help children and support families coping with HI
LOS ANGELES, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD.O on Thursday posted its second consecutive profitable quarter as sales of its new HIV drug Viread helped revenue more than double. The Foster City, California-based company reported a third-quarter net profit of $20.
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The rate of syphilis rose in the United States last year for the first time in more than a decade, largely due to a series of outbreaks among gay and bisexual men, federal health officials said on Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is spearheading a national campaign to
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Doctors who recommend medical marijuana to sick patients cannot be stripped of their licenses to prescribe drugs even though marijuana is banned by federal law, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. In a decision hailed as a breakthrough by medical marijuana advocates, the 9th Circuit Cour
LONDON (Reuters) - Bad habits like drinking, smoking and overeating that were once the preserve of the rich are taking an increasing hold in developing nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday. But in a report on one of its largest research projects to date, the Geneva-based organization said life ex
LUSAKA (Reuters) - The UN Children s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday it would spend $9 million on AIDS programs in Zambia where it said the pandemic was placing a heavy burden on the country s children. HIV/AIDS is devastating and its impact is adverse on children. HIV/AIDS is totally changing the lives of many children
LUSAKA (Reuters) - AIDS and starvation have forced more than half a million Zambian children to quit school and take up often hazardous jobs in farms and factories, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Monday. One in five Zambians is living with HIV/AIDS, a pandemic that has orphaned 800,000 children in t
LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - Pacific Rim leaders on Sunday endorsed the elimination of agricultural export subsidies, putting pressure on the European Union in the world trade talks, and called for the conclusion of global trade talks by 2005. Mexico, which hosted the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, w
WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Therapeutic vaccine developer Epimmune Inc. EPMN.O filed on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to 7.25 million common shares. The San Diego, California-based company plans to use the net proceeds to fund clinical trials of a vaccine for HIV, the virus that cau
EMERYVILLE, Calif., Oct 23 (Reuters) - Chiron Inc. CHIR.O said on Wednesday its net profit rose 59 percent on increased sales of its disease-testing equipment but said it will drop development of an AIDS drug as it is not financially feasible to continue the large-scale trial. Chiron, based in Emeryville, California, s
EAST HILLS, N.Y., Oct 23 (Reuters) - Pall Corp. PLL.N said on Wednesday that U.S. regulators approved Pall BDS, a new system to detect bacterial contamination of platelets, the leading cause of morbidity and mortality from a transfusion-transmitted infection. As many as one in 4,000 transfusions leads to a severe septi
WHITEHOUSE STATION, NJ (Reuters) - Drug giant Merck & Co said on Wednesday it will cut the price of its AIDS drug Stocrin to below $1 per day in poor countries hit hardest by the epidemic. Merck said it will introduce a new 600 mg version of the drug, known generically as efavirenz , at a price of
A third of all people are unable to obtain life-saving medicines, WHO declares. GENEVA -- Life-saving medicines are not available to one-third of the world s population despite a long international campaign for wider access to essential drugs, the World Health Organization said Monday. In the 25 years since WHO dre
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The World Bank has committed $1 billion to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and much of the support will be in the form of grants, the bank s Vice President for Africa Callisto Madavo said Sunday. Analysts say AIDS is wiping out African professionals faster than replacements can be trained. And million
NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Schering-Plough Corp. SGP.N said an advisory panel to Europe s drug regulators recommended approving the company s Caelyx drug as a stand-alone therapy for breast cancer patients who have an increased risk of heart attacks. The Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products, the main advisory
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The South African government has asked for more time to possibly reconsider its controversial opposition to key AIDS therapy, AIDS activists said Thursday. South Africa has more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other country, but President Thabo Mbeki s government has consistently refused t
WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - The World Bank has reallocated $140 million from existing loans for use in health and education projects for the poorest people in Argentina , the bank said on Wednesday. Poverty rates in Argentina have surged since the country s economy collapsed at the end of last year and the money wil
LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest AIDS organization in the United States , said on Tuesday it had filed an amended lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline Plc GSK.L , in a bid to invalidate patents on its two top AIDS drugs. The non-profit healthcare provider first filed a lawsuit agains
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Private German drugs group Boehringer Ingelheim said on Tuesday it had granted a licence to a South African pharmaceutical firm allowing it to manufacture, distribute and sell its AIDS anti-retroviral drug nevirapine . AIDS activists gave a cautious wel
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Tuesday for the complete mobilization of Chinese society to combat a growing AIDS problem the government has only recently started to admit to. We have to accept that this is not just a medical problem. It is a development problem. It is becoming a security p
LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Struggling medical devices firm NMT Group Plc received a boost on Monday after Switzerland s Roche Holding AG ROCZg.VX signed a deal to use its safety syringe with a revolutionary new AIDS drug. NMT s retractable safety syringes will be packaged alongside Roche s new Fuzeon medicine, the firs
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa may be finally joining the global mainstream on the treatment of AIDS, including use of the antiretroviral drugs it has so far repudiated. South Africa has more people living with HIV-AIDS than any other country in the world, with an estimated one in nine of its population of 43 milli
NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Drugmakers Roche Holding AG ROCZg.VX and Trimeris Inc. TRMS.O said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted priority review to their new HIV drug, meaning the agency will reach a decision on the medicine within six months. Roche and Trimeris said they submitted the drug, call
GENEVA (Reuters) - The Global Fund to fight AIDS, the UN-backed scheme launched last year to combat major infectious diseases, could be bankrupt within months if billions of dollars are not added to it, an activist group said on Wednesday. The Washington-based Global AIDS Alliance said cash pledged so far for next year
BRUSSELS, Oct 10 (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers are acting like dictators by stopping drug companies and patients talking to each other, the head of drug giant Merck s Belgian unit said on Thursday. But those on the other side say they are afraid that drug companies could exploit direct advertising to increase sa
LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Police have widened investigations into how cut-price drugs destined for Aids patients in Africa have been illegally re-imported into Europe, GlaxoSmithKline GSK.L said on Thursday. Earlier this month the Dutch government recalled a quantity of Glaxo s
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian scientists believe they have rediscovered an effective use for lemon juice -- as a contraceptive and also a killer of the AIDS virus. Reproductive physiologist Roger Short, from the University of Melbourne s obstetrics department, said a few drops of lemon juice can be a cheap, easy-to-u
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand s state drugs agency said on Wednesday it would seek court permission to make an AIDS drug patented by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co after the global drugs giant was last week stripped of exclusive rights to sell the medicine. The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), said it would seek t
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Three scientists whose studies of a tiny worm shed new light on killer diseases such as AIDS and cancer won the 2002 Nobel Medicine Prize Monday. Sydney Brenner and Sir John Sulston of Britain and Robert Horvitz of the United States share the $1 million prize for work on how genes regulate organ d
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa plans to almost double its spending on fighting HIV/AIDS to $173 million in the next financial year, a government health official said on Saturday. Thami Skenjana of the Government AIDS Action Plan said spending in the financial year starting in April would be set 1.8 billion rand, up
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Asian countries lag African nations in addressing the threat of HIV/AIDS and risk major social and economic woes if they fail to act, business and health experts said Monday. Seven million Asians carry the HIV infection, including four million of India s population of more than one billion and
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe s drug industry called on Friday for tighter customs controls to prevent the resale in developed markets of AIDS drugs supplied to Africa at discounted prices. The Dutch government and GlaxoSmithKline Plc said this week they had uncovered an illegal trade in products being re-imported into Eur
ROME (Reuters) - Snow White, an Italian prostitute whose clients were as young as 12, may have infected them with the AIDS virus, a legal source said Thursday. The 32-year-old woman called Snow White by her teen clients was arrested this week but her lawyer has requested she be released because she is HIV positive, the
LONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - AIDS drugs supplied to Africa at cut rates have been illegally resold in Europe, threatening to undermine a system of preferential medicine pricing for poor countries, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and the Dutch government said on Thursday. Dutch authorities recalled a quantity of GSK s
LONDON (Reuters) - The pop music channel MTV, bidding for a world audience of at least two billion people, announced plans Thursday for concerts in Cape Town and Seattle to mark World Aids Day on Dec. 1. Grammy award winner Alicia Keys, who is to take to the stage in South Africa on Nov. 23, told Reuters: I hope th
LUANDA (Reuters) - Southern African leaders urged foreign donors on Wednesday to speed up food and debt relief for the region, where millions of people face the twin scourges of hunger and the AIDS pandemic. We cannot do everything with internal resources and we urge all our partners to come to our aid and help us tack
NEW YORK, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Serono Inc., faced with counterfeit versions of its AIDS-wasting treatment, on Wednesday launched a system to protect patients from being supplied with fake Serostim and help government agencies track sales of the drug. Serono, the U.S. affiliate of Swiss-based Serono SA SEOZ.VX ,Europe s bi
GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world s largest relief organization, on Tuesday launched a $14 million campaign to fight AIDS in 10 southern African states. The agency said that the campaign would run for 5 years and focus on care for people living with HIV/A
LANGLEY (Reuters) - The spread of HIV/AIDS could triple the number of cases in Russia , China , India , Nigeria and Ethiopia by 2010, eclipsing the number in central and southern Africa, according to a US intelligence report released M
LUANDA, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Southern African leaders arrived in Angola on Tuesday for their annual summit seen dominated by the region s food shortages and Zimbabwe s political crisis. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe flew into the capital Luanda early on Tuesday, the first of 14 leaders from the Southern African Develop
BANGKOK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - A Thai court ruled on Tuesday to remove the exclusive rights of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY.N to sell an AIDS drug in Thailand after a legal battle that highlighted the conflict between AIDS activists and large drug companies. The Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Cour
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An experimental AIDS drug that stops HIV from entering cells helps patients who have become resistant to other anti-HIV drugs, researchers said Saturday. Because Fuzeon has a different target than reverse transcriptase or protease inhibitors , it is effective against resistant strains of HIV,
ORANGE FARM, South Africa (Reuters) - With movie stars in tow, former U.S. President Bill Clinton swept into a muddy South African township on Saturday to join Nelson Mandela and a band of giddy teenagers in the fight against AIDS. The two retired statesmen dazzled about 1,000 young people crammed into a community cent
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Preliminary results show less than half as many pills of an experimental AIDS drug work at least as well as the most widely prescribed protease inhibitor in patients not previously treated with other drugs, researchers said on Friday. The drug, being developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Scientists have created compounds that may be able to block the virus that causes AIDS and at the same time keep the body from sabotaging its own immune response, according to early-stage research unveiled on Friday. Mymetics Corp. said test tube studies show that one of its experimental compoun
LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - A new protease inhibitor AIDS drug from GlaxoSmithKline Plc GSK.L has beaten a key rival in late-stage clinical trials, analysts said on Friday, citing scientific abstracts released ahead of a medical meeting. Europe s leading drug company is already the world s largest supplier of HIV/AIDS
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - AIDS is having a devastating impact on efforts to counter a severe food shortage threatening nearly 15 million people in southern Africa, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday. James Morris, U.N. special envoy for the humanitarian crisis in southern Africa, said after touring the region tha
ATLANTA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Soft drink giant Coca-Cola Co. KO.N , which has been criticized for not doing enough to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa, announced on Thursday that 40 of its bottlers there were expanding HIV/AIDS benefits for workers on the continent. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said some 24,000 of the 60,00
LONDON (Reuters) - An international coalition of scientists and health groups have called on makers of condoms and lubricants to remove a spermicide from their products because it can increase the risk of HIV infection. Nonoxynol-9 (N-9) is an over-the-counter spermicide and the active ingredient in contraceptive produ
BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Health workers said on Wednesday that use of HIV -fighting antiretroviral drugs in the African nation of Burundi had doubled following a drop in prices over the past year, but that the vast majority of HIV-infected patients could still not afford the drugs. Burundi, where more than 8% of adults
ATLANTA (Reuters) - An outbreak of syphilis among gay and bisexual men in New York City has prompted concerns that the sexually transmitted disease, as well as the HIV virus, are poised for a resurgence in some of America, U.S. health experts said on Thursday. Data compiled by the New York City Department of Health and
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS researchers said on Thursday they had identified a long sought-after substance that allows a small number of people to naturally live with the AIDS virus for decades without ever getting ill. They hope they can use the compound, consisting of three proteins called alpha-defensins, to design
LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of people are dying each year from a blood transfusion problem that could be prevented, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday. Transmission-related acute lung injury (TRALI) occurs when people have an adverse immune reaction triggered by antibodies in donor blood. TRALI, which scientists
KIGALI (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton visited Rwanda on Wednesday, part of a tour around Africa to promote efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. After meeting with the Kigali government, Clinton said he had agreed to try -- via his Clinton Foundation -- to help Rwanda get hold of cheaper anti-retrovirals, by negotiatin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Clinics will need security on hand and plan to stay open at least 16 hours a day as people clamor to get vaccinated against the smallpox virus in case of a biological attack, federal officials said on Monday. The country has 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine on hand and should have 280 millio
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - UBS Warburg said it cut its investment rating on health diagnostics company OraSure Technologies Inc. OSUR.O to hold from buy Monday, citing low visibility for revenue growth. Analyst Ricky Goldwasser said he is waiting for approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for the comp
BEIJING (Reuters) - Some Chinese hospitals are demanding waivers from patients needing blood transfusions to prevent lawsuits over infection with HIV and other viruses, hospital staff said on Monday. A Ministry of Health official told Reuters patients had to sign waivers for special or experimental procedures under new
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Gilead Sciences Inc. s drug Hepsera for treating the liver disease hepatitis B, clearing the way for the company s second antiviral drug launch in less than a year. Hepsera, known generically as adefovir dipivoxil, has been shown to be eff
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said Friday it had released one of the country s most prominent AIDS activists from weeks in detention after he confessed to leaking state secrets. State security in Beijing released Wan Yanhai after he confessed to breaking the law and agreed to help in the investigation, the official Xinhua
ZURICH, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Swiss drugs group Roche ROCZg.VX said on Friday it and partner Trimeris TRMS.O had asked European Union regulators to approve anti-HIV drug Fuzeon. The partners had earlier this week sought U.S. approval for the innovative drug also known as enfuvirtide or T-20. Fuzeon is
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 19 (Reuters) - South African activists launched a bid on Thursday to pressure two foreign drugmakers to slash prices on key AIDS drugs they say are out of reach for millions of poor South Africans infected with the disease. In a complaint to the country s competition watchdog, a coalition of AIDS act
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A lawyer for a South African mother whose HIV-positive toddler was rejected by a school lashed out at the institution on Thursday for prejudice and ignorance. Karen Pereira s lawyers launched a civil action in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday, saying her foster child Tholakele was unfai
GENEVA (Reuters) - The HIV/AIDS epidemic has exploded in eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States, posing the greatest health threat to youth in the region, the United Nations said on Wednesday. In a report, the U.N. Children s Fund (UNICEF) warned that the killer disease was spreading virtually unchecked
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa s Sesame Street community welcomed a fluffy five-year-old orphan living with HIV Tuesday in the government s latest effort to stem the AIDS pandemic ravaging the country and the continent. Education Minister Kader Asmal was the first outsider to hug Kami, a lively bear-l
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (Reuters) - German chemicals and drugs group Bayer AG BAYG.DE said on Tuesday its diagnostics unit received U.S. regulatory approval to market a new detection system to gauge the levels of the HIV virus in patients. The test, called Versant, detects the level of HIV genetic material in the blood of peop
ZURICH, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Swiss drugs group Roche ROCZg.VX said on Tuesday it and Trimeris TRMS.O submitted a New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for new-age anti-HIV drug Fuzeon. It also planned to submit a Marketing Authorisation Application for the drug, also known as
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Monday more than 14 million people face starvation in southern Africa where drought, HIV-AIDS and politics are blamed for the region s worst food crisis in a decade. In the latest assessment of the threat to six countries, U.N. special envoy for humanitarian needs Jam
MONTREAL (Reuters) - The wife of a leading Chinese AIDS activist, who helped shed light on a large-scale blood contamination scandal in China , urged the Canadian government on Friday to push for her husband s release. Su Zhaosheng last talked to her 38-year-old husband, Wan Yanhai, on Aug. 23, a day before he was arre
NORMAN (Reuters) - Six people contracted hepatitis at an Oklahoma hospital and about 350 other patients were undergoing tests after a nurse at the facility reused hypodermic needles, a hospital spokesman said on Wednesday. Six patients at Norman Regional Hospital, near Oklahoma City, became infected with hepatitis C vi
LONDON (Reuters) - This is a family story. It s a story about a wayward father who returns to the fold and a dutiful son who leaves behind a high-flying political career to carry the old man s torch. But of course, it s really a story about sex. Specifically, the Joy of Sex, the no-holds-barred how-to guide and advanc
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (Reuters) - Santa Cruz city leaders plan to take part in a public pot giveaway next week to protest a recent federal raid of a medicinal marijuana cooperative that served mostly terminally ill members. City Councilman Ed Porter said on Thursday he wants to show solidarity with residents in the beach
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted to boost funds to rebuild war-battered Afghanistan to nearly $300 million next fiscal year as it approved a $16.55 billion foreign aid bill. The committee agreed to increase money for Afghanistan by $65 million after lawmakers said the Bush adm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two key U.S. senators on Thursday proposed $937 million in new emergency spending to bolster U.S. homeland defense efforts and support the global fight against AIDS and other infectious diseases. The package, introduced as an amendment to a $19.3 billion spending bill for public lands, includes $
LONDON (Reuters) - Poor countries have little to gain and plenty to lose from adopting Western standards of patent protection, a group of experts appointed by the British government said on Thursday. The Commission on Intellectual Property Rights concluded that a global drive to expand patent protection would mean high
BALTIMORE (Reuters) - The AIDS virus, long known to infect immune system cells, also takes up residence in fat cells, French researchers report. They found HIV in the fat tissue of patients with irregular fat deposits known as lipodystrophies--a side-effect of long-term drug treatment for the virus. The finding could h
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The number of new AIDS cases fell 11% in the European Union in 2001, but Portugal remained a black spot with five times the average rate of incidence, official data showed on Tuesday. The EU s statistics agency Eurostat said 8,210 new cases of AIDS were reported in the 15-nation bloc last year comp
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The wife of a top Chinese AIDS activist detained after posting an Internet report on the spread of the disease in a Chinese province appealed Monday to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and President Bush to push for her husband s release. Su Zhaosheng, a student at a Los Angeles-area college, m
ENYOKENI PALACE (Reuters) - Thousands of Zulu girls gathered outside the palace of their king as part of an ancient wife-choosing ceremony this weekend, and were urged to stay virgins in order to protect themselves from AIDS. The Royal Reed Dance was once a chance for the head of South Africa s largest tribe to pick ne
LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc under fire for not doing more to bring down the cost of HIV/AIDS medicines, said on Thursday it would cut the cost of its drugs in poor countries by up to a further 33 percent. The world s largest producer of AIDS medicines joined with other pharmaceutical firms two years ago to s
DURHAM, N.C., Sept 4 (Reuters) - Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc VIRS.O said on Wednesday it had submitted an application to U.S. regulators for marketing approval for a treatment for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Earlier this year, Triangle said it planned to submit a New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Adm
BOSTON (Reuters) - Doctors said Wednesday they have documented a case of superinfection with the AIDS virus, in which the person became infected with a second strain of the virus while still fighting an initial infection. The discovery, described in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine, suggested that finding a v
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Earth Summit negotiators agreed that a World Trade Organization treaty on patents should not prevent poor countries from providing medicines for all, a key issue for those that cannot afford costly AIDS drugs. They also agreed that access to health care should be consistent with basic human rig
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will ask Congress this week for nearly $1 billion to aid Israel and the Palestinians and bolster security at U.S. airports, administration and congressional sources said on Tuesday. While the initiatives have broad support on Capitol Hill, the White House request could receive a co
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday approved an emergency $23 million loan to Malawi to help the crisis-hit African nation import food and avoid a famine, which is threatening countries of southern Africa. Crop shortfalls and a rural workforce decimated by rampant HIV/AIDS in the r
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Working in South Africa s deep underground gold mines can be dangerous and backbreaking. But for Richard Maselwane, nothing scares him more than the threat of the deadly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that has infected over a quarter of his colleagues. The 31-year-old underground ma
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday approved an emergency $23 million loan to Malawi to help the crisis-hit African nation import food and avoid a famine, which is threatening countries of southern Africa. Crop shortfalls and a rural workforce decimated by rampant HIV/AIDS in the r
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Working in South Africa s deep underground gold mines can be dangerous and backbreaking. But for Richard Maselwane, nothing scares him more than the threat of the deadly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that has infected over a quarter of his colleagues. The 31-year-old underground ma
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - African governments should fund programs to combat HIV/AIDS before they service foreign debts, U.N. special adviser Jeffrey Sachs said on Saturday at an Earth Summit panel discussion. Sachs, who is director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University and special adviser on
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - The United States has asked the Chinese authorities for information about the apparent disappearance of AIDS activist Wan Yanhai, a State Department official said on Friday. Wan has been missing since last week and human rights activists believe he may have been arrested. His wife said on Thursd
LONDON (Reuters) - A naked couple has taken to bed in the front window of a London art gallery for a week in the name of art and to promote safe sex. Local estate agent Max Whatley, 24, and his 22-year-old nanny girlfriend Meg Zakreta from Poland , will remain in their sloping bed eating, sleeping, chatting a
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Until AIDS is brought under control, the global drive to raise living standards while protecting the environment will be a waste of time, the head of the U.N. agency helping to fight the pandemic said on Thursday. In many parts of Africa and elsewhere, food production, manufacturing, health and
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The Earth Summit opens on Monday in Johannesburg, giving world governments driven by a mix of idealism and realpolitik just 10 days to agree on ways to haul millions out of poverty without poisoning the planet. Their host, South African President Thabo Mbeki, called on Sunday for an end to glo
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Familiar battle lines divided rich and poor nations on Friday as negotiators in Johannesburg worked to salvage plans for cutting world poverty and saving the planet at next week s mammoth Earth Summit. In a gleaming convention center ringed off from some of Africa s most squalid slums by battal
SOKOTO, Nigeria (Reuters) - An influential Islamic group urged Nigeria on Friday to drop the idea of hosting the 2002 Miss World beauty contest in November when Muslims would be observing their holy month of Ramadan. The Jama atul Muslimeen group in northwest Sokoto state called on Muslims to oppose the pageant. The su
LONDON (Reuters) - Chimpanzees may have survived a catastrophic virus epidemic similar to HIV some two million years ago, which could explain why they are now immune to AIDS. Scientists from the Biomedical Primate Research Center in the Netherlands and the University of California, San Diego, in the
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Thousands of activists have gathered in Johannesburg for an alternative forum to the Earth Summit, which will press world leaders to stick to agreed targets and implement plans to save the planet. The so-called Global Forum will be launched on Friday in a Johannesburg stadium at a ceremony that
ROME (Reuters) - The world will fail to achieve its goal of halving global hunger by 2015 and will probably miss that target even by 2030, the United Nations said Tuesday. The growth in food output will continue to outpace population growth ensuring many people will be better fed, the UN Food and Agriculture Organizati
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS researchers reported on Monday they had designed a vaccine that they believe may do what no other vaccine has done before -- protect people from infection with the virus. So far the team at the Institute of Virology at the University of Maryland has only tested monkeys. And they note that pe
LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have begun tests in Gambia on a new type of vaccine for malaria that could one day save millions of lives. Some 360 Gambian adults will be given shots. Half will receive the malaria vaccine, with the other half given a rabies shot to compare the effects. At present there is no
BOMBAY, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd CIPL.BO is in talks with South African mining giant Anglo American to supply it with generic versions of anti-AIDS drugs, top officials of the two companies told Reuters on Monday. Anglo American is the biggest company in South Africa and about a quarter of the 134,
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A much-publicized and stepped-up police presence could slash the incomes of sex workers who had hoped to cash in on a massive United Nations summit in Johannesburg later this month. Over 40,000 delegates and at least 60 heads of state are expected to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Devel
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - All companies doing business in South Africa will likely be compelled to report on the impact of AIDS by the end of 2003, a leading labor consultancy firm said on Wednesday. AIDS is the single biggest factor affecting South African businesses and will remain so for the next decade, said Andrew
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday criticized Anglo American, South Africa s biggest company, for implementing an AIDS drug program without consulting her. Anglo said on August 6 that it would make antiretroviral drug therapy (ART) available to its HIV-positive miners for as long
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya plans to expand a program that provides free drugs to expectant mothers who are HIV positive to stop them from passing the virus to their babies, health officials said on Wednesday. Kenya is one of the hardest hit countries in the world by the AIDS pandemic, but only a fraction of its 2.2 mill
MBABANE (Reuters) - More than 34% of adults in Swaziland carry the virus that causes AIDS, giving the tiny African kingdom the second-highest infection rate in the world, government researchers said on Wednesday. The figures are much higher than those released by the government earlier this year that pegged HIV infecti
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Global gem giant De Beers reported an 8.5 percent rise in first-half rough diamond sales to $2.84 billion on Monday, but said it did not expect sales or cashflow to be as sparkling in the final six months of 2002. Second-half sales are traditionally lower than those in the first half, w
GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations and Red Cross agencies on Friday reiterated their appeals for funds to feed malnourished Angolan children, clear land mines and combat AIDS in the post-war country. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was stepping up its tracing program to help reunite families
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Civil liberties lawyers went to federal court on Friday to challenge a California prison policy that bars inmates from receiving any mail that contains material downloaded from the Internet, including printed e-mail. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Prison Law Office, a Califo
GALVESTON (Reuters) - A Texas medical institution said on Tuesday it had asked for the return of body parts sent to 60 research facilities nationwide because they may not have been tested for HIV and hepatitis. It was not yet known if any of the parts were infected, but Steve Lieberman, associate dean for educational a
CHICAGO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - A typical walk down a pharmacy aisle might produce a basketful of shampoo, deodorant, pain reliever and the odd prescription drug. Now, for a handful of CVS drug store customers, the trip might also include a pre-paid card to receive hospital-quality lab tests for cholesterol, HIV, hepatitis
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan greeted two dozen players from Real Madrid and Roma on the eve of their exhibition match on behalf of the U.N.-initiated global fund to fight AIDS. Addressing the players of the Spanish and Italian sides, Annan said he would be there for the match Thursday at
BOSTON (Reuters) - The miracle drugs that transformed AIDS from an automatic death sentence into a disease people could live with are losing their effectiveness, researchers said Wednesday. The virus that causes AIDS, which has killed more than 20 million people around the world and infected 40 million more, is rapidly
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Tuesday it had approved more than $450 million in aid for the Democratic Republic of Congo as its contribution to a $1.7 billion emergency reconstruction and rehabilitation package. The lender said in a statement its latest approval includes a $410 million loan and a
BETHESDA, Md., Aug 6 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. s GILD.O drug adefovir moved a step closer to the U.S. market on Tuesday as an advisory panel urged approval for treating the liver disease hepatitis B. The panel unanimously voted to urge Food and Drug Administration approval for adefovir, which the agency turned d
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it issued a warning letter to Abbott Laboratories Inc. ABT.N, citing deficiencies in the way the company reported side effects among people taking some of its drugs. The agency said the Abbott Park, Illinois-based company failed to make timely re
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 6 (Reuters) - AngloGold said HIV/AIDS was costing it around $5-$6 an ounce of gold produced and sister company Anglo American Platinum AMSJ.J said on Tuesday the disease was costing it around $3 an ounce. In a conference call with journalists, AngloGold CEO Bobby Godsell said HIV/AIDS prevalence at So
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 6 (Reuters) - South Africa s biggest company Anglo American AGLJ.J said on Tuesday it planned to start giving anti-AIDS drugs to its HIV-positive staff, who make up about a quarter of its regional headcount. South Africa has more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other country, but the government h
WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. s GILD.O drug adefovir appears to help people with hepatitis B and present a low risk of kidney damage in healthier patients, according to a Food and Drug Administration staff report released Monday. But the FDA staff said they wanted outside advisers inp
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African activists said Monday a government investigation into a key anti-AIDS drug was making the country a laughing stock by questioning its toxicity and effectiveness. South Africa s highest court ordered the government last month to stop blocking the universal provision a
LONDON (Reuters) - A revolutionary AIDS drug could offer new hope to patients, but demand for it is so great its manufacturer warned Friday it may not be able to supply the medication, called T-20, to all those who need it. Patient groups and AIDS activists have been clamoring for access to the new drug, which will be
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Countries of southern Africa are suffering from an acute and disturbing food crisis that could lead to a famine, underlining the need for crucial food assistance, the heads of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank said on Thursday. Crop shortfalls, despite the new harvest conditions, hav
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers of both parties on Wednesday denounced the rape of hundreds of thousands of inmates in U.S. prisons and jails each year as a national disgrace and a massive abuse of human rights. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, told the Senate Judiciary Committee the victims included pre
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil, a pioneer in the use of copycat anti-AIDS drugs, plans to share its know-how with the Portuguese-speaking world from Asia to Africa as part of a united front against the epidemic. Brazil s AIDS campaign spokesman said on Wednesday Portuguese-language countries, whose leaders are mee
NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters) - Shares of Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. VIRS.O soared 30 percent on Wednesday after the drug developer said it had reacquired rights to four experimental drugs from Abbott Laboratories Inc. and would submit a marketing application for an HIV drug this quarter. The company s stock jumpe
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Infectious diseases shaped the course of European history, shaking the foundations of imperial Rome and bringing the medieval world to its knees. They continue their grim march through the ages, with HIV /AIDS reaping death and despair on a vast scale in Africa. Contagious diseases have had a v
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US officials are putting the final touches on a strategy to combat smallpox in case of a biological attack and promised on Thursday to deliver a plan in a few days or 2 weeks at most. They are weighing the risks of vaccinating large numbers of people with a vaccine that is relatively dangerous, v
DUBLIN, Calif., July 25 (Reuters) - SuperGen Inc. SUPG.O on Thursday said U.S. regulators have granted orphan drug status to its cancer drug to treat pediatric patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), giving the firm potential market exclusivity for seven years. The orphan designation promotes develop
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Comparing the global HIV/AIDS crisis to the US-declared war against terrorism, former US President Bill Clinton on Tuesday urged rich nations to spend more to head off the expanding epidemic that threatens 100 million people. I see this AIDS issue the same way I see the fight against terrorism, and
ROME (Reuters) - Time is running out to save millions of southern Africans facing a hunger crisis after spring crop failures, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The window of opportunity to avert a major humanitarian crisis is closing, said Judith Lewis, the World Food Program s (WFP) director for east and southern
FOSTER CITY, Calif., July 24 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD.O on Wednesday said it became profitable in the second quarter as sales of its new HIV drug helped revenue more than double. The Foster City, California-based company reported a net profit of $19.7 million, or 10 cents per share, c
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Wednesday cleared $28.9 billion in emergency funds for the Pentagon, U.S. homeland security efforts and New York s recovery from the Sept. 11 attacks -- sending the much-delayed package to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law. The Senate voted 92-7 to approve the 2002
LONDON (Reuters) - Suicide bombers could be endangering the lives of people from beyond the grave by passing on hepatitis or blood-borne diseases to survivors, a science magazine reported on Wednesday. Israeli doctors have found fragments of bone from a suicide bomber embedded in a 31-year-old woman who survived the at
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four months after it was first requested by President Bush, the House of Representatives was set on Tuesday to approve $28.9 billion in emergency funding for the Pentagon, U.S. homeland security efforts and New York s recovery after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Senate is expected to follow suit late
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union s drug agency said on Monday that EU governments needed to do more to deter drug takers from injecting, a major cause of HIV infection and overdose among users. The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said injecting had a disproportionate impact on pu
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has slammed the Global Fund for Aids for its donor policies, drawing a fresh barrage of criticism over her government s handling of HIV-AIDS. Tshabalala-Msimang told a youth summit on AIDS late on Saturday that the UN-supported fund had byp
LONDON (Reuters) - British children are warned of the dangers of drugs, alcohol and smoking but few know about the risks of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, according to a poll published on Monday. HIV/AIDS has killed 24 million people worldwide and infected 40 million others but British parents are uncomfor
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The Red Cross appealed on Monday for over $60 million to help feed the hungry in southern Africa, where around 13 million people face chronic food shortages. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said the funds were needed to provide food for 750,000 people
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is considering testing all new doctors and nurses for HIV/AIDS amid fears that scores of HIV-positive staff from overseas may have been recruited to the National Health Service (NHS) last year, the government said on Monday. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said no final decision ha
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has named Dr. Joseph O Neill as director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, the White House said on Friday. O Neill has been treating HIV /AIDS patients since the early 1980s and is currently acting director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy at the Department of Health and Human
LONDON (Reuters) - Cases of syphilis in England have doubled in recent years, heightening the need for better regional and national surveillance systems, public health experts said Friday. Researchers from the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), which monitors infectious diseases, said the number of syphilis cases
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Strong sales of asthma and AIDS drugs will allow GlaxoSmithKline Plc GSK.L to report another solid quarter on July 24 but, after a bruising week, the outlook for Europe s biggest drugmaker is far less certain. GSK shares hit a five-year low this week following the earlier-than-expected U.S.
GENEVA (Reuters) - First ladies from 18 African countries launched an alliance on Thursday to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic ravaging their continent. Motivated by statistics that show the disease is having a disproportionate impact on women and children, the wives of African presidents said they would use their influence
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - One of South Africa s nine provinces has by-passed the national government s policy to launch a pilot program to treat people living with HIV and AIDS using drugs the state has branded unsafe. Western Cape province Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk visited the squalid Gugulethu shantytown clinic to
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate panel on Wednesday easily backed President Bush s choice of a former Green Beret turned trauma surgeon as the next U.S. surgeon general. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Health Committee approved the nomination of Richard Carmona by a voice vote, sending it to the full Senate for
WASHINGTON (Variety) - Soothing concerns raised by Republican lawmakers, Public Broadcasting System said Tuesday it has no intention of introducing an HIV-infected Muppet to American airwaves. Rather, the new Sesame Workshop character is intended for South African audiences only. In a letter dispatched to Rep. W.J. Bi
ZURICH, July 15 (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG ROCZg.VX got a boost on Monday when U.S. regulators granted fast-track review to its hepatitis C drug Pegasys in combination with standard therapy, the Swiss group s major new drug launch this year. The company said it expected to get final approval for Pegasys in the key U.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers are worried about plans to introduce an HIV-positive Muppet to the Sesame Street gang, Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety reported in its Monday edition. A day after show executives announced they would develop the as-yet-unnamed character for audiences in AIDS-ravaged
LONDON (Reuters) - AIDS researchers declared a breakthrough Sunday with the discovery of a naturally occurring gene that effectively blocks the disease s progress. Anglo-U.S. research teams at London s King s College and the Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that a gene called CEM15 acted as a brake on the Human Im
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Film maker Rory Kennedy wants to do what the giant numbers in countless reports, grim statistics and horrendous forecasts have failed to -- convey the human tragedy of AIDS. The epidemic has killed 24 million people, more than 13 million children have been robbed of one or both parents, and
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela called Friday for AIDS drugs to be supplied to all who need them in developing nations and urged the world to mobilize against a disease he said had unleashed a war on humanity. The former South African president won a standing ovation from 15,000 delegates at the close of wo
BARCELONA, Spain , July 12 (Reuters) - An experimental protease inhibitor from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY.N may have a better side-effect profile than other AIDS drugs in the same class, according to data presented at the world AIDS congress. A small trial of 63 patients who switched from
LONDON (Reuters) - Too many HIV-infected people are waiting too long to go for treatment either out of fear or ignorance, dramatically cutting their chances of survival, researchers said on Friday. It is not a matter of the earlier the better , but there is a definite point of no return where the CD4 white blood cell c
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sesame Street will soon introduce its first HIV-positive Muppet character to children of South Africa , where one in nine people have the virus that can lead to AIDS. The upbeat female Muppet will join Takalani Sesame on Sept. 30 for its third season on the South African Broadcasting Corp. The
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - The world s biggest AIDS conference will close Friday with rousing calls from Bill Clinton and other world figures to mobilize resources for millions of sufferers in the developing world. Two decades into an epidemic that kills one person every 10 seconds, the gulf between rich and poor is
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Bill Clinton urged governments on Thursday to do more to fight AIDS and assured young people that wealthy nations would provide extra funds to battle the epidemic if they knew how it would be spent. The former U.S. president, who is the co-chairman of the International AIDS Trust, described
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Researchers in Italy and the United States will soon begin human trials of a therapeutic AIDS vaccine that may allow patients to take fewer drugs or even stop treatment intermittently. The vaccine, to be applied to the skin, has already been shown to benefit monkeys infected wi
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Former Soviet states have the world s fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, which threatens to spread from drug users to the wider population, researchers said Thursday. Addicts who inject drugs account for 90 percent of HIV cases in the region. But Dr. Anna Shakarishvili of the U.S. Centers f
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Delegates at the world s biggest AIDS conference urged governments on Thursday to provide nationwide access to anti-AIDS drugs because people should not be dying when life-saving treatments are available. The World Health Organization laid the groundwork to increase access when it annou
BOSTON (Reuters) - In a highly unusual move, the New England Journal of Medicine has retracted a 1998 AIDS study after concluding it included a photograph lifted from research published eight years earlier. The journal s editor, writing in this week s edition published on Thursday, said the photograph was doctored to m
BARCELONA, Spain , July 10 (Reuters) - Six hundred women from 76 countries meet in Barcelona on Thursday to talk about how to increase the economic power of women in a male-dominated world. The Global Summit of Women has been described as a Davos for women , after the high-powered meetings of the world s mostly male mo
BARCELONA, Spain , July 10 (Reuters) - HIV/AIDS has created an unprecedented orphan crisis that could rob 25 million children of one or both parents by the end of the decade. The grim figures in a new report released at the world s biggest AIDS conference on Wednesday shocked veteran AIDS experts and hardened the argum
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
BARCELONA, Spain , July 10 (Reuters) - Brazil , already a pioneer in making cheap generic AIDS drugs, said on Wednesday it was ready to help supply the developing world with a vaccine -- should one ever appear. The government signed a formal partnership agreement with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) at
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Couples who both carry HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, should still use condoms when having sex because of the risk of contracting another strain of the disease, a top researcher said Wednesday. Although definitive data doesn t exist ... there are strong suggestions that someone could be infected
BARCELONA, Spain - HIV infections among the young are set to soar by more than 70 percent by the end of the decade when 21.5 million teenagers and young adults could be living with the virus. A report released at the 14th International AIDS Conference on Tuesday shows about a third of the 40 million people living with
BARCELONA (Reuters) - High rates of HIV infection among young African women will lead to a population imbalance that will take generations to overcome and make the AIDS epidemic even worse, a top U.N. official said Tuesday. Experts called for more prevention efforts to be targeted at young women of child-bearing age to
BARCELONA, Spain -- In what has been hailed as one of the biggest successes in the fight against AIDS, scientists said the number of babies born with HIV in the U.S. has fallen 80% in a decade. The number of newborns with the human immune-deficiency virus that causes AIDS dropped from a high of about 1,760 in 1991 to a
BARCELONA, Spain - New HIV infections have stabilized in the United States but African-Americans account for a disproportionate number of new cases of the deadly virus. After a marked decline in AIDS from 1996 to 1998 due to cocktails of anti-AIDS drugs, data from 25 states reported at an AIDS conference Sunday show ab
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Activists called on Saturday for more funds to fight AIDS and the poverty fueling the epidemic on the eve of the 14th International AIDS conference. New figures show 40 million people are living with the virus and the numbers are expected to rise to 100 million within a decade. The majority
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - People with HIV who are also infected with hepatitis C do not have an increased risk of developing or dying from AIDS, American scientists said on Saturday. Hepatitis C, a serious liver infection, is common among intravenous drug users and often occurs along with HIV. But doctors at Johns H
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - African strains of the AIDS virus may have mutations that help them develop resistance to drugs more quickly, researchers said on Friday. The report, published in the journal Biochemistry, may help explain why drugs stop working effectively in African HIV patients, the researchers said. If so, ne
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s highest court ordered the government on Friday to stop blocking the universal provision at public hospitals of an anti-AIDS drug to help prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease. AIDS activists who successfully forced the government s hand said they would begin immedia
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After years of emphasis on drugs -- getting drugs to HIV patients in developing nations, pressuring drug companies to lower their prices -- experts are now stressing prevention as the best way to control the AIDS epidemic. Two reports issued this week ahead of the bi-annual world AIDS conference
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will hold the world s biggest HIV vaccine trial, lasting five years and involving 16,000 people, a government health official said on Friday. Volunteers aged between 20 and 30 will be selected from the general population rather than high-risk groups such as drug users. They will take a
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Another 45 million people will become infected with the AIDS virus in the next eight years, researchers predicted on Thursday but said this number could be slashed if good prevention programs were put into place right away. Education, distribution of condoms, testing and other programs all work t
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Uganda s program to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus, which has been lauded by experts for years, cut disease rates by more than a third over the past decade in one region, a study published on Thursday found. The study offers hope to other African countries where HIV is slashing the populati
LONDON (Reuters) - AIDS has already killed nearly 22 million people but a leading expert warned on Thursday that the global epidemic hasn t peaked yet and the virus may never be eradicated. A third or more people in some African countries are infected with HIV but Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nati
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ten years after playing the saxophone on MTV in a defining moment of his 1992 campaign for president, Bill Clinton is returning to the cable music channel to discuss the global AIDS epidemic. Clinton will be one of several panelists taking questions from an audience of young adults from more tha
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest AIDS organization in the United States , on Monday filed a lawsuit against Britain s GlaxoSmithKline , accusing the drug maker of antitrust violations and overcharging for its medicines. The suit, filed in a Los Angeles federal court, alleges antitrust and patent violations r
LONDON (Reuters) - HIV-positive pregnant women who have recently arrived in Britain are being denied free drugs to prevent them passing on the virus to their babies, a leading AIDS charity said. The Terrence Higgins Trust said the policy was both inhumane and a false economy, saying that the drugs cost only a few pound
WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - The World Bank on Tuesday welcomed a deal to provide $13 billion in new cash for projects involving 79 of the world s poorest countries, struck after months of bickering by donors on how the money should be used. Including this new money, funds available to the bank s lowest cost financin
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - AIDS will kill 70 million people over the next 20 years unless rich nations step up their efforts to curb the disease, the United Nations warned on Tuesday in a report showing the epidemic is still in its early stages. More than 40 million people worldwide have AIDS or are infected with HIV,
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - Two decades into the global AIDS epidemic, drug companies are perfecting ways of keeping the virus at bay. Two new classes of treatments, offering fresh hope to patients resistant to current therapies, may mark the next step change in treating the killer disease. T-20, a twice-daily injection
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has the second highest number of people with the HIV/AIDS virus in the world -- roughly four million sufferers -- and 90 percent of them don t even know it, the country s UNAIDS chief said on Tuesday. David Miller, country program adviser for UNAIDS in India, told Reuters that though people
LONDON (Reuters) - More than 33,000 people in Britain are living with HIV and health officials warned on Tuesday the numbers could rise because of an increase in unsafe sex. As a report on the global AIDS epidemic detailed alarming increases in the number of people with the illness and growing epidemics in
LONDON (Reuters) - A group caring for AIDS patients is set to file a U.S. lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline on Monday alleging the drugs giant is overcharging for its medicines and some of its patents are invalid, the Wall Street Journal said. AIDS activists have had the $300 billion a year drugs industry in their sights
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has awarded China a $14.8 million five-year grant for HIV/AIDS research and prevention, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said on Friday. The grant will go to China s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and vaccine de
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that spermicides used by millions of people worldwide do not provide the protection against the HIV virus and other sexually transmitted diseases previously thought. Experts agreed that nonoxynol-9, contained in most spermicides and sometimes added to m
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Ironing out final wrinkles in a $20 billion deal, rich countries on Thursday announced a plan designed to stop extremist groups acquiring nuclear arms and stepped up pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The plan, agreed at the summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The world s richest nations must commit billions more each year to fight AIDS in Africa or risk condemning millions on the continent to a perpetual cycle of disease, poverty and death, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa said on Wednesday. Describing the West s response to the AI
BEIJING (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday that China was on the brink of an HIV/AIDS catastrophe of unimaginable proportions in one of its harshest assessments yet of the country s efforts to stem the spread of the deadly virus. By the end of last year, 800,000 to 1.5 million Chinese were infected with HI
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations drugs watchdog said on Wednesday the use of heroin and other opiates in Russia was soaring, helping HIV/AIDS spread like wildfire among addicts who inject the drug. The UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) 2002 annual report on global narcotics trends said the nu
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - US drug giant Pfizer Inc. said on Wednesday it had signed an agreement with Malawi s government to provide its antifungal drug Diflucan (fluconazole) at no cost to AIDS patients for an unlimited period. Impoverished Malawi--where about 1 million of a total 10 million people are infected with HI
GENEVA (Reuters) - AIDS advocacy organizations accused the European Union and the United States on Monday of backing out of a key pledge to ensure that poor countries could get cheap drugs to fight the epidemic. At the same time, the 15-nation EU announced it was proposing a formula at the World Trade Organization (WTO
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - The United States on Monday outlined a proposal that it said would make it easier for poor countries to get the drugs they need to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and other public health crises. U.S. trade officials plan to formally present the plan at a World Trade Organization meeting on Tuesd
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Most men living in developing nations around the world have changed their behavior to reduce their risk of getting AIDS, but far fewer women have done so, according to a new UN report released on Saturday. A survey of 39 developing nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean foun
ZURICH, June 21 (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG ROCZg.VX got a shot in the arm on Friday when the European Union granted marketing approval for its hepatitis C drug Pegasys, the Swiss pharma and diagnostics group s major new drug launch this year. The EU move means Roche is on track to meet forecasts of boosting flagship
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Thursday he will visit Africa next year and vowed the United States would help African nations with responsible policies to combat disease, poverty and illiteracy. The dates and itinerary for the trip, which follows former U.S. President Bill Clinton s journeys to sub-Sahar
PRETORIA (Reuters) - African leaders must overcome regional conflicts, widespread economic mismanagement and dictatorship on the continent for their new recovery plan to succeed, analysts said on Thursday. They told Reuters the New Partnership for Africa s Development could also be undermined by the lack of debate with
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials Wednesday asked Congress for $1 million to fight HIV/AIDS in Myanmar despite strict US sanctions on the military-led country, saying it was now the center of the disease in the region. Washington cut off bilateral aid to Myanmar, also called Burma
PHILADELPHIA, June 20 (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline Plc GSK.L GSK.N said on Thursday it has frozen for two years the U.S. prices of all of its HIV drugs. The current prices to drug wholesalers and warehousing chains will remain in effect until January, 2004, the company said. GlaxoSmithKline pr
CHICAGO, June 19 (Reuters) - Health care products maker Abbott Laboratories Inc. said on Wednesday it will donate up to 20 million HIV tests, mainly in Africa -- where the disease kills more than 5,000 die every day -- to help prevent babies from contracting the deadly virus from their mothers. In addition, Abbott
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush Wednesday pledged $500 million to help fight the spread of AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, a pandemic he said staggers the imagination and shocks the conscience. Activists said far more was needed from Washington to counter the disease sweeping the developing world. The money wou
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists have used stem cells to grow an organ in mice critical to the immune system, saying the technique could be used to restore the human immune system in AIDS-HIV and cancer patients. We are very confident that this work will be able to progress to humans within the next three to fi
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc. ABT.N and OraSure Technologies OSUR.O said on Monday they agreed to co-market a rapid HIV test that detects the presence of antibodies for the human immunodeficiency virus in as little as 20 minutes. Abbott, a health-products maker based in Abbott Park, Illinois, will distri
TOKYO, June 16 (Reuters) - Courting a diplomatic and social backlash, a senior Japanese minister said on Sunday it was outrageous that Japanese government bonds were rated lower than those of a country where half the people were affected by AIDS. Half of the people of Botswana are AIDS patients and it is outrageous t
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) - Finance ministers from the world s rich nations, cautiously confident a global economic recovery is in place, looked set to make progress on Saturday on a plan to give more grant aid to poor countries. Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven industrial countries had already sketched out
WASHINGTON, June 13 (Reuters) - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday unanimously approved a bill to more than double U.S. spending to fight the global AIDS pandemic and launch a five-year effort to stem the spread of the disease. The $4.7 billion bill pushed by Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and Rep
ROME (Reuters) - Giving women more land and an equal footing with men is the single best way to end hunger in the world, experts told a World Food Summit Wednesday. Yet women own only about 1% of the world s land, delegates told the UN-organized event, and in too many countries land distribution and land rights remain
ROME (Reuters) - Winning the war on hunger is vital to reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS in hardest-hit sub-Saharan Africa, a senior AIDS expert said. If you are able to provide food to people, that in itself will contribute to prevention of the epidemic, Marcela Villarreal, leading expert and spokeswoman on HIV/AIDS at
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - The UN envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa said on Monday religion s voice had been muted on the disease and told religious leaders it was high time they used their influence to fight the epidemic. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan s special envoy, Stephen Lewis, told a conference on the impact of HIV/
LUSAKA, Zambia (Reuters) - People with HIV and AIDS are among 2.5 million Zambians targeted for food relief starting next month, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday. WFP country representative for Zambia Richard Ragan told Reuters that 200,000 tonnes of food would be distributed between July 1
PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa announced on Monday that its HIV infection rate was slowing down and the worst was probably over for a country with the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases in the world. But with one in nine of South Africa s 43 million people infected, the pandemic remained one of the count
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that war-torn Afghanistan, one of the world s poorest countries, faces a potential AIDS disaster. Risk factors such as intravenous drug use and unsafe blood transfusions have prompted United Nations agencies, the government and non-governmen
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Sunday said it may have to cut back its program for returning Afghan refugees, the world s single largest refugee population, due to a lack of money. UNHCR said it had repatriated a total of 920,000 Afghans since March, and some 200,
DURBAN (Reuters) - One of South Africa s largest employers believes the rate of HIV/AIDS infection among staff is now on the decline thanks to a comprehensive programme that costs it around 180 million rand (US$18.4 million) annually. South Africa has the highest number of people living with the deadly HIV/AIDS in the
WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - The World Bank chief and the U.S. Treasury haven t always seen eye to eye. So after the Treasury secretary made a high-profile visit to Africa to look at the poverty afflicting the continent, there were hopes the two might move closer together. Those hopes seemed justified when World Bank
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill said on Wednesday his African tour with rock star Bono was an intense experience but indicated he still felt the antidote to widespread poverty lay with private-sector growth. In his first major address since returning last Friday from a 12-day swing through f
DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - African leaders pledged on Wednesday to fix regional conflicts, promote good governance and fight epidemics they say could scuttle their ambitious plan to help Africa stand on its own feet. At the opening of the World Economic Forum s Africa summit in the port city of Durban, the leader
VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania on Tuesday sacked top prison officials after the discovery of a massive outbreak of HIV among prison inmates that has shocked the country. A report last week by the Lithuanian AIDS Centre said 207 of the 1,727 inmates at the Alytus penitentiary, in southern Lithuania, tested since mid-May
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil launched its first anti-AIDS campaign aimed specifically at homosexuals on Tuesday to fight a rising infection rate among young, gay men. Through one of the world s most aggressive AIDS prevention programs, Brazil has reduced HIV/AIDS infection rates to 0.6% of the adult population.
LONDON (Reuters) - Ecotourism may be endangering wildlife by spreading human diseases to animals and is probably responsible for three outbreaks of tuberculosis in mongooses and meerkats in Africa, according to a study. Scientists in Botswana s Chobe national park have documented how the human pathogen was passed on to
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill, surveying his recently concluded trip to Africa with rock star Bono, said on Wednesday that Africa is making economic progress but long-term growth will depend on entrepreneurship, not aid. In Africa, I saw signs of progress everywhere. Programs are working,
SOMERSET WEST, South Africa (Reuters) - Africa launched a campaign on Monday for a fairer share of funding into the development of an AIDS vaccine, saying it was unacceptable that the world s poorest continent received so little attention. Though more than 28 million Africans carry the virus that causes AIDS, less than
KIEV (Reuters) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan used his first visit to Ukraine on Monday to pledge his support to millions of people who suffered from the world s worst civil nuclear accident, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Almost 16 years after the explosion, Ukraine fears that Chernobyl has become a forgotten crisis
WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill s tour of Africa with rock star Bono likely boosted public consciousness of development aid issues but it also put a burden on the Bush administration to demonstrate it can impose the extra efficiency in spending it says is vital. Simply having the two
LOS ANGELES, May 31 (Reuters) - The largest U.S. AIDS organization on Friday denounced the possibility of a merger between pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithkline and Bristol-Myers Squibb , citing Glaxo s lack of attention to the AIDS crisis. The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation today called the rumored deal
GABORONE, May 31 (Reuters) - The southern African country of Botswana is used to regarding Japan , the world s number two economy, as a valued aid donor. But on Friday, officials in Gaborone learnt that one of the world s most respected credit ratings agencies reckons their debt is a safer bet than the Asian giant s.
LONDON (Reuters) - Young women in sub-Saharan Africa are more susceptible to HIV infection than men because their partners are often older than they are, researchers said on Friday. Older men are more likely to have the virus and pass it on to their younger partners, who in turn may infect others when they marry and ha
CARLSBAD, Calif. (Reuters) - Biotech firm Immune Response Corp. said on Thursday that its experimental HIV vaccine increased disease-fighting ability in monkeys and the company wants to eventually test it on humans. This study offers support to our belief that this combination holds promise as a possible preventative v
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill and rock star Bono wound up a tour of poverty-stricken Africa on Thursday with a few jokes and a lot of determination to help the continent forge a brighter future. After nearly two weeks of travel through four African countries, the business-minded Treasury
LONDON (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc is working fast to develop a novel AIDS drug designed to exploit the discovery that some people appear naturally resistant to HIV, the company s head of global research said on Thursday. It is a top priority for us. We are doing all we can to move this through quickly because we feel it co
LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - Europe s biggest drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, was embroiled in a fresh row over what it charges for AIDS medicines on Wednesday after a U.S. group barred the company s sales representatives from its clinics. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) said the British-based company, the world s large
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. BMY.N on Wednesday said it submitted an application to market in Europe its new drug to treat the HIV infection and its deadly successor AIDS. The experimental treatment, called atazanavir, is among a class of HIV drugs called
KAMPALA, Uganda (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill said Tuesday poor African nations needed all the help they could get and dismissed concerns massive aid flows could destabilize currencies. O Neill was asked about the possibility high levels of aid could destabilize Uganda s currency and hit its exports
HARARE (Reuters) - The Zimbabwean government has declared a six-month emergency period to deal with one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infections in the world. In a notice published in the government s weekly gazette made available on Monday, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the emergency order would allow peo
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - The recent death of a Honduran woman of AIDS from lack of medication has turned Latin American activists against Brazil, for years the region s champion in the global fight to guarantee AIDS drugs for all. Activists say Ibel Martinez, a 36-year-old mother of four who died last month, could
PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) - It was a moment that could only happen when a rock star and a former captain of industry team up to check out operations in an industrial plant. As Irish rocker Bono and Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill toured a huge Ford Motor Co. plant near Pretoria on Friday, the pungent odor of mar
SOWETO, South Africa (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury chief Paul O Neill and Irish rock singer Bono took their road show on Friday to the world s biggest hospital in South Africa, where they were told how aid for HIV /AIDS victims had been wasted. The world s most powerful finance minister and the frontman of rock band U2 exp
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim gave the Kenyan government on Thursday the first batch of a million doses of a drug to fight HIV /AIDS , officials said. Health Minister Sam Ongeri received shipment of 8,000 doses of nevirapine
PRETORIA (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill and Irish rock singer Bono brought a roadshow studying debt, aid and social issues to Africa s economic giant on Thursday. Speaking to reporters after meetings with South African President Thabo Mbeki and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Bono and O Neill gently s
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Up to 25% fewer Brazilians contracted AIDS last year than in 2000 in a sign a controversial program distributing condoms and needles to slow infection rates among drug users is working, the government said on Monday. The estimated number of new AIDS cases in Latin America s chief anti-AIDS
ACCRA, Ghana (Reuters) - The self-described odd couple of international aid diplomacy, Irish rock singer Bono and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill, arrived in Ghana on Monday night to launch one of the most unlikely campaigns ever to highlight the need for effective spending on development. Over the next 10 day
LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Elton John, one of Tony Blair s most prominent showbiz supporters, said the British prime minister should be thoroughly ashamed of his government s record on AIDS prevention. In an interview with Sky News broadcast on Monday, the flamboyant entertainer said he was disgusted with what he saw a
ROCKLAND, Mass., May 16 (Reuters) - Serono Inc. SEOZ.VX on Thursday became the fourth drug maker in two weeks to warn of counterfeit medicines that could harm patients. This time the warning was about Serostim, the company s drug used to keep AIDS patients from losing too much weight. Europe s biggest biotechnology com
GENEVA (Reuters) - Increasingly popular alternative medicines, from Chinese herbal remedies to spiritual therapies, are often misused and may harm patients, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday. The United Nations health agency called for further clinical research to establish the safety and efficacy of
ZURICH (Reuters) - An innovative drug that could offer hope to AIDS patients resistant to current therapy has shown extremely positive results in a second late-stage clinical trial, Roche Holding AG said on Thursday. Results of the 24-week TORO 2 study of 504 high-risk HIV patients mean the drug, named T-20, which the
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The AIDS epidemic is spreading so fast in Russia that it could hit the growth of an already slowing economy, the World Bank said on Wednesday. The high cost of AIDS treatment and cost of lost working time could mean that Russia s GDP growth may be cut by between one and 13.2% by 2010, the World Bank
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia said on Wednesday it will use nearly $20 million in foreign AIDS funding to fight soaring rates of malaria and tuberculosis linked to the pandemic sweeping across Africa. The latest government figures released on Wednesday show that 37 out of every 1,000 Zambians die of malaria each year, whil
LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of patients in northern England were at the centre of an HIV alert on Wednesday after a Yorkshire health worker was found to be carrying the potentially deadly virus. About 500 potentially at risk patients received a letter from the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust advising them t
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Wednesday it would work with U.S. lawmakers to help fund Myanmar s fight against HIV/AIDS but its sweeping sanctions against Yangon would stay in place pending more reforms from the country s military government. We are working with Congress to formulate plans to d
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An HIV -infected Thai boy who came to the United States as a pawn of smugglers and got caught in an Elian Gonzalez-like international tug-of-war was given a semi-permanent visa by the U.S. Justice Department on Monday, his supporters said. Phanupong Khaisri, a 4-year-old who is known by the nick
MOLDE, Norway (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday his government was doing its utmost to fight AIDS but conceded he may have failed to communicate his commitment fully to his critics. Mbeki, at a meeting with the five Nordic prime ministers in Norway, also won backing for a fledgling African
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India , expected to overtake South Africa in terms of people infected with the HIV virus, is willing to collaborate with other countries to prevent the spread of the deadly disease, its prime minister said on Saturday. In India we have launched major initiatives through our concerted focus on biot
NEW YORK (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline on Friday said two bottles of an HIV drug that causes a life-threatening allergic reaction in some patients had been tampered with and falsely labeled as a different, more expensive HIV drug. The British drug maker said it received reports of the possible criminal tampering after fo
TOKYO (Reuters) - Lawmaker Etsuko Kawada is all too familiar with scandals in Japan s corridors of power. And that, says the outspoken mother of an HIV -positive activist, is why she s dead-set against a trio of government bills that critics say would muzzle Japan s media. Kawada and her haemophiliac son battled for ov
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Thursday trimmed around $700 million from an emergency counterterrorism funding bill to try to allay White House and congressional concerns over its cost. The House Appropriations Committee voted to cut the fiscal year 2002 supplemental spending legislatio
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China must address its growing but still largely hidden HIV /AIDS problem or risk derailing strong economic growth, economist Jeffrey Sachs said on Thursday. Sachs called on the Chinese government to recognise the epidemic, increase surveillance on the rate of infection and boost flagging public he
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday stressed sexual abstinence as part of its vision of a better life for children at the opening session of a U.N. global summit on young people. Listing healthy behaviors and right choices for children, Health Secretary Tommy Thompson said U.S. efforts have includ
LONDON (Reuters) - A three-year-old girl whose father is blocking her treatment with conventional drugs for HIV /AIDS was made a ward of court Wednesday, a British legal official said. The 39-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and his HIV-positive partner fled Britain in 1999 with their baby after a c
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vaccine that does not prevent HIV infection but helps the body control the AIDS virus shows promise in monkeys and will soon be tested in humans, a researcher said on Wednesday. It is one of the first vaccines designed with a compromise in mind -- as none of the 30 or so vaccines being tested l
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Grown-ups have failed the world s children, allowing malnutrition, disease and abuse to ravage young people, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday at the opening of a global forum on children. Addressing the hundreds of children who for the first time will be participants in thi
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new drug approach called antisense, which uses an artificial plug to stop a gene from working, has succeeded in blocking an important liver enzyme and in effect made another drug more powerful, corporate researchers reported on Tuesday. A team at Portland, Oregon-based AVI BioPharma Inc said th
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Teachers in countries with high infection rates of HIV /AIDS are being killed faster than they can be trained, threatening to derail the goal of giving all primary school aged children an education by 2015, a World Bank report warned Tuesday. The report s comes on the heels of a renewed commitmen
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Expect talk of sex and violence at this week s special U.N. session on the fate of the world s children, and don t presume the kids will sit on the sidelines. Let s get real: Every minute five young people around the world become infected with HIV. This is not just a statistic, this is my gen
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Monday South Africa was beginning to win the fight against HIV and she would soon release a survey showing infection rates among the youth stabilizing. About 4.7 million of South Africa s 43 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, the government
LONDON (Reuters) - Young people in the Western world have become so complacent about safe sex that the AIDS crisis may be only just beginning, a report warned Saturday. Datamonitor said that the under-30s were still leading a lifestyle almost in ignorance of the threat of AIDS, with a new generation of teenagers believ
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Homeless Cambodian teenager Ah Skou knows the blood flowing through his veins keeps him alive -- and pays for his food and shelter. Blood has become Ah Skou s biological piggy bank, a source of hard cash he taps three or four times each month and sells in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. I ve
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - HIV , the virus that causes AIDS, can be stopped in its tracks by using gene therapy to tell infected cells how to prevent the virus from replicating, researchers here said on Thursday. This could be the smart bomb in our arsenal, said Dr. John Rossi, chair of the Division of Molecular Biology a
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will have the largest number of people in the world infected with HIV in a few years, overtaking South Africa , if steps are not taken to curb the deadly disease, UNAIDS chief Peter Piot said on Thursday. In terms of absolute numbers, India will overtake South Africa, Piot
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Thousands of HIV -positive South Africans marched Thursday to demand a drug that saves babies from the deadly AIDS disease as the state appealed against a court ruling that it must offer the drug immediately. The protesters waved signs and sang songs outside the Constitutional Court, where the
SVAY PAK, Cambodia (Reuters) - Buying sex with a 12-year-old girl in Cambodia takes less time and effort than changing money in a bank or paying a telephone bill. For $1, a motorbike will take you on a 20-minute ride up the chaotic highway north of Phnom Penh, weaving through a riot of bicycles, dogs, trucks and tracto
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. , a developer of drugs for infectious diseases, on Tuesday reported a narrower than expected first-quarter loss as sales of its recently-launched HIV drug helped boost revenue by 36 percent. The Foster City, California-based company also said the U.S. Food and Drug Administr
SRINAGAR (Reuters) - Hundreds of people listen in rapt attention as a priest delivers a sermon in an Islamic school ringed by mountains in Jammu and Kashmir . Another day in the life of the country s only Muslim-majority state? Not quite. The priest isn t teaching people the basic tenets of Islam but discussing AIDS ,
LONDON (Reuters) - From designer mosquitoes resistant to malaria to edible DNA vaccines against hepatitis B, tuberculosis and cholera, genetic research could save millions of lives in the developing world in the coming decades. It has the potential to speed up the diagnosis of mysterious killers such as dengue fever, i
LUSAKA (Reuters) - The World Bank and Zambia have agreed to a $42 million credit to fight HIV/AIDS, which Zambian authorities describe as their biggest development challenge, a senior World Bank official said on Sunday. The credit, which includes $6 million for anti-retroviral drugs, was put on hold last year after a W
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Space tourist Mark Shuttleworth, a South African millionaire and his continent s first astronaut, boarded the International Space Station on Saturday after a two-day trip through space on a Russian craft. The Soyuz space taxi carrying Internet millionaire Shuttleworth, Russian commander Yuri Gidzenko
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new group set up to spend money fighting three top infectious disease killers -- AIDS , tuberculosis and malaria -- announced its first round of spending on Thursday and said much would go to providing drugs. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it would give $378 millio
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tanzanian mothers will get pesticide-soaked mosquito nets and a grass-roots AIDS project in Benin will get money to buy life-extending drugs under a new project aimed at fighting AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, directors of the fund said on Thursday. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis an
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, who last week steered his government through a 180 degree turn on HIV and AIDS, has promised to take the lead in fighting a disease afflicting one in nine of his people. Mbeki, who defied medical opinion by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS and blocked
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization Monday issued a list of recommended AIDS treatments in a bid to ease the access of cash-strapped developing countries to successful drugs. At the same time, the United Nations health agency added a series of AIDS drugs to its international list of essential medicines w
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa wished computer whiz Mark Shuttleworth, dubbed the first African in space, a safe journey Sunday as the world s second space tourist prepared to blast off next week. Shuttleworth, a 28-year-old millionaire whose space ride has drawn controversy at home, is reported to
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African mining firms are looking at a unified approach to tackle AIDS , one of their biggest unresolved challenges as HIV infection rates creep higher. Mining is a vital foreign exchange earner for South Africa, but about 20% of the industry s some 400,000 workers are HIV-positive. Left u
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A global economic recovery is under way but there are ample reasons for the wealthiest nations to remain vigilant, including a risk from higher oil prices, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Friday. The pressure remains to try to find ways to help all economies grow more rapidly, the officia
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Almost a quarter of South Africa s workforce is already infected with HIV /AIDS and the figure will rise to nearly 30% by 2005, a labour consultancy said in a report on Thursday. South Africa has more people living with HIV-AIDS than any other country in the world, with one in nine people infec
KAMPALA, Uganda (Reuters) - A new AIDS awareness campaign to help battle the spread of the disease across Africa was launched in Uganda Thursday with the slogan no glove, no love. The campaign to encourage condom use will build testing and counseling centers in African countries and raise awareness about the AIDS scour
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa is preparing to reverse its opposition to anti-retroviral therapy for AIDS and extend a mother-to-child prevention program throughout the country from December, officials and doctors said Thursday. The government Wednesday announced the most far reaching policy shift yet on HIV and A
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa announced the most sweeping shift yet in its AIDS policy on Wednesday, offering state-funded anti-retroviral treatment to rape victims for the first time. President Thabo Mbeki s cabinet also said it would decide toward the end of the year whether to offer universal access to anti-ret
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children newly infected and ill with measles get a temporary respite from the AIDS virus, thanks to a revved-up immune response, researchers reported on Tuesday. Levels of the HIV virus are suppressed while measles infection rages, the team at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health f
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O Neill said on Friday the United States and Europe may be near a deal to settle a long-running disagreement about whether very poor countries would benefit from a greater use of grants than loans. The Bush administration is advocating increased use of outright grants, sa
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canada has a moral and legal obligation to protect the health of drug addicts by establishing safe injection facilities, according to a federally funded study released on Thursday. It is past time for government action to prevent needless illness and death as a result of unsafe d
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese health officials estimate that 850,000 people in China have contracted HIV , an increase of more than quarter of a million over last year s figure, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday. The estimate--more than double that given in 1999--was the highest ever made public in China a
BOSTON (Reuters) - Women who have sex with circumcised men have lower rates of cervical cancer, and the men themselves are less likely to develop genital warts, researchers report in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine . The reason seems to be that circumcised men are less likely to pick up the human papillomavi
QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) - Doctors and laboratories in Quebec will have to inform public health officials of HIV infections, effective April 18, the province s Health Department said on Monday. In making its announcement, the department was quick to address privacy concerns, assuring that all data collected would remain c
LONDON (Reuters) - Elderly people around the globe are abused, ignored, deprived of their basic human rights and many live in abject poverty without a regular income or pension, according to a report released on Monday. The State of the World s Older People 2002, a survey of the elderly in 32 countries around the globe
LONDON (Reuters) - Using anti-AIDS drugs before, during and after giving birth can reduce the odds of a woman infecting her child with HIV , doctors said on Friday. But they warned that the benefits of the short-term therapy could be jeopardized if the mother breastfeeds the child, which is another way of passing on th
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa said on Thursday it would comply with a ruling by the country s top court that it must offer pregnant women immediate access to an anti-HIV drug the government considers costly and dangerous. The ruling was the latest in a string of court defeats for the Health Department and a blo
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s highest court has upheld a decision forcing the government to reverse existing policy and offer a key anti-AIDS drug to HIV -infected pregnant women during childbirth. The ruling on Thursday was the latest in a string of court defeats for the Health Department, which says it has
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela backed current President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday for a second term, but not his controversial stance on HIV -AIDS . Mandela, 83, said in a national public radio interview that his successor Mbeki was the best man for the job of president and promised n
JOHANNESBURG - (Reuters) - South Africa s government appealed for a second time on Wednesday against a court ruling saying it must provide a key anti-HIV drug that cuts the risk of mother-to-child infection. Campaigners fighting the spread of the virus say widening the provision of nevirapine
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - (Reuters) - In an unprecedented ruling, a Honduran court has ordered the state to pay damages to a woman who contracted HIV from blood transfusions received at a public hospital, a court official said on Monday. The court ruled the Honduran government must pay some $740,000 to Maria Juarez,
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. skidded to a four-year low on Tuesday after the firm warned that surplus stockpiling of its medicines will crimp demand for them this year, prompting fears of a sharper-than- expected drop in the drugmaker s 2002 earnings. The stock slid $2.05, or 5.07 percent, to
LUSAKA (Reuters) - A senior Zambian official said on Thursday the government was unable to import drug cocktails that prolong the lives of people with HIV because of medical infrastructural problems. We cannot import anti-retroviral drugs at the moment because storage facilities are non-existent and medical staff requi
JOURDANTON, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas hospital on Wednesday urged 1,100 former patients to get AIDS tests because of possible exposure to the disease from a drug-abusing nurse accused of injecting herself with pilfered painkiller. The nurse at South Texas Regional Medical Center in Jourdanton took the prescription drug
ABUJA (Reuters) - An African summit endorsed far-reaching measures on Tuesday intended to attract massive Western investments into Africa with promises of democracy and good governance. The summit in Nigeria was the biggest gathering under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa s Development (NEPAD), a home-gro
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Former Zambian leader and revered African statesman Kenneth Kaunda took a public HIV test on Tuesday and challenged the country s top politicians to follow his example to help stem the spread of AIDS . Kaunda, whose son Masuzgo died of AIDS in 1986, was tested for HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, a
BUDAPEST, March 26 (Reuters) - Hungary s Chinoin Rt, part of Sanofi-Synthelabo , Europe s fastest-growing drugs group, said on Tuesday it agreed to buy Pharmavit, a Hungarian unit of Bristol-Myers Squibb . No purchase price was given, but Chinoin Chief Executive Patrick Chocat told a news conference the firm would spen
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian bowel cancer patient who has chronicled her physical disintegration on the Internet says the time has come for her to end her life. Nancy Crick, 70, who has lost almost all her teeth, weighs just 27 kg (60 pounds) and spends all night over the toilet bowl dealing with chronic vomiting a
GENEVA (Reuters) - Developing countries are seeking $1.15 billion this year from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS , Tuberculosis and Malaria, some 50% more than the international venture has available, the Fund said on Monday. Africa, the continent most affected by the killer diseases, made the largest number of requests,
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - A high court judge ruled Monday that South Africa must provide women with an anti-AIDS drug that cuts the risk they will pass the deadly virus to their babies. The government, which has been widely condemned for refusing to expand a Nevirapine pilot program to all pregnant women o
NYERI, Kenya (Reuters) - Jack Githae believes Africa could defeat its catastrophic AIDS epidemic if only it would embrace the healing powers of herbs. Stalking into the bush with a knife and briefcase in search of asparagus, the Kenyan healer symbolizes a growing belief among African herbalists that ancient wisdom coul
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers rushed on Friday to defend an important drug that fights the AIDS virus, saying they feared a U.S. government review of African trials of the drug would give South Africa s government an excuse to reject it. Nevirapine is one of the standard drugs used in cocktails that can suppress t
NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it agreed to acquire private Belgian biotechnology company Tibotec-Virco NV for $320 million in cash and debt to expand its ability to offer treatments for such viruses as HIV and hepatitis C. Industry analysts said similar deals could be in store for
LONDON (Reuters) - Top South African scientists urged their government on Friday to end its opposition to the use of drugs that help prevent pregnant women from passing on the killer HIV virus to their babies. Every year around 100,000 children are born with HIV in South Africa and scientists believe the problem is mad
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand plans to launch what it says is the world s cheapest anti-AIDS drug cocktail next month, health officials said on Friday. The first batch of 120,000 tablets of GPO-VIR, produced by the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), will be made available at state hospitals and drugstores in
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A company that makes a key drug used to fight the AIDS virus said on Friday it was dropping plans to try to get permission to widen marketing of the drug in the United States after irregularities were found in African trials of the drug. Nevirapine has been found to reduce the risk that a mother
GENEVA, March 21 (Reuters) - A leading humanitarian relief organisation praised on Thursday a United Nations effort to help poor countries fight AIDS by issuing a list of approved drugs, but said more products needed to be included quickly. It s not yet comprehensive, a lot of drugs are still missing and it is certainl
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A senior United Nations official said Thursday that the HIV /AIDS epidemic was worsening in Ethiopia and urged authorities to take preventive measures. Ethiopia has crossed the 5% threshold prevalent rate of HIV/AIDS. We have got up to 3 million or more Ethiopians who are infected with the disea
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine s cash-strapped government faces an uphill battle to contain a tuberculosis epidemic that killed 11,000 Ukrainians last year, health officials said on Wednesday. Yuri Feshchenko, director of a state institute dealing with tuberculosis, said rising poverty and the collapse of the ex-Soviet state
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities in the United States tend to get lower quality health care than whites, even when income, age and whether they have insurance is factored in, a report said on Wednesday. Minorities often pay for this with their lives, according to the report by the Institute
YANGON/BANGKOK (Reuters) - European diplomats held rare talks with Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday to gauge prospects for political change following claims by the ruling junta it had foiled a planned coup. But the delegation of for European Union diplomats ended a three-day visit to Myanmar unable
GENEVA (Reuters) - Around a billion people in the developing world are victims of so-called neglected diseases, horrific afflictions that disfigure their bodies and wreak huge economic damage, health officials say. But because they are not out-and-out killers, like AIDS, they do not receive the attention and internatio
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has largely escaped the global HIV /AIDS epidemic, but health experts said Friday that the country of 140 million people needed to take advantage of a window of opportunity to stop the disease from spreading. Kristan Schoultz, country program advisor for the United Nations
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Federal health experts on Thursday said they would consider recommending that organ donors be screened for Chagas disease after confirming the first cases of the potentially fatal parasitic infection in US transplant recipients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said three women, rangin
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain refused on Thursday to recognize President Robert Mugabe s victory in Zimbabwe s elections, saying voters had been denied their fundamental rights in a vote marred by violence and fraud. In a scathing attack on Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence two decades ago, Foreign Secretary
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Western countries pouring resources into the fight against terrorism would get a better return if they spent more on preventing the unnecessary deaths of millions of children, a senior U.N. official said Tuesday. Carol Bellamy, head of the U.N. children s fund UNICEF, told Reuters that investment
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Former US President Jimmy Carter, under fire from the South African government for criticising its AIDS policy, hit out on Monday at presidents who stood aloof from the disease and said openness was needed. Carter told a health forum in Kenya s capital Nairobi that infection rates had dropped in cou
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s ruling party lashed out at former U.S. president Jimmy Carter on Sunday, accusing him of wanting to treat South Africans as guinea pigs in the fight against AIDS. We find it alarming that president Carter is willing to treat our people as guinea pigs, in the interest of the pharm
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - With two Oscar nominations racked up for his picture Monster s Ball, Swiss-born director Marc Forster has made a monster, seven-figure deal to shoot the AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Club. Insiders say Brad Pitt has strong interest in toplining the Universal Pictures project, but no negotiations have b
LONDON (Reuters) - About 6,000 girls a day undergo genital mutilation, often willingly, and up to 115 million African women have already had it, US-based development agency World Vision said on Thursday. And bizarre beliefs abound about female genital mutilation (FGM), such as, if a woman is not circumcised, her husban
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela warned on Thursday that people would die in scores every day if the government continued to block access to key AIDS drugs. At a modest public clinic in the black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg, Mandela also came his closest yet to publicly
LONDON (Reuters) - Charities called on Wednesday for Britain to take a lead in the fight against Africa s AIDS epidemic, starting with a huge increase in spending. We are calling on the British government... to increase the aid budget to enable the UK to increase its spending on this crisis five-fold, Mike Aaronson, di
NEW YORK (Reuters) - UBS Warburg said on Wednesday that it lowered its investment rating on Gilead Sciences Inc. to hold from buy based on valuation. Gilead shares have achieved our price target in the mid-70s and we do not believe that fundamentals support a higher valuation at this juncture, analyst Geoffrey Harris
COOLUM, Australia (Reuters) - Commonwealth leaders ended a racially-divided summit in Australia Tuesday still disagreeing over Zimbabwe s future, but determined to fight terrorism and protect democracy and human rights. The leaders also called for a united front to combat the HIV -AIDS pandemic, particularly in Africa,
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela said on Sunday he supported South Africa s AIDS research policy, but proposed giving people a choice to take anti-AIDS drugs if they were not prepared to wait for the government s study results. Moving to dispel talk of a rift with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) over
LAGOS (Reuters) - The teeming streets and wretched slums of sub-Saharan Africa s largest city point to an unfolding nightmare that the United Nations hopes to address at a summit this year on poverty, development and the environment. Lagos, with around 13 million people, is the future the U.N. wants to avoid. Scorched
COOLUM, Australia (Reuters) - African nations closed ranks around Zimbabwe Sunday as white members of the Commonwealth bloc tried in vain to suspend the country from the organization of mainly former British colonies. With Britain calling for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the group over claims of vote-rigging ahead of
COOLUM, Australia (Reuters) - African nations closed ranks around Zimbabwe on Sunday as mainly white members of the Commonwealth bloc tried in vain to suspend the country from the organization of former British dominions. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who has backed calls for action against Zimbabwe Pre
LONDON (Reuters) - An anti-AIDS drug that has helped to control the illness in adults could also be an important weapon in battling the disease in children, British doctors said Friday. Although more than 11 million children and young people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, they have fewer treatment options than adu
LONDON (Reuters) - An anti-AIDS drug that has helped to control the illness in adults could also be an important weapon in battling the disease in children, British doctors said Friday. Although more than 11 million children and young people worldwide are living with HIV /AIDS they have fewer treatment options than adu
EMERYVILLE, Calif., Feb 28 (Reuters) - Chiron Corp. (NasdaqNM:CHIR - news) on Thursday said U.S. regulators approved its Procleix blood test for a type of HIV and hepatitis C virus. Chiron said its nucleic acid amplification test is designed to detect the presence of HIV type 1 and hepatitis C virus in whole blood duri
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations narcotics watchdog said on Wednesday the use of the Internet and other new technologies by drug traffickers was complicating the struggle against the illegal drug trade and narcotics abuse. In its 2001 annual report, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said that narcot
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa released on Wednesday a report declaring safe its drug-based trial programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus that causes AIDS and recommended the programme be extended. Analysts said the report should end controversy in the country and within the ruling African Na
MOSCOW (Reuters) - New cases of tuberculosis are dropping for the first time in years in Russia despite fears of a possible epidemic, Russian health officials said on Tuesday. According to Health Ministry figures, 133,000 new cases of TB--an airborne bacterial infection that attacks the lungs and is a major health prob
LOS ANGELES, Feb 26 (Reuters) - AIDS vaccine developer VaxGen Inc. (NasdaqNM:VXGN - news) said on Tuesday that the U.S. government s decision not to proceed with a trial of the company s vaccine in combination with another experimental vaccine was not related to the performance of the VaxGen drug. The Brisbane, Cal
LONDON - TV dramas and soaps should feature young people who have contracted sexual diseases to warn of the dangers of infection, the British Medical Association said Tuesday. The association said a lack of high-profile campaigns to encourage safe sex was behind the soaring rates of sexually transmitted disease across
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian health officials said on Tuesday they had started what has been billed as Africa s most ambitious generic AIDS drug program, but were initially treating few patients. Programme coordinator Dr. Sani Gwarzo told Reuters the quiet approach was intended to prevent triggering a stampede. Our silen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Early human data suggest two HIV vaccines being developed by Merck & Co. may help control the virus that causes AIDS, yet it remains to be seen whether they can prevent infection, researchers said on Tuesday. If later-stage trials indeed prove the vaccines can tame the deadly virus, researchers
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. National Institutes of Health said on Monday it was abandoning a scheduled trial that would combine two experimental AIDS vaccines in a double punch against the virus, but said a similar trial would go ahead in Thailand . The U.S. test had been planned to include 11,000 gay men, drug use
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The once-daily antiretroviral treatment Viread works as well as more toxic protease inhibitors in AIDS patients who have not been previously treated, according to a study released on Monday. Viread, made by Foster City, California-based biotech company
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton is to head a mission seeking solutions to Africa s problems ranging from AIDS to debt, a group of center-left government leaders said on Saturday. The 11 leaders also called for a fight against terrorism and its causes, said they would work to carry out the Kyoto clim
LUSAKA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - President Levy Mwanawasa launched a drive on Friday to diversify Zambia s one-commodity economy from the troubled copper industry, placing agriculture as the centre-piece of future economic growth. In his first state of the nation address to parliament, Mwanawasa announced agricultural reform
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa will expand research into the use of Nevirapine to limit mother-to-child transmission of the virus that causes AIDS , but will not make the drug universally available, the government said. Universal access will be decided upon when important questions have been answered by the researc
ROME (Reuters) - AIDS is ravaging an entire generation of farm workers as it sweeps through rural Africa, the president of a United Nations development agency said. AIDS is devastating rural life in many parts of Africa. You have a disappearing generation, Lennard Bage, head of the Rome-based UN International Fund for
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa s Nelson Mandela on Tuesday brushed aside speculation about a growing rift with his successor, President Thabo Mbeki, over the government s controversial handling of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The feeling that there is a rift between us is totally untrue, Mandela said i
NEW YORK, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Roche Holdings and Trimeris Inc. (NasdaqNM:TRMS - news) said on Tuesday that the HIV drug they are collaborating on contributes to lowering viral levels and is well-tolerated when used with other drugs. T-20, a type of HIV drug called a fusion inhibitor, which blocks the ability of a virus
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain launched a five-year program with five African nations Tuesday to find an effective gel or cream to prevent infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The Department for International Development (DFID) said it is sponsoring the $23 million project with South
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday he did not regret publicly advocating condom use to fight the spread of AIDS and a top aide to President Bush said he was simply stating U.S. policy. Powell told CNN s Late Edition he had no second thoughts about telling an MTV program last Thursday
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Comments by Secretary of State Colin Powell encouraging the use of condoms to fight the spread of AIDS have drawn fire from some conservative supporters of the Bush administration who suggested the remarks were at odds with White House policy. During a teleconference on the music television netwo
HOLLYWOOD (Reuters) - Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise and Kevin Spacey, and rock bands No Doubt and R.E.M . tossed valentines to U2 singer Bono at a fund-raiser on Thursday marking the outspoken Irishman s extraordinary philanthropy. The first annual Love Rocks concert was held in Bono s honor, and also brought out
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cocaine not only makes people act recklessly -- having unsafe sex that can lead to HIV infection -- it can also give the virus a kick-start, scientists reported on Thursday. Tests in mice show that cocaine helps the virus spread faster in the body, killing off more immune cells and reproducing 20
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki promised on Thursday new measures to help South Africa s poor but made no mention of the battle against HIV -AIDS , arguably the biggest scourge facing the country. Wrapping up a three-day debate on his state of the nation address last week, Mbeki announced he was making avai
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Young people from around the world put Secretary of State Colin Powell in the hot seat on Thursday, with one teen-ager asking at an MTV teleconference how he felt representing the Satan of contemporary politics. The MTV viewers grilled him further with tough questions that he compared to a congre
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to U.S. senators on Wednesday to invest more money in fighting AIDS, saying anti-terrorism battles would not make the world more secure against disease and poverty. He said the world collectively had to spend some $13 billion a year to meet goals agreed
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (Reuters) - In the first loan of its kind, the World Bank will give Barbados $15 million over five years to provide treatment to HIV and AIDS patients, according to government and World Bank officials. Under previous policy, World Bank funds could be used for infrastructure, coordination efforts an
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Opposition leaders hurled ridicule and defiance at President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday over his government s continued refusal to expand the use of drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus. Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the mainly Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), said he had
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An invisible condom -- a cream or gel that could prevent not only AIDS but a range of sexually transmitted infections -- could be only five years from the market if funding into research continues, a study released on Tuesday finds. But the U.S. government and private foundations would need to in
MOSCOW (Reuters) - AIDS is soon to ravage Russia with consequences that may be even more catastrophic than in Africa, yet the public is barely even aware the epidemic has arrived, Russia s top AIDS official said. After decades of little contact with the disease, Russia and Ukraine have
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki promised on Friday more action to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa , where a quarter of all deaths are attributed to the disease. But the leader of the opposition alliance and even his own coalition partner immediately said they were disappointed with the measures
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Former US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke warned South Africa on Thursday that AIDS threatened its economic and political stability and urged the government to go on a war footing to combat it. Holbrooke, an investment banker turned diplomat who helped bring peace to the Balkans
ATLANTA (Reuters) - US health experts said on Thursday that a global tuberculosis epidemic was fueling high rates of the disease among immigrants, refugees and other foreign-born residents in the United States and threatening efforts to eradicate the disease. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said forei
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday approved a $500 million loan to help combat AIDS in Africa, as part of a program aimed at better treatment and prevention of the pandemic that so far has killed more than 18 million Africans. This second phase of the Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program for Africa, brings the
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Comson Ramangone last worked two weeks ago, earning less than nine dollars for two days work as a plasterer s mate on a building site. Since then, he has stood every day by the side of the highway nearest to the one-roomed wooden shack he shares with his wife, Sylvia, and their five small children
ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. health experts said on Thursday a global tuberculosis epidemic was fueling high rates of the disease among immigrants, refugees and other foreign-born residents in the United States and threatening efforts to eradicate the disease. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said foreig
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Increasing drug use in Asia is accelerating the spread of HIV along drug trafficking routes from the so-called Golden Triangle to nations like Indonesia and governments are doing too little to combat it, a report says. The report on 22 Asian countries, as well as
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A herbal product used to treat mild depression may counter the effect of the contraceptive pill and has led to at least two unwanted pregnancies in Sweden , the country s pharmaceuticals authority said. The Medical Products Agency said on its website that taking St. John s wort had resulted in two
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) said on Monday that U.S. regulators had approved a once-daily tablet of Sustiva , its anti-HIV treatment that currently must be taken in the form of three tablets a day. The New York-based drug giant said the Food and Drug Administration appro
NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Bill Gates, the world s richest man, on Saturday teamed up with pop star activist Bono to call on world political and business leaders to substantially boost funding for global health. To that end, Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) said his Bill
NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of global business and political leaders, is meeting here to discuss leadership in a world changed by the Sept. 11 attacks and the war on terrorism. Following are the highlights from Saturday, the third day of the five-day conference, held for th
NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Botswana s health minister said on Friday her HIV-devastated nation s attack on the scourge being backed by U.S. groups could provide lessons to other nations as she cautioned Asia and Eastern Europe might suffer explosive AIDS epidemics if they do not quickly take preventive action. We are
KIEV (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Friday it was considering a $60 million loan to help Ukraine control the rampant spread of tuberculosis and AIDS in its impoverished population. Gregory Jedrzejczak, the World Bank resident representative, said that after talks with government officials it had been decided that f
NEW YORK, Jan 31 (Reuters) - British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc on Thursday said it will begin a U.S. trial this year of a vaccine to prevent humans from being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Healthy males and females who have not been exposed to the virus and who are at low risk of HIV infection will
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will spend $270 million to build or upgrade blood centers as it tries to fend off a major AIDS epidemic, state media said on Thursday. The State Development Planning Commission (SDPC) will contribute 1.25 billion yuan and local governments will kick in another billion yuan to guarantee the saf
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African activists said on Tuesday they had imported generic anti-AIDS drugs from Brazil , risking the wrath of the pharmaceutical firms that hold the patents for these drugs. AIDS activists said they had approval to import the drugs from the Statutory Medicines Control Council but risked
DURHAM, N.C., Jan 29 (Reuters) - Drug developer Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NasdaqNM:VIRS - news) said on Tuesday Dr. David Barry, its founder and chief executive, died at the age of 58. Barry was considered a leader in the field of antiviral therapy and was one of the co-inventors of
GENEVA (Reuters) - A global anti-AIDS fund, intended to spearhead the world s war on a pandemic that has killed millions, swung into action Tuesday with a call to countries to suggest projects for it to finance. At its first meeting, the board of the Geneva-based body approved rules for distributing its funds, which cu
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s Anglican archbishop said it was a sin that the government was denying HIV-positive pregnant women a drug that reduces a newborn s risk of contracting the virus, a newspaper reported on Saturday. If the life of a child rests on drugs, but she does not receive them, it s a sin, it
London (Reuters) - AIDS will surpass the Black Death as the world s worst pandemic if the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS do not get life-prolonging drugs, a U.S. public health physician said on Friday. AIDS has killed 25 million people since the early 1980s and an estimated 14,000 people are infected each day w
LONDON (Reuters) - A third of all child rapes in South Africa are committed by school teachers, researchers said in a new report on sexual violence against young girls. The world needs to wake up to the fact that schools are a major site of sexual harassment and rape for children, said Dr. Rachel Jewkes of the Medical
LONDON (Reuters) - Rivalry between US government agencies is hampering the search for an AIDS vaccine, an American scientist said on Wednesday. Instead of coordinating their efforts, AIDS researcher John Moore of Cornell University in New York said the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The government of South Africa s most AIDS-ravaged province said on Tuesday that it would supply a key drug to HIV-positive pregnant women in a bid to save their babies from the deadly disease. KwaZulu Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali said his decision--which is at odds with national government pol
BEIJING (Reuters) - The northern Chinese city of Tianjin has been gripped by a scare over AIDS, with rumours of attacks by enraged victims armed with syringes of blood driving dozens to get tested, doctors and police said on Friday. Police said a small number of culprits had pricked people with needles on busy streets
DURHAM, N.C., Jan 17 (Reuters) - Drug developer Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NasdaqNM:VIRS - news) said on Thursday it plans to submit early next fall a regulatory application for its experimental HIV treatment Coviracil, but will terminate development another HIV compound, Coactinon. The Durham, North Carolina-based
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said Thursday its executive board backed delaying a 2002 deadline for destroying the world s remaining stocks of the smallpox virus to allow more research into vaccines. Amid fears that extremist groups or rogue states could use disease as a weapon, the body supported a
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chimpanzee version of the AIDS virus appears to be extremely rare in wild chimps, which suggests the apes evolved a way to deal with the killer virus generations ago, researchers said on Thursday. They said their study confirmed earlier theories that AIDS passed to humans from chimps in Centr
SYDNEY - The descendants of the mutinous crew of the Bounty may ban people with AIDS from moving to their isolated Pacific home. Chief Minister Geoffrey Gardner said a local legislator on Norfolk Island had proposed altering the semi-autonomous Australian territory s immigration act to stop HIV positive migrants, or pe
LONDON - Efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine received a boost on Wednesday with research showing an experimental cold virus vaccine could control a virus similar to HIV in monkeys. Scientists at Merck & Co said their adenovirus vaccine did not prevent infection but significantly reduced the virus in immunized animal
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Workers opening pay slips at Ivory Coast s power company CIE were surprised to find an unexpected gift from the management--a free condom. That was nearly 10 years ago, when a pioneering scheme to counter the AIDS epidemic was first thought up. Now CIE hands out condoms regularly, provides health co
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil s Health Ministry, emboldened by its successful fight for cheaper AIDS medicines, is telling makers of a hepatitis C drug to slash prices or face having their patents broken. Brazil wants pharmaceutical giants Schering-Plough Corp. and Roche Holding AG to reduce the price of
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Ten years ago, workers opening payslips at Ivory Coast s power company, CIE, were surprised to find an unexpected gift from the management -- a free condom. That was the start of a pioneering scheme to counter the deadly AIDS epidemic. Today, CIE hands out condoms regularly, provides he
WASHINGTON - A U.S. study of 6,000 HIV patients is under way to settle which strategy works best against AIDS -- hitting the virus early and hard with powerful drugs, or waiting until the immune system is damaged, government-funded researchers said on Thursday. They hope their study, the largest randomized trial of HIV
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzanian opposition leaders on Wednesday took the rare step of getting tested for HIV/AIDS and promised to publicise the results in a bid to encourage other Tanzanians to do the same. Civic United Front (CUF) National Chairman Professor Ibrahim Lipumba and Secretary General Seif Shariff Ahmed
LONDON (Reuters) - British pop legend Sir Elton John will be given a Hero Award by a charity Wednesday in honor of his fundraising work for people suffering from AIDS and HIV. The UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS said that its inaugural award would go to the best-selling artist and head of the Elton John
FIRGI, Niger (Reuters) - Once a tranquil backwater, the little village of Firgi on the dusty border between Niger and its southern neighbor, Nigeria , is enjoying a boom. The growth in this impoverished region of West Africa has been fueled by sex and the drawback is a sharp rise in the number of people infected with t
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki called on South Africans Sunday to build a non-racist society and committed the country to helping revive Africa s economies to make it the continent of light. At a rally to mark the 90th anniversary of the ruling African National Congress, Mbeki said the org
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia s new president, Levy Mwanawasa, has vowed to fight the AIDS epidemic gripping his country, declaring it a national disaster and promising to look at securing cheaper drugs to help treat the disease. AIDS is a national disaster and it must be looked at that way... I myself will be leading a ca
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