1999

ALAMEDA COUNTY/Supervisors Take Step To Legalize Needle Swap: The San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, December 16, 1999; Alameda County supervisors have unanimously declared a public health emergency for AIDS and hepatitis C, opening the door to public funding of a volunteer needle exchange program. With Tuesday s vote, the county joined the cities of Oakland and Berkeley and Contra Costa County in taking advantage of a new state law, ef
EDITORIAL: AIDS Picture Incomplete': The San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, December 11, 1999; THE CENTERS for Disease Control and Prevention make a powerful case for requiring that people diagnosed with HIV, not just those with AIDS, be reported to state departments of health. Because of remarkable advances in AIDS drugs, people with HIV have a much greater chance, fortunately, of slowing progression of the dis
States Told To Track Data In HIV Cases/U.S. wants detailed reports on spread of AIDS virus: The San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, December 10, 1999; David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor; The federal government s major AIDS agency issued controversial new guidelines yesterday calling on states and local public health departments to report all HIV cases either by name or code in an effort to develop a nationwide AIDS surveillance system. Reaction was swift from AIDS advocacy groups, many of whom oppose a
States Told To Track Data In HIV Cases; U.S. wants detailed reports on spread of AIDS virus: San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, December 10, 1999; David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor; The federal government s major AIDS agency issued controversial new guidelines yesterday calling on states and local public health departments to report all HIV cases either by name or code in an effort to develop a nationwide AIDS surveillance system. Reaction was swift from AIDS advocacy groups, many of whom oppose a
EDITORIAL: Worldwide AIDS Epidemic Demands Eradication Effort: San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, November 26, 1999; THE BLEAK REPORT that a staggering 2.6 million people will die of AIDS this year should shock the world into unified action to eradicate the disease. The report by the United Nations AIDS program, released in preparation for the 12th annual World AIDS Day on December 1, found that 33.6 million men, women and children h
AIDS Toll Higher Than Ever, U.N. Says/2.6 million expected to die this year, global study finds: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, November 24, 1999; David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor; With no letup in the mounting toll from AIDS, a report by the United Nations has found that 2.6 million people worldwide will die of the disease this year, the most of any year since the epidemic began. In Africa -- where the epidemic is raging most strongly -- for the first time, more women than men are being infected
World Trade Showdown/Activists, Industry Split Over AIDS Drugs /Manufacturers fight affordable access: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, November 24, 1999; Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer; At the Washington, D.C., headquarters of Ralph Nader s Consumer Project on Technology, Jamie Love is reveling in the global attention. It was Love s office that first promoted the idea that costly AIDS drugs could be brought cheaply to poor countries by sidestepping pharmaceutical industry patents -- an idea that has r
Agency Urges Switch to Safer Needles/CDC says 600,000 injuries could be avoided each year: San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, November 23, 1999; William Carlsen, Chronicle Staff Writer; The federal Centers for Disease Control called on the nation s hospitals and other health care facilities yesterday to switch to safety needles, declaring that the move could reduce potentially lethal needle injuries by up to 80 percent. In a strongly worded safety alert, the agency charged that accidental needle stick
FDA Panel Rejects HIV Drug/AIDS activists argued against treatment: San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, November 2, 1999; Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer; A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel yesterday rejected a new treatment for HIV after leading AIDS activists broke with tradition and argued that the experimental drug had too many side effects and too few benefits. The 13-to-1 vote by the advisory committee was a crushing blow to Gilead Scien
EDITORIAL: Staggering AIDS Epidemic Is Stealing Africa's Future: San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, October 25, 1999; IT S DIFFICULT to see how an epidemic that has claimed more than 12 million lives and infects another 22 million can be minimized by a continent, but that is close to what has happened in Africa regarding AIDS. As a series in last week s Chronicle illustrated, many African leaders are in unfathomable denial about an ep
Do Ask, Do Tell, S.F. Ad Campaign Advises Gay Men/Many assume partners are HIV-free: The San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, October 11, 1999; Elaine Herscher, Chronicle Staff Writer; The San Francisco AIDS Foundation begins a campaign today aimed at keeping gay men from contracting HIV because they assume, without asking, that their sex partners don t have the virus. AIDS prevention experts have noted for some time that many gay men make little or no effort to learn their sex partners HIV status, b
Men Who Cheat Put 3.5 Million Women At Risk of Disease/Study finds condom use rare with main partner: The San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, October 7, 1999; Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer; Men who secretly sleep around are putting 3.5 million unsuspecting American women at risk of contracting the AIDS virus or other sexually transmitted diseases, a new survey shows. Results highlighted the growing problem of indirect spread of disease, particularly among female partners of HIV-positive men. A fair number
Modern Mutating Microbes Give Viruses a Global Spin: The San Franicso Chronicle - Tuesday, September 28, 1999; Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer; One of the more devilish microbes to emerge in modern times turns out to be a virus capable of causing deadly brain infections in animals and people, scientists said yesterday. The so-called Nipah virus, named for a village in Malaysia where it struck in 1997, underscores the global problem of emerging infectious disea
Sharing A Needle Risks More Than AIDS/Hepatitis also spreads among drug addicts: The San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, September 27, 1999; David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor; Despite the success of needle exchange programs in preventing the spread of AIDS among injection- drug users, a new epidemic is emerging to threaten addicts with still another deadly disease. Researchers call the problem co- infection, but to addicts on the streets and in the hidden alleys of major cities, it means tha
Black Ministers Hold AIDS Forum In San Mateo/A call for churches to take greater role: The San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, September 17, 1999; Julie N. Lynem, Chronicle Staff Writer; African Americans contract HIV and AIDS at a higher rate than other groups in San Mateo County. But if pastors of predominantly black churches start getting both the Word and the word out, the flood of new cases might recede, according to a new coalition of ministers and community leaders. More than a dozen pastors and
Undeterred by Her Critics/Foes say head of S.F. AIDS Foundation's high salary siphons money from services: The San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, September 6, 1999; Benoit Denizet-Lewis, Chronicle Staff Writer; Pat Christen is not a man. Not only is she not a man, but she is a woman who is not gay. Christen also does not have HIV, does not belong to an ethnic minority and does not live in San Francisco, choosing instead to reside in the East Bay with her husband and two daughters. She will not say where in the East Bay she li
EDITORIAL: Complacency in AIDS War: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, September 1, 1999; THE GOOD NEWS is the number of AIDS-related deaths in the United States continues to decline; the bad news is the decline in mortality has slowed greatly and the deadly disease is still spreading. National statistics released this week at a National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta showed that 17,047 AIDS patients
Blood Test Reveals How Recently A Person Was Infected With HIV: The San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, August 31, 1999; Carl Hall; A new blood test for the AIDS virus allows researchers to tell how recently a person became infected. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday the first successful use of the new testing technology, designed to help pinpoint the source of newly found infections. The process consists
Decline Slows In Rate of AIDS Deaths/Impact of drug therapies wearing off, scientists say: The San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, August 31, 1999; Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer; Better drugs are not enough to stop the AIDS epidemic, U.S. health officials said yesterday, reporting that after two years of dramatic improvement, the drop in AIDS deaths is starting to slow down. At the same time, HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, seems to be gaining ground again in San Francisco and in minority comm
S.F. Gay Men Having More Risky Sex, Study Finds: San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, August 27, 1999; Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer; Gay men in San Francisco are rapidly dropping their guard against a renewed outbreak of HIV infection, with half of those in a recent survey reporting they have had sex without condoms. Of greatest concern to researchers is that nearly a quarter of those participating in a University of California at San Francisco surv
Needle-Exchange Bill Finally OKd in Senate, Sent to Governor/First time legislation has passed both houses in 7 years of trying: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, August 25, 1999; Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau; For the first time in seven years, the Legislature succeeded in sending the governor a bill to legalize needle-exchange programs for drug addicts. And just like what happened seven years ago with a GOP governor, the bill faces a likely veto, this time from Democrat Gray Davis. Based on what he has said in the past, (Da
EDITORIAL: A State Needle Exchange Law: The San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, August 16, 1999; THERE IS NO longer any doubt that needle exchanges help reduce the transmission of AIDS among intravenous drug users, and it s high time that California legalizes such programs. Each year 8,000 Californians are infected with HIV, and injection drug use is the second leading cause of those infections, says Regina Aragon
Study Shows Odds of Getting HIV Infection/Risk-reducing steps not as effective; Just how risky is risky sex in the era of AIDS?: The San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, August 13, 1999; Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer; The San Francisco Department of Public Health has just released a study that calculates the odds -- and to those who understand the arcane numbers, the results are surprising and troubling. Showing for the first time the mathematical risk of HIV infection in a variety of circumstances, the study of 1,583 men suggests t
How Prescription Denial Affects One AIDS Patient/Appeal from his doctor goes to anonymous experts: The San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, July 29, 1999; Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer; In an era when doctors seem to be perpetually battling health insurers, Dr. David Senechek s dispute with Blue Shield of California shows how the lives of patients hang in the balance. Senechek is a Harvard-trained physician, a San Francisco AIDS specialist whose patient list includes 600 people suffering from the wide
Needle Reuse Case Fine Set by State: The San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, July 23, 1999; Julie N. Lynem, Chronicle Staff Writer; The state said yesterday that it plans to fine SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories $102,000 for violations related to a former employee who reused needles on clients at a Palo Alto lab. The state Department of Health Services said it will fine SmithKline $50,000 based on Elaine Giorgi s admission that she reused n
Dellums Urges U.S. To Help Stem AIDS Epidemic in Africa/Senate panel address in S.F.: San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, July 10, 1999; Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer; With an impassioned plea, former Oakland Rep. Ron Dellums told a U.S. Senate panel in San Francisco yesterday that the nation needs to wake up to the magnitude of an AIDS catastrophe enveloping Africa. This is a global problem that threatens the human family. We have to move beyond this state of denial, Dellums said be
Gay Bathhouse Issue Prompts Partisan Fervor/S.F. Health Commission may address clubs' return: San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, June 14, 1999; Elaine Herscher, Chronicle Staff Writer; Nothing in Dr. Mitchell Katz s eight years in the San Francisco Public Health Department has stirred passions as much as the idea being pushed by a group of gay activists to bring back the city s bathhouses. This is the only issue where people on the street come up to me, people at the gym come up to me, said Katz, who
Genetic Bloodhound/New test from rival Bay Area biotech firms can sniff out viral infections in donations: The San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, May 31, 1999; Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer; With 14 million pints of blood collected from U.S. donors each year, screening out blood-borne diseases is a daunting task. Each pint is tested within 24 hours for HIV and other viruses. Right now, the tests theoretically miss just 1.5 HIV and 10 hepatitis C viruses in every million pints, but safety regulators say tha
Notification List Swells in Needle Case: Nearly 12,000 patients offered free blood tests: San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, May 25, 1999; Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer; Almost 12,000 newly identified San Francisco and Peninsula patients will be offered free blood tests for AIDS and hepatitis because they may have had their blood drawn by Elaine Giorgi, the technician who admitted that she has reused disposable needles at one Palo Alto lab. State investigators identified yesterday 25 d
New Crusade To Lower AIDS Drug Costs: Africa's needs at odds with firms' profit motive: San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, May 24, 1999; Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer; In the 18 years since he first showed symptoms of AIDS, Eric Sawyer has been a fighter, battling his own disease while agitating on the streets and in the halls of Congress for more research and better drugs. The payoff is an array of costly new pills that since 1996 have helped slash the American AIDS death rate in ha
HIV Patients' Blood Drawn at Lab/2 or 3 used clinic while worker reused needles: San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, May 8, 1999; Lisa Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer; Two or three HIV-positive patients had their blood drawn at a Palo Alto lab during the same time that a technician who reused needles worked there, UCSF Stanford Health Care officials said yesterday. Health officials say the risk of contracting AIDS from one of the needles inserted by phlebotomist Elaine Giorgi, who wo
They Seek Dangerous Liaisons/Queer Nation's notion on bathhouses is denial: San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, May 8, 1999; Ken Garcia, San Francisco Chronicle; A wiser man than I once said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. And for purposes of this column, the key word here is condemn. Because of all the bad ideas that spring forth on the city landscape each day, one recent proposal stands out as the colossus of myopic and misguided thinking.
SANTA CLARA COUNTY/Gay Men Sought for AIDS Vaccine Test: The San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, May 19, 1999; San Jose -- The Santa Clara County Health Department is seeking 150 gay men who are HIV negative and have multiple sex partners to volunteer for a study that tests the effectiveness of an AIDS vaccine. The test is based on the genetically engineered vaccine, called AIDSVAX, made by VaxGen , a Brisbane biotechnology
DuPont Promises S.F. $1 Million AIDS Grant: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, May 5, 1999; Chronicle Staff Report; The giant DuPont Co. pledged $1 million yesterday to boost San Francisco s AIDS prevention efforts and challenged other companies to join in. The grant from DuPont Pharmaceuticals, to be given over five years, will go to create the San Francisco HIV Prevention Coalition. The new coalition, whose leaders will include no
Proposed Initiative Could Unlock Bathhouse Doors: The San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, May 4, 1999; John Wildermuth, Chronicle Staff Writer; San Francisco s sex wars could erupt again in November if a group of gay men can persuade the city s voters to allow the long-shuttered bathhouses to be reopened. The men, under the banner of the 2-year-old Community United for Gay Sexual Privacy, have proposed an initiative that would block Department of Public Health
'It's the Silence That's Most Dangerous'; Gays in S.F. don't want to hear about safe sex: San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, April 26, 1999; Elaine Herscher, Chronicle Staff Writer; Whenever Paul is in town, he hits the San Francisco sex clubs. He usually has sex with two men per evening. He rarely catches their names -- or much else about them. That s why Paul was shocked when, during a recent visit from his home in Washington, D.C., someone asked him about his HIV status before they had sex.
Needle Scare Shows Deficit In Training: Only 10 hours of class required to draw blood: San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, April 17, 1999; Sabin Russell, Henry K. Lee, Lisa Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writers; Disclosure that a Palo Alto lab worker could have exposed her patients to AIDS and hepatitis by reusing old needles to draw blood sent a chill through this affluent community yesterday. The ensuing outcry is certain to focus attention on state training requirements under which a technician can be certified to draw bloo
Blood Lab Warning On Needles: Palo Alto clinic worker admits she reused them: San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, April 16, 1999; Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer; At least 3,600 patients who had blood work performed at a Palo Alto clinical lab will be advised to take precautionary tests for AIDS and hepatitis after the technician who ran the lab since June 1997 admitted reusing disposable needles when drawing blood samples. Health officials in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties
Should Vaccine Research for HIV Merit a Corporate Tax Break?; Pelosi-sponsored bill may wind up being a Pandora's pork barrel: San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, April 5, 1999; Tom Abate; An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, the saying goes. Unfortunately, the drug industry works on the opposite logic. When deciding where to invest their research cash, drug execs know they can get the best returns by developing remedies that require patients to take regular pills or injections. By contrast,
AIDS Fighters Pin Hopes on Immune Therapies: San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, March 26, 1999; Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer; AIDS researchers offered some tantalizing previews yesterday of what they hope will prove to be the first effective immune-based therapies against the deadly disease. Small-scale clinical studies have been yielding encouraging results recently, the researchers said, particularly when the experimental immune boosters fo
Complacency the Enemy in AIDS Fight, Says Elders: San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, March 25, 1999; Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer; An AIDS conference in San Francisco turned into a pep rally for some 2,000 battle-weary fighters of the disease yesterday. Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the plain- talking former surgeon general of the United States , kicked off the National HIV/AIDS Update Conference, an annual event sponsored by the American Foundation for AI
S.F. Doctors To Test New AIDS Vaccine; Clinical trials already under way in other cities: San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, March 9, 1999; David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor; AIDS specialists in San Francisco are ready to begin testing the effectiveness of an AIDS vaccine that is already undergoing clinical trials in Thailand and many other American cities, they announced yesterday. In a joint project of the University of California and the city s Department of Public Health, the doctors ar
Oakland Ads Urge Minority HIV Tests Blacks, Latinos at growing risk: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 24, 1999; Thaai Walker, Chronicle Staff Writer; A middle-aged black man peers out from a poster, his earnest gaze intended to draw passersby to a message about HIV that is printed above his image: Your life, it s in your hands. It is a message that in the coming months will begin showing up throughout Oakland s neighborhoods -- on billboards, bench posters and flyer
Health Workers Called at Risk in Blood Collection 2,800 face exposure to disease yearly when glass tubes break: San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, February 23, 1999; April Lynch, Chronicle Staff Writer; Thousands of health care workers risk exposure to deadly blood-borne diseases each year because of accidents caused by broken blood collection tubes, federal health and safety investigators warned yesterday. An estimated 2,800 health care workers are injured by broken glass blood collection tubes every year, according
France's Ugly Case Over Tainted Blood Goes to Trial High-ranking officials accused of allowing AIDS to spread: The San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, February 9, 1999; Frank Viviano, Chronicle Staff Writer; With a cast and plot that might have been inspired by Shakespearean tragedy, a former Socialist prime minister of France and two of his Cabinet members go on trial today, charged with involuntary homicide. Like the trial of President Clinton, the case will be heard in a special court drawn from the national legislature
Monkey Study Dashes Hopes For `Live-Virus' AIDS Vaccine: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 3, 1999; David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor; The long-held hope that an artificially disabled AIDS virus might be turned into a powerful vaccine against the disease has been dimmed by researchers experimenting with a monkey version of the virus. Even though an international group of physicians has volunteered to test such a live- virus human AIDS vaccine, Harvard
Lockyer Task Force to Look at Medical Marijuana Law: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 3, 1999; Marshall Wilson, Chronicle Staff Writer; Attorney General Bill Lockyer is attempting to clear up legal clouds caused by the passage of the medical marijuana initiative. Lockyer invited about 35 law enforcement, health and elected officials and advocates for medical marijuana to the Justice Department s Sacramento office yesterday for the first meeting of a ne
'Russian Roulette' Sex Parties: Rise in gay fringe group's unsafe practices alarms AIDS experts: San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, January 29, 1999; Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer; In a Castro district apartment house, an $8 admission fee promises a night of communal gay sex. The only rules: no clothes, no condoms, no discussion of HIV. Two decades into an epidemic that has taken the lives of nearly 18,000 San Franciscans, a new homosexual subculture is emerging: Healthy men are seeking unprotect
El Silencio (silence): San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, January 15, 1999; Kimberly Chun, Chronicle Staff Writer; When a Peninsula AIDS research organization hired Fernando Sotelo as an outreach coordinator to the Latino community, he imagined that communication would be muy facile. But although he is bilingual and was raised in South San Francisco, Sotelo soon realized that getting people to talk freely about the disease was a co
Study Offers New Theory On How HIV Attacks Cells Findings contradict widely held view: San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, January 5, 1999; Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer; Using a new technique for tracking the life and death of immune cells, Bay Area AIDS researchers have found that HIV causes the deadly disease primarily by blocking the production and shortening the survival time of infection-fighting T cells. That runs counter to the widely held view among AIDS scientists that HIV str
2 New AIDS Treatments Showing Potential: San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, January 5, 1999; Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer; Two studies of experimental AIDS treatments published yesterday showed promising results, but experts warn it is too soon to predict any practical benefits. Both new strategies, summarized in the latest issue of the journal Nature Medicine, are designed to circumvent the problem of drug- resistant strains of HIV, the e
HIV Do-It-Yourself Test Kits Worry U.S. Health Experts Misinterpreted results could lead to unsafe sex: San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, January 13, 1999; Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer; Do-it-yourself test kits for HIV are proliferating through Web sites that promise instant results and absolute privacy -- but which also raise fears about a potential health hazard. Regulators say they are becoming increasingly concerned about the questionable reliability and potential misuse of self-test kits for the
How crack cocaine spreads AIDS: San Francisco Chronicle - Monday February 13, 1989; Randy Shilts; Miami - The young black women from Miami s impoverished Overtown and Liberty City neighborhoods are coming in more frequently now, shocked at the news that they are infected with the AIDS virus and telling remarkably similar stories. They tell me they stopped shooting drugs because of AIDS, so instead they started smok

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