San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, December 23, 2002
Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Harold Lien has traveled the world, resided in half the neighborhoods of San Francisco, been a hippie and a Marine, survived cancer and a firebombing, and lived with HIV for two decades. In the past year, he s also fought his way back to health after being hospitalized eight times in three months for a variety of ailme
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, December 19, 2002
Anastasia Stanmeyer, Chronicle Foreign Service
Chiang Mai, Thailand -- It s in the eyes. The longing of an 8-year-old child who wants to splash water at his friends, but who sits at the banks of a lake as a woman rubs his frail body. The searching gaze of a boy cruelly teased by his classmates because his parents died of AIDS. The downcast look of a girl afraid to
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, December 19, 2002
Andrew Perrin, Chronicle Foreign Service
Bangkok -- For years, Thailand s AIDS prevention program was acclaimed as a model for Asia, a beacon of light in a region that had no tradition of tackling a major health crisis head-on. Through a highly successful public-education campaign and promotion of condom use, the government stemmed the rapid spread of HIV by
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Gilead Sciences said Tuesday that it would sell its new antiretroviral HIV drug at cost in 68 of the world s poorest countries including every nation in Africa. The pledge by the Foster City biotech firm left unanswered a key detail -- how steeply the company will discount its one-a-day AIDS drug called
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, December 12, 2002
Teresa Castle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Soweto, South Africa -- The 25 names on the memorial plaque at Bethesda House orphanage tell a stark story of lives snuffed out at an early age. Most of the youngsters lived only a year or two. The oldest made it to 6. They were infected with HIV at birth, and when AIDS took their parents lives, family members fearful
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, December 12, 2002
Teresa Castle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Knowing that it will take strong medicine to stem the AIDS avalanche, some doctors in South Africa are doing what the government still won t do -- provide anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to AIDS sufferers. In Khayelitsha, a sprawling shantytown near Cape Town, the Nobel Peace Prize winning group Doctors Without Borders is
San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, December 9, 2002
Tom Abate
Just before New Year s, a Brisbane biotech firm will finish two clinical trials, one in the United States , the other in Thailand , and begin crunching the data that will determine whether VaxGen has produced the first AIDS vaccine. A spin-off of South San Francisco s Genente
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, December 5, 2002
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Washington -- During a presentation at the Partnering for Global Health forum here, the chief executive of a biotech firm preparing to test an AIDS vaccine for Africa flashed a slide that read: Show me the money. I am embarrassed about being so crass, said AlphaVax s Peter Young. But as the head of a 40-person startup
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, December 5, 2002
Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer
Seeking to expand its stable of virus-fighting drugs, Gilead Sciences Inc. of Foster City said Wednesday it has agreed to buy a small North Carolina biotechnology company for $464 million. Gilead, which turned profitable this year on sales of its anti-HIV drug V
San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, December 2, 2002
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco -- A woman brushed back tears. A gay couple held hands. A pastor chose to speak about hope. Nearly 200 people gathered at the National AIDS Memorial Grove -- a 7-acre refuge in Golden Gate Park -- on Sunday afternoon to honor the lives of those touched, and in so many cases shattered, by the AIDS virus. I
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, December 1, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Within hours of a much-anticipated ceremony set in Tanzania , Richard Feachem made the call from Geneva: He called the whole thing off. The 1-year-old Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which Feachem heads, was about to sign its first check -- part of a $12 million contract to promote the use of bedro
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, December 1, 2002
Jose Antonio Vargas, Special to The Chronicle
Amy Andre stands in the kitchen of her immaculate Chinatown apartment with her partner, Cheri Tsai. They are chopping vegetables for dinner with Tony Bennett crooning on a nearby stereo. Andre flashes a quick smile. I can love a person whether it s a he or a she, Andre says. We create these rules telling us who you can
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, December 1, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
As African nations reel from huge HIV infection rates, a maverick theory that blames much of the epidemic on the reuse of contaminated hypodermic needles in medical settings is stirring controversy and prompting new research into the roots of the AIDS catastrophe. Although the link between HIV infection and needle shar
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, November 29, 2002
Dave Ford, Chronicle Staff Writer
AIDS Memorial Grove nurtures the souls of visitors, volunteers Plenty of memorials have captured lives lost to AIDS in the past two decades -- quilt panels, AIDS walks, bike rides, chapels. But few offer the kind of natural solace found at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park, which on Sunday holds a ce
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
In a dreadful convergence of catastrophes, six southern African nations are facing a famine fueled by the combination of prolonged drought and a farm labor force decimated by AIDS, according to a new U.N. report on the global scope of the epidemic. An estimated 14.4 million people face starvation in
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Eric Goosby, Pat Christen
Sunday is World AIDS Day. As we move into the third decade of this global epidemic, it is fitting to consider the theme -- Live and Let Live -- and take stock of where we have come and where we must go in order to end the human suffering caused by HIV. This theme aims to stamp out HIV stigmaand discrimination, which ar
San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, November 25, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
Whether he s investigating a South of Market bar to make sure no sex is occurring, surfing Internet sex chat rooms, or imploring drug companies to better educate the public about sexually transmitted diseases, Dr. Jeffrey Klausner has the same modus operandi: Getting in your face. Nicely. As San Francisco s director of
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, November 24, 2002
Ben Schnayerson, Chronicle Foreign Service
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam -- As part of a government campaign to stamp out the social evils that spread AIDS, a prostitute named Trang was sent last year to a state facility for sex workers and intravenous drug users. But like so many of the Communist government s misplaced efforts to control HIV/AIDS, this one didn t
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, November 22, 2002
Dave Ford
In a little more than a week, World AIDS Day once again will be upon us. There will be much talk in the press of the global pandemic and of shifts here at home. Some civilians will spend the day forgetting. Others won t be able to help remembering. My friend Chris died in 1987. He had the good taste to die on the same
San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, November 18, 2002
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Bay Area biotech leaders are in the forefront of a movement to teach our profit-driven drug development industry how to make medicines for the world s poor. The latest evidence came during a panel discussion last week at an investment conference in Burlingame. Panel moderator Brook Byers, of the venture capital firm Kl
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, November 17, 2002
Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service
New Delhi -- First in an occasional series For 47 days, Arif Jafar and three colleagues were kept in a filthy jail. At first, there was no clean water, and they were unable to bathe. Guards beat them. The four were accused of running a sex racket and showing pornographic films at their offices in the northern Indian ci
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, November 17, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
First in an occasional series Two decades after the AIDS epidemic began its relentless march through sub- Saharan Africa, the disease has gained a strong foothold in Asia, menacing tens of millions who live in the most populous nations on Earth. Health experts say a catastrophe can be averted only with far-reaching act
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, November 17, 2002
Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, Chronicle Foreign Service
Bombay -- First in an occasional series Hafeeza, a 32-year-old woman who lives in the slum of Tardeo near Bombay, was shocked when doctors told her that she had been infected with HIV by her taxi-driver husband. But what can I do? said Hafeeza, who refused to give her last name. Besides, the only thing I am interested
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, November 13, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
When Dr. Wan Yanhai s taxi pulled up to his Beijing home near midnight that August evening, he knew there was trouble ahead. There was a car in front of his cab, and a car behind. There was never this kind of traffic near his home at that time of night. The four men who hustled him into their vehicle as he emerged from
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, November 1, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
Reversing a 10-year trend, syphilis rates rose nationally in 2001, raising concerns that the spread of the sexually transmitted disease could lead to a resurgence of HIV infections, federal health officials said Thursday. While the number of new infections went up only slightly, by 2 percent, or 124 cases -- to 6,103 i
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
A federal appeals court said Tuesday the federal government cannot punish California doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients. The ruling by the three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a rare legal victory for medical marijuana advocates and was hailed as a significant
San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, October 28, 2002
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
In the latest show of defiance against the federal government s crackdown on medicinal marijuana, San Francisco could get into the business of growing and distributing pot for sick people under a first-in-the-nation proposal on next month s local ballot. San Francisco s Proposition S would direct city officials to expl
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, October 20, 2002
Adair Lara, Chronicle Staff Writer
Two women are toying with salads at a neighborhood restaurant and talking about -- what else? -- sex. I hate the part where I have to take off my clothes, says one. I know I don t look as good as I used to. I don t either, Lord knows, says the other. Lucky for us they don t see as well as they used to. It can be a
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, October 18, 2002
Catherine Bigelow, Chronicle Staff Writer
The VIP reception had ended. So too, the VVIP reception. Guests took their seats in the Legion of Honor s tented courtyard. Downstairs, quietly chatting in a circle no one dared break, stood three of the world s hottest talents: George Lucas, Baz Luhrmann and Elton John. Sir Reginald Kenneth Dwight, a.k.a. Elton John,
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, October 10, 2002
San Francisco -- At a time when gay and bisexual men are increasingly engaging in risky sexual behavior, a provocative new ad campaign in San Francisco shows HIV- positive men suffering from the debilitating side effects of AIDS and the drugs used to treat it. The city-funded ad campaign, which starts today on bus shel
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, September 27, 2002
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
In the latest example of the convergence between high tech and biotech, a Fremont firm supplied the key technology behind a provocative discovery in the war on AIDS. In the current issue of the journal Science, researchers in New York say they ve identified several proteins that seem to protect some HIV-infected people
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, September 27, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Renowned New York AIDS researcher David Ho laid claim Thursday to solving a riddle that has stumped rival scientists for 16 years -- the identity of an elusive factor in the blood of long-term survivors that keeps their HIV infections permanently at bay. But Dr. Jay A. Levy, the UCSF virologist who started the quest fo
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Ethan Nadelmann
The war on drugs keeps getting bigger and meaner. Just when you think the tide is beginning to turn, someone in charge takes it a step further. Early this month, DEA agents armed with automatic weapons raided a hospice on the outskirts of Santa Cruz because it grew and used marijuana for its patients, most of them term
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, September 22, 2002
Ulysses Torassa
Two weeks ago, my Sept. 11-themed column looked at the issue of blood donations since the terrorist attacks, and the continuing shortage we face in the Bay Area and across the country. A reader from Los Altos wrote in, saying she d recently given two units of blood for herself at the Stanford Blood Center, in anticipat
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, September 19, 2002
Greg Lucas, Lynda Gledhill, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Sacramento -- Gov. Gray Davis touted a new law Wednesday modestly expanding the number of people with HIV who are eligible for state-paid health care, but he may veto a more significant AIDS-related bill that allows the purchase of up to 30 needles and syringes without a prescription. The law Davis signed affects fewer
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Maria Alicia Gaura, Chronicle Staff Writer
Openly defying the federal government, a host of Santa Cruz officials stood witness Tuesday as medical marijuana advocates distributed cannabis products in the courtyard of Santa Cruz City Hall. As street musicians performed in the background and an unmarked green helicopter hovered persistently overhead, the mayor and
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Supervisor Mark Leno on Tuesday requested legislation that would ban the sale in San Francisco of sexual lubricants that contain the spermicide nonoxynol-9. Recent studies by the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization found that the disinfectant could increase the risk of contracting HIV. Origina
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Carolyne Zinko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Twenty years ago, it was all about cash and anonymity. San Franciscan Tom Kelley remembers hearing about an early AIDS fund-raiser in Key West, Fla. -- a daring party to host in the early days of the epidemic. It was held at the home of a family friend who had worked in the Kennedy White House, and whose neighbors in t
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, September 13, 2002
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
How do you convert a 7,500-square-foot former furniture store, which briefly housed a now-defunct dot-com company a couple of years back, into a welcoming hangout for homeless and runaway kids? You turn to Sam Davis, a Berkeley architect who specializes in designing housing for those who may not otherwise have a roof o
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, September 12, 2002
MANY WORTHWHILE measures passed by the Legislature in its just-concluded session deserve Gov. Gray Davis assent by the Sept. 30 deadline. One that directly affects every California voter calls for separate scheduling of presidential and other primary elections. The state s early-March presidential primary timing makes
San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, September 2, 2002
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Pat Brown, a biochemist at Stanford University, invented a cheap way to put thousands of bits of DNA on test slides, helping to pave the way for industrial-scale studies of how genes control cells. But spying out the secrets of cells is not what he likes to talk about these days. Brown has a new scheme in mind: He want
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Taking a new, low-tech tack in the battle against AIDS, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to spend $28 million in southern Africa to test whether the simple latex diaphragm used for birth control also can reduce a woman s risk of HIV infection. The grant ends an eight-year quest by UCSF researcher Nancy Padia
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, August 27, 2002
Annie Nakao
ON A CROWDED BART train headed for the city, I saw what I call the stare. The one doing the staring was a freckle-faced kid, maybe 13 or so. The one being stared at was a helmeted man in a wheelchair. I d say the man in the wheelchair probably had cerebral palsy; the kid, a definite case of rudeness. I gave the young m
The for-profit fund-raising company that has collected tens of millions of dollars with Bay Area cyclists and walkers for AIDS and breast cancer programs abruptly shut its doors and laid off 250 employees, a spokeswoman said Saturday. The Los Angeles-based Pallotta TeamWorks, best known for the California AIDS Ride and
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, August 20, 2002
When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asks the San Francisco AIDS Foundation how much federal funding the group used to attend an international AIDS conference last month, its answer will be simple: Zero. The federal agency, which is posing the question to 18 AIDS groups at the request of several member
San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, August 17, 2002
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
A blood technician who admitted reusing needles at a Palo Alto clinic, prompting thousands of worried patients to get new blood tests for hepatitis and HIV, has been sentenced to one year in jail. Elaine Georgi, 55, pleaded no contest in June to four felony charges of illegal treatment or disposal of medical waste and
Perhaps you saw that Centers for Disease Control representatives this week visited San Francisco s Stop AIDS Project to assess whether the group s federally funded HIV-prevention efforts were obscene. Before I go on, I ll just mention this: In what I like to consider my pretend career, I have spent time doing all sorts
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
Federal health officials are investigating a San Francisco AIDS prevention organization to determine whether its programs comply with government obscenity standards. A four-person team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spent four hours Monday in meetings with employees of the Stop AIDS Project in the
Californians concerned with the issue of medical privacy reacted cautiously Saturday to the Bush administration s new rules governing the confidentiality of patient records. It is significant that we have for the first time a comprehensive set of national regulations on medical privacy, said Sam Karp, chief information
San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, August 10, 2002
Lucy Jones, Chronicle Foreign Service
Bangui, Central African Republic -- The selection of sticks belonging to Martin Nagoagoumi, a witchcraft detective, does not bode well for Stephanie, as she stands accused of sorcery at the police station in the Central African Republic s capital of Bangui. Stacked under a dusty scales of justice, there are long, thin
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, August 7, 2002
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
A federal advisory panel unanimously recommended approval Tuesday of a new drug to treat hepatitis B , putting Gilead Sciences on track to launch its second medicine in a year. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which generally follows the advice of these expert drug review panels, has promised to give
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, August 7, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco had the lowest rate of infant mortalities among the 100 largest U.S. cities ranked in a national health study released Tuesday. For the country as a whole, the study documented a mixed picture of U.S. urban health trends in the 1990s, including what experts described as ominous signs of declining public h
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, August 1, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Casting a ray of hope after weeks of gloomy news about AIDS, a UCLA researcher contends that a combination of antiviral drugs and a modest reduction in risky sexual behavior could eventually eradicate the epidemic. Computer modeling suggests that, while HIV will continue to tear up the lives of individuals, under certa
Dolores Thompson folded up her late son s grave-size quilt Monday and packed it up in a box to be shipped to Atlanta to be stored with 45,500 other panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The simple act marked the last display for the Bay Area chapter of the Names Project, which started the quilt in San Francisco in 1987 as
St. Petersburg, Russia -- When Nikolai Panchenko tested positive for HIV in 1988, Soviet medical authorities demanded to know how he had acquired the virus that causes AIDS. That was when Panchenko had to confess that he was gay. He was sentenced to four years in jail. Life for gays in Russia has improved since then. I
St. Petersburg -- Last of Three Parts It must have been a prostitute, said Dmitri, reflecting upon how he became infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Yeah, I m pretty sure that s what it was. But don t prostitutes want you to use condoms? Oh, they do, Dmitri said with a smirk. But I don t. Leaning against a crumbl
As American activists struggle for ways to bring cheap AIDS drugs to Africa, a similar crisis is brewing in their own backyards: State programs that buy AIDS drugs for the uninsured are going broke. Across the country, an estimated 1,200 people with AIDS who should be taking antiviral drugs have instead been placed on
SECOND OF TWO PARTS -- Ust-Izhora, Russia -- Peering between the tall metal bars of his bed, Vanya, age 4, sees dozens of nurses come and go. Some stay a few months, providing rudimentary care to Vanya and 27 other children crammed into four dilapidated rooms with barred windows behind a tall brick fence at the end of
FIRST OF TWO PARTS - St. Petersburg, Russia -- Russia is on the brink of an AIDS catastrophe, experts say, that could lead to infection rates rarely seen outside sub-Saharan Africa. And the government is doing next to nothing to avert the disaster. The nation of 146 million people has the fastest growing epidemic of HI
Marin County AIDS and medical marijuana activist Barbara Sweeney died July 21 at Marin General Hospital from pancreatitis. She was 49. Ms. Sweeney is survived by her 12-year-old daughter, Cassie, who will be raised by guardians that her mother selected in the final years of her 13-year battle with AIDS and
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Stephanie Salter
OF ALL the absurdities I observed during the Republican presidential convention in 2000, the most ridiculous was a big button worn by many female delegates, which proclaimed: W stands for women. What a joke -- now a cruel one that will kill thousands of women and children in 142 countries. Tuesday, after seven months o
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Inspired and appalled by the news from this month s AIDS conference in Barcelona, Spain , doctors and church leaders in Oakland vowed Tuesday to erase the stigmatization and silence they believe keeps the disease simmering in East Bay minority communities. Dr. Robert Scott, an Oakland physician, said the stigma against
San Francisco -- San Francisco could become the first city in the nation to get into the pot-growing business to supply patients with medicinal marijuana, under a measure headed for the November ballot. The measure would urge city officials to explore growing cannabis and distributing it to seriously ill patients who h
The 16th annual AIDS Walk San Francisco Sunday raised more than $3.5 million, organizers said. Among the thousands of people participating in the 10-kilometer walk through Golden Gate Park were more than 700 teams from corporations and community groups, said San Francisco AIDS Foundation spokesman Redge Norton. This
Brother George Cherrie is as comfortable in a sterile clinic at St. Mary s Medical Center in San Francisco as he is ministering to addicts and indigent AIDS patients in the gritty Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood he calls home. His life today stands in stark contrast to the jet-setting, corporate existence he led wor
IMAGINE a government program that could deliver comprehensive health care to more people without raising overall spending -- guaranteed. It s not a fantasy. Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, has proposed a pilot program to increase the levels of care and efficiency in services provided to low-income California
Barcelona, Spain -- After a week of rowdy protests, bold proclamations, serious scientific exchange and intense hand-wringing, the 14th International AIDS Conference finished Friday on a weary note. Twenty-one years into the epidemic, AIDS has become a banker s tale: Developing nations needs $10 billion a year from the
BARCELONA, Spain -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela closed the 14th International AIDS Conference on Friday with a poignant plea for world leaders to correct their mistakes and face up to the challenges of a global plague. Reflective and showing the wear of his nearly 84 years, Mandela declared that AIDS
Uh oh. The early news out of the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, which closes today, bodes ill for San Francisco, the nation and the world. For those of us who lived through the grim AIDS-besotted 1980s here, there s only one possible reaction: Uh oh. Followed by a string of really foul expletives.
Barcelona, Spain -- Science may yet find the answer that will turn back the horrific tide of the global AIDS epidemic, but some of the best weapons against the bug are low- tech, readily available and hugely underutilized. On Thursday, the penultimate day of the 14th International AIDS Conference, a veteran of the wors
Barcelona, Spain -- With a boost from former President Bill Clinton, teenagers drew worldwide attention Thursday to the ghastly and disproportionate toll AIDS is taking on the young. Clinton s first stop on arrival at the 14th International Conference on AIDS was a visit to the kickoff of a global media campaign to pre
Johannesburg -- Within the next few months, bank officials will arrive at the Radebe household just west of Johannesburg and evict the occupants -- two sisters, 12 and 16, and the elderly aunt who is caring for them. The girls mother died in 1999, a victim of the rampant AIDS epidemic sweeping through southern Africa.
Barcelona, Spain -- From the jungles of southeast Asia to the streets of Moscow, the AIDS virus is riding on the back of a global heroin epidemic and taking root among the most populous nations on Earth. The link between HIV infection and injection drug use was one of the earliest discoveries of the epidemic. But it is
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Barcelona, Spain -- Leaders in the global struggle against AIDS called on the United States on Tuesday to ante up billions more dollars to fight the epidemic, while jeering activists drowned out Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson s attempt to defend America s financial commitment. At a raucous noont
Barcelona, Spain -- For the first time in years, American drug researchers have begun testing a new class of AIDS drugs on humans, the researchers said Monday at the 14th International AIDS Conference. At a packed session that surveyed potential new AIDS drugs, a top scientist at Merck Research Laboratories reported th
Barcelona, Spain -- Amid rousing speeches, somber ceremony and a crush of humanity, the 14th International AIDS Conference began here Sunday with a goal of refocusing world attention on a scourge that has already killed 20 million. A record 17,000 registrants poured into the sprawling conference center in this Mediterr
Barcelona, Spain -- As researchers and activists from around the globe converge on this beautiful Mediterranean port city for this week s 14th International AIDS conference, all are hoping to regain the extraordinary spirit of the prior meeting two years ago in Durban, South Africa . It won t be
Barcelona, Spain -- Mutant strains of the AIDS virus resistant to many of the newest drugs are turning up in larger numbers of newly infected gay men in San Francisco. A five-year study of new HIV infections in the city -- released here on the eve of the 14th International AIDS Conference -- also found: -- In 1996,
IN YET another snub to the spirit of global community, the Bush administration -- bowing to pressure from anti-abortion groups and religious fundamentalists -- has apparently decided to cut $34 million to the U.N. Population Fund, the agency that provides family planning and promotes HIV and AIDS prevention in developi
THE 14TH International AIDS Conference starts Sunday in Barcelona to the somber echo of the worst-ever projection of the global epidemic s ravages over the next two decades. The United Nations first long-range forecast of casualties from HIV and AIDS-related illness around the world envisions a death toll of more than
The United Nations warned Tuesday that the global AIDS pandemic is only getting started. At least 68 million people will die by 2020 unless there are drastically expanded efforts to prevent and treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, U.N. experts said. Their portrait of human misery on a gigantic scale was released in a
Starting today, California public health officials will begin requiring doctors and clinics to inform them of each HIV-positive case so that they can accurately track the shifting course of the disease. The reporting of HIV -- which excludes patient names -- allows state officials to greatly widen their net to capture
In February 1992, I was covering the Winter Olympics in France . And, I am sure you will be surprised to hear, after a hard day of viewing world-class ice-sliding, a group of us journalists retired to a public house for a bit of recreational elbow bending. Stereotypes are always to be distrusted, but if someone said Am
With an uncharacteristically blunt rebuke to China , United Nations researchers warned Thursday that the AIDS epidemic was poised for a catastrophic outbreak in the world s most populous nation. Released by a unit of UNAIDS at a Beijing news conference, the ominous report blames China s inadequate governmental response
San Francisco health officials have run up against opposition to a whimsical advertising campaign aimed at raising awareness about syphilis among gay and bisexual men. The ads, to be placed on bus shelters in the Castro district and in gay newspapers during gay pride month in June, depict a cartoon penis and syphilis s
In his next role, Sean San Jose will step out from behind the curtain as few actors ever have the chance to do: He will portray himself. A founder of Campo Santo theater company, San Jose, 33, will solo in the next Campo Santo-Intersection production, I Feel Love, by Erin Cressida Wilson, which opened in previews Thurs
ALMOST EXACTLY two years ago, the first data detailing rising rates of new HIV infections among gay men in San Francisco exploded in news stories around the world. Sadly, a credible and effective response to this disturbing trend has yet to emerge. Despite everyone s best efforts, we do not seem to be able to do now wh
Two weeks after scuttling Senate efforts to boost international AIDS spending, President Bush announced a plan to spend $500 million over five years, mostly to reduce transmission of the AIDS virus from mothers to their newborns. The bulk of the money would be directed toward 14 African and Caribbean nations where the
In another setback for disabled-rights claims in the workplace, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that employers can reject applicants for jobs that would endanger their health. The ruling, in the case of a Southern California refinery worker with a liver disease, alarmed advocates for HIV-positive people
The impotence drug Viagra has been associated with increased incidence of sexually transmitted diseases including gonorrhea and HIV, and should carry a warning label to encourage safe sex, San Francisco health officials are reporting today in a new study. The study, published in the journal AIDS, found that the biggest
A former Palo Alto blood technician has pleaded no contest to charges stemming from her reusing needles, acts which prompted state health officials to urge thousands of people to seek testing for hepatitis and HIV. Elaine Giorgi, 55, pleaded no contest Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Court to four felony counts o
Tapping into one of nature s oldest defenses against disease, biologists have developed an entirely new weapon that is showing promise against the virus that causes AIDS. The process employs tiny pieces of RNA -- the coded molecules that contain blueprints for many viruses -- to smother the production of new viruses in
Women and girls in Nepal have a higher rate of death from pregnancy and childbirth than almost anywhere on Earth. About half of those die from botched abortions. Women in Nepal seeking an abortion risk not only death, they risk life in prison if they are caught. It doesn t matter if a girl has been raped or is a victim
Sacramento -- Adults could buy up to 30 hypodermic needles at pharmacies without a doctor s prescription under a bill approved Thursday by the state Senate. Although peace officer groups opposed the bill, supporters were able to convince enough senators that more clean needles made available more easily would reduce th
A small but influential group of scientists is calling for the limited AIDS funds in sub-Saharan Africa to be spent on prevention instead of antiviral drugs, citing new evidence that preventing the disease could save more lives than treatment alone. The highly controversial idea is already drawing flak from experts and
Marlon Moore has no family doctor. No HMO. No health insurance. But he does have the access to a weekly checkup. Moore, 19, his head wrapped in a blue do rag, his dark jeans tumbling over his sneakers, fit right in as he strolled up Ellis Street toward the Tenderloin Recreation Center. He was with a friend, who pointed
San Francisco -- More than 1,000 social-services providers and their clients filled San Francisco s Civic Center Plaza on Wednesday to protest expected cuts in programs for the elderly, mentally ill, people with HIV and AIDS, the homeless and substance abusers. The noontime rally was the first in what is expected to be
Accra, Ghana -- On a paved street lined with mango and palm trees in Accra, Ghana s capital city, Ivan Quashigah, director and producer of the country s most popular television drama, hunkers in front of an old car. Quiet please, he says. Then: Action. Bathed in the glow of the spotlight overhead, two young men in Tomm
Ajumako, Ghana -- The girls smile bashfully in anticipation of their lesson on AIDS at St. Mary s Vocational School, where they are studying to become seamstresses. Passers-by slow and peek curiously into the three-walled room, which opens onto the street. Can you use a condom if you are a virgin? asks one girl, smili
They look like your average 50-cent postcards: pictures of Disneyland, Hawaii and Italy on the fronts and phrases like, Having a great time or Wish you were here on the backs. To Tim Hepworth, however, they are small victories. He keeps the cards tacked to the walls of his San Francisco home, where he works day and nig
Their ranks may have diminished, but their spirits were high. Just 700 riders left San Francisco Monday for the inaugural AIDS LifeCycle, a 600-mile trek to Los Angeles to raise money for AIDS charities. By comparison, last year s eight-year-old California AIDS Ride drew 2,800 participants. The lower numbers are in par
Some did it to support someone they know with HIV, or because funding for AIDS treatment and prevention is not keeping pace with the rate of new infections. A few just wanted to test their own physical stamina. Whatever their reason, 700 riders took off at sunrise today for the inaugural AIDS LifeCycle, a 600-mile jour
Citing recent sharp increases in syphilis cases and HIV transmission among some gay and bisexual men, the nation s top disease fighters recommended annual testing for the AIDS virus and other sexually transmitted diseases. The federal Centers for Disease Control s new testing guidelines, which are not mandatory, urge d
Dan Pallotta is a phenomenally successful activist. He stages huge charity events where spirits run high and people are infused with the idea of giving. He sees himself as a fund-raiser, a miracle worker, a maverick. Since 1994, his for-profit company -- Pallotta TeamWorks -- has netted $222 million for those afflicted
New research published today in the journal Nature proves what scientists have long suspected -- that the AIDS virus selectively targets for infection the very cells the body enlists to fight the disease. The study also showed that drug holidays, a practice meant to reduce toxicity and boost immunity in HIV-positive pa
Gilead Sciences Inc. moved closer to its goal of reaching profitability this year with strong initial sales of a new HIV drug that helped shrink the firm s losses in the first quarter of 2002. In results that beat Wall Street s expectations, the Foster City biotech company reported a net loss of $3.9 million (2 cents
Christopher Heredia, Ray Delgado, Chronicle Staff Writers
A Berkeley man has sued a Los Angeles-based company that organizes AIDS bicycle rides, claiming the group misrepresented how much money raised by the popular events went to vaccine research. Mark Cloutier, a participant in last year s Alaska ride, filed the suit Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court, charging that Pa
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, April 25, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
A former counselor with the San Francisco Department of Public Health has been reprimanded by federal health officials after an investigation found he had falsified data in a national study of safe sex counseling. Officials at the city s Health Department discovered the case of scientific fraud, and because it was foun
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, April 24, 2002
Ray Delgado, Chronicle Staff Writer
Although abstinence-only sex education policies have been a way of life for school districts across the nation over the past five years, there still is no evidence that the message prevents teen sex, pregnancy or disease, according to a new government report. It s too early to tell if the refrain until marriage argumen
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, April 10, 2002
More than two dozen San Francisco restaurants, including Asia SF, Ella s and Butterfly, are donating 25 percent of their proceeds on April 16 to Stop Aids, a community-based group aimed at halting the spread of HIV. The public can donate to Dining Out for Life simply by eating at any of the participating restaurants ne
Tijuana, Mexico -- Gregorio Espinoza is a migrant worker from Puebla, Mexico, who got the AIDS virus from a prostitute in Long Beach and now spends his days in a hospice on a rubbish-strewn dirt road on the outskirts of Tijuana. Juan is a closeted gay man in San Diego, who told his fundamentalist Christian wife he was
DIRTY NEEDLES kill. It s a fact that has driven one of the most successful public health initiatives in recent decades -- needle exchange. By turning in used needles for clean ones, drug addicts avoid getting infected with HIV and hepatitis C . Needle-exchange programs have been legal in San Francisco since 1993 and al
A small but worrisome proportion of gay men in the Bay Area are engaging in unprotected anal intercourse, knowingly putting themselves at risk for AIDS, a groundbreaking health study shows. The study demonstrates that despite years of programs promoting the use of condoms as a means of HIV prevention, some gay men are
Young low-income women in San Francisco and Alameda County are infected with potentially deadly hepatitis C at more than double the national average, according to a study by the University of California at San Francisco. Beside the shocking infection rates on both sides of the bay among poor women ages 18 to 29, the re
In the slow-motion realm of biotechnology, where all good things take time, South San Francisco s VaxGen is trying to morph from being a one-trick pony with an experimental AIDS vaccine into a contract manufacturer that makes medicines for hire. Of course, VaxGen s focus remains on the two clinical trials, in
A former San Francisco health commissioner has been ordered to pay $5 million to a former lover who accused the ex-official of infecting him with the AIDS virus. The order against former Commissioner Ron Hill came as the San Francisco district attorney s office said it was investigating to see if a crime had been commi
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scolded a Foster City biotech firm for downplaying the side effects and exaggerating the potency of a new AIDS drug called Viread . Gilead Sciences says it has already taken steps to retrain its sales force, which the FDA
Johannesburg -- In a morbid twist on South Africa s debate over the AIDS crisis, a controversial Bay Area academic and a South African computer scientist have challenged each other to a duel to the death -- using chemicals and the deadly AIDS virus as the choice of weapons. AIDS dissident David Rasnick of the Universit
San Francisco -- In the story of his survival, AIDS patient Richard Goldman credits his cat along with his Crixivan . When I got sick, it was a completely different bond between us. I felt like I became a soup of feelings of yuckiness, said Goldman, 53, who has been living with AIDS for a dozen years.
Gilead Sciences asked the U.S. Food & Drug Administration yesterday to approve a new, one-a-day pill to treat hepatitis B , a viral infection that causes deadly liver damage. The Foster City firm said it hopes to get an FDA decision within six months, given the scarcity o
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Anastasia Hendrix, Chronicle Staff Writer
Like a lot of artists at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Rob Anderson has paintings propped against the walls, closets full of supplies and countless works in progress in his warehouse studio. Unlike the others, he has been infected with HIV for 23 years. It has affected his art but not his body, and he has yet to ta
Health officials in California and Mexico have detected alarming increases in AIDS virus infections among gay and bisexual Latino men moving across the border. New field surveys of Latino men in Tijuana and San Diego show that rates of infection from HIV, the AIDS virus, are as much as four times higher there than they
In a world where youth is bliss, aging can seem, on the surface at least, agonizing. For urban gay men from the Baby Boom generation and the one before it, aging can mean losing physical currency in a community that highly values sexual attractiveness and performance -- and that s after having lost scores of friends to
In the second judicial rebuke of Gov. Gray Davis parole practices, a judge is ordering that a convicted murderer be released in 30 days. Mark Smith had been found suitable for release by the Board of Prison Terms -- whose members are appointed by the governor -- but Davis vetoed Smith s parole in October 2000. But Dav
Scientists have found traces of a monkey virus that contaminated the polio vaccine in the 1950s in a common form of highly malignant human cancer that has mysteriously doubled in incidence over the past 30 years. Two studies, published yesterday in the British journal Lancet, found a link between the virus, called SV40
For those over age 50, good news and bad news are usually conjoined. The good news here is that as ever larger numbers of people are living longer, more of them are healthy, fit and sexually active. The bad news is that a larger number of these older adults are becoming infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Reading a Web transcript of Franklin Graham s remarks to a Christian conference on AIDS, I thought of a relative of mine. I ll call her Cousin Pittypat. Like Graham and his famous father, Billy, Cousin Pittypat identifies herself as an evangelical Christian. This term gets tossed around a lot in and out of the diverse
Chiron Corp. said yesterday it has received U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval to commercialize a new and more sensitive test to screen donated blood for HIV and hepatitis C . Chiron shares rose $1.79 to $43.42 on the news. This means a big revenue boost for Chiron, said financial analyst Jim McCamant.
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, February 28, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
AIDS nearly killed Mark Pruitt two years ago, but that experience didn t prepare him for the latest news from his doctor: He is diabetic. Pruitt, 40, also suffers from high blood pressure and high cholesterol. He has had two hip surgeries, is awaiting a shoulder operation and his orthopedic surgeon says the deteriorati
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, February 24, 2002
Gavin du Venage, Chronicle Foreign Service
Johannesburg -- A young mother sits beside the iron bars of a crib at Johannesburg s General Hospital, keeping vigil as her daughter recovers from an operation -- but not from the killer virus, as yet inert, that was passed on during birth. The girl has had hernia surgery, for which she received routine treatment. But
San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, February 23, 2002
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco -- San Francisco, one of the U.S. cities hit hardest by the AIDS epidemic, faces a very painful $2.2 million cut in special financing that the federal government doles out to help people living with the disease, officials said yesterday. The city s Department of Public Health found out this week that San
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, February 22, 2002
When Jim Mitulski thinks about rainbows, he envisions something a little different from most people: a senior housing complex designed for gays and lesbians that is affordable, ethnically diverse and in the heart of the city. It would of course have social and medical services, and be close to the Gay and Lesbian Commu
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, February 15, 2002
Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles have found that cocaine hastens the spread of HIV and kills disease-fighting cells in mice. For years, experts have known cocaine weakens the immune system, making people with the AIDS virus more prone to develop debilitating infections. The new research shows t
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer
Suggesting a hidden epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, a new study has found that Baltimore harbors a surprisingly large number of untreated cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia, mostly in people who never realized they were infected. Results showed that nearly one in 12 Baltimore adults, or 7.9 percent, between th
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 13, 2002
A judge has ordered two AIDS activists to stand trial on felony charges of stalking and threatening city health officials and employees of The Chronicle. David Pasquarelli and Michael Petrelis were arrested last November after reporters and editors at the newspaper and health officials said they had received a series o
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Gavin du Venage, Chronicle Foreign Service
Cape Town -- Shortly before Christmas last year, an 8-month-old baby girl was snatched from her home in a poor Cape Town district in the early hours of the morning as her parents slept. She was raped and sodomized, after which the attacker dumped the severely injured infant on the street, where she lay until a passer-b
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, February 10, 2002
Joan Ryan
In a few years, when my son is old enough to drive with friends, he also will be old enough to find himself eyeing a cooler of beer at a party. As his parents, we will tell him he shouldn t drink. And in an ideal world, he will listen and won t take a sip of alcohol until he is 21. But we re not idiots. We know teenage
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 6, 2002
Andrew Perrin, Chronicle Foreign Service
Mae Sai, Thailand -- When Burmese migrant Ngun Chai sold his 13-year-old daughter into prostitution for $114, his wife, La, had one regret -- they didn t get a good price for her. I should have asked for 10,000 baht ($228), La Chai said. He robbed us. She was angry that the agent who bought her eldest child, Saikun, in
San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, January 28, 2002
IT S HARD to imagine a worse choice to guide the nation s AIDS policy than Tom Coburn, the former Oklahoma congressman who has spent years denouncing homosexuality and fighting HIV-prevention strategies that rely on condoms. Coburn, who was named as co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS last week, i
San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, January 26, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
From Viagra advertisements in glossy magazines and zero-tolerance policies for sexual harassment in the workplace to headlines about the increasing transmission of AIDS -- sex is everywhere. Until recently, however, serious discussion about sexuality in the halls of academia -- let alone training for health care profes
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, January 25, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer
Three months after the Bush administration criticized sexually explicit HIV prevention programs of a federally funded San Francisco organization, the president s AIDS czar says it appears the program is working and ought to be left alone. Scott Evertz, a gay man appointed by President Bush as director of the Office of
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, January 17, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
The death of a single rhesus monkey at a Harvard University laboratory may signal a major setback for a promising new advance in AIDS vaccine research. In October 2000, Harvard scientists reported that an experimental vaccine had protected eight monkeys by suppressing an AIDS-like virus that quickly killed unvaccinated
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, January 16, 2002
AFTER REACHING a carefully crafted bipartisan compromise, Congress approved $34 million for the United Nations Population Fund. Lobbied heavily by anti- family-planning extremists, President Bush has not yet decided whether he will approve the spending. In what amounts to a campaign of disinformation, anti-abortion and
San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, January 12, 2002
Kelly St. John, Chronicle Staff Writer
A memorial service will be held this month for Rebecca LePere, a dedicated lesbian and gay activist who fought to bring attention to the AIDS epidemic. Ms. LePere died Jan. 4 at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley after a four-year battle with breast cancer. She was 51. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Ms. LePere mo
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, January 10, 2002
Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer
Silicon Valley businessman Steve McCreddin figured he could raise $20,000 or more in this year s California AIDS Ride. Instead, he s sitting it out while high-priced lawyers duke it out over the future of the popular, inspirational mega-fundraiser for AIDS charities. McCreddin is not alone. Last year by this time, 4,00
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, January 9, 2002
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
San Francisco -- A herpes virus thought to cause Kaposi s sarcoma, the disfiguring skin disease that became the signature of AIDS in the 1980s, was present in a quarter of all gay men in San Francisco in 1978, predating the arrival of the AIDS virus, according to University of California researchers. The new findings -
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, January 1, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
University of California at San Francisco AIDS researchers have teamed up with health officials from Ho Chi Minh City to combat a problem they share: the spread of HIV. In recent years, the AIDS epidemic has exploded in the bustling South Vietnamese city, which was called Saigon until after the end of the Vietnam War.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.