Nurse Rosemary Bulimpikya worked in a remote Ugandan hospital so poor that families there slept on floor mats with their sick children and health care workers had no masks or gloves to guard against infectious disease. Today, a group of Marin and Sonoma county women who befriended nurse Lady Rose in the equatorial jung
Never in the limelight, Debra Kent was nonetheless a star in San Francisco when it came to raising money for HIV/AIDS. Ms. Kent died peacefully at her home in Durham, N.C., on Dec. 21, surrounded by family and friends after battling ovarian cancer for nearly two years. She was 55. Friends say she was a pioneer fundrais
German AIDS researchers have discovered a protein common in semen that boosts the infectious potential of HIV 100,000-fold - a remarkable finding that may show how the virus can spread through sexual contact and also suggests new strategies to stop the epidemic. If scientists can find a drug or chemical that blocks the
SAN FRANCISCO -- One year after the Bush administration promised to streamline a process to allow people with HIV infection to visit the United States despite a congressionally mandated travel ban, critics are saying that the proposed new rules are more restrictive than the old ones. Laws dating back to the early day
Treating AIDS doesn t stop with a diagnosis and a prescription pad. It extends beyond the exam room to national political battles, field work in Africa and a push for health care reform globally, a group of medical students said Saturday. Anybody who s active in the health care profession has to be political because th
Put the smartest scientific minds in a computer lab. Give them all the time and money in the world to design the perfect organism. It s doubtful they could come up with a tougher, more wily creation than the virus that causes AIDS. Ponder its track record: Decades after it terrorized American cities, HIV was largely qu
Lake Forest, Orange County -- A wise man once said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven - and it used to be nearly as tough for a Democratic candidate to take a presidential campaign to a conservative evangelical church. But Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton did
OAKLAND - -- The property that housed Your Black Muslim Bakery for nearly 40 years will transition into an HIV/AIDS care center, which the new owners say will resurrect the original intention of the site, to serve the community. The sale was approved during a hearing in an Oakland Bankruptcy Court Thursday, a day after
OAKLAND -- A nonprofit HIV/AIDS care center will likely become the new owner of the Your Black Muslim Bakery property after offering the highest bid at a live auction Wednesday. The sale is expected to be confirmed today during a bankruptcy court hearing in Oakland. NCK LLC, a limited liability corporation, offered $1,
Dr. Merle Sande, an infectious disease expert who was on the front lines when the first AIDS cases appeared in San Francisco and who later focused his attention on the spread of the disease in Africa, has died. Sande died Nov. 14 of multiple myeloma at his home in Seattle, according to his family. He was 68. In 1981, h
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
With a wave of the statistical wand today, international epidemiologists will roll back by 6.3 million the number of people worldwide believed to be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Although this dramatic reduction in HIV estimates is largely the result of new methods of counting cases, the analysis also
SAN FRANCISCO -- Nearly 3,000 volunteers who participated in a study of an experimental AIDS vaccine that may have unexpectedly raised the risk of contracting HIV will be notified shortly whether they received the actual vaccine or a placebo. Leaders of the study, including representatives of vaccine manufacturer
SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco researchers have come up with a new strategy for a potential AIDS vaccine: creating one that attacks a newly discovered distress signal displayed by cells infected with HIV. Efforts to design vaccines that identify and kill HIV itself have been repeatedly stymied by the ability of the AID
Evidence is building that an experimental AIDS vaccine given to 1,500 volunteers not only failed to protect those who received it, but may have put some of them at higher risk of contracting HIV than those who were given a placebo. At a Seattle meeting held Wednesday to discuss the latest findings, vaccine experts wres
About 150 people gathered Thursday in the Mission District to discuss an idea that some say is crazy even for San Francisco: opening a city-funded, legal center where intravenous drug users can congregate, get free needles and inject themselves in a safe environment. Momentum for such a center seems to be gaining stren
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence started in 1979 as one of the first charities supporting San Francisco s gay community and has since spread to more than 600 sisters in eight countries. Mixing street theater, drag-queen elegance and community fundraising, the men of the Sisterhood support AIDS organizations, help co
Two months ago I wrote about an idea for a place in San Francisco where intravenous drug users could shoot up under the supervision of trained personnel. A lot of people thought it sounded crazy. Well, get ready to hear about it again, because the idea is gaining momentum. On Thursday, an all-day symposium - co-hosted
Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. won Food and Drug Administration approval Friday for Isentress, an HIV suppressor that has performed well in clinical trials and has been hailed as the most important new AIDS drug in a decade. The Merck drug has been closely watched since human testing began in 2005 because it was
San Francisco doctors have reported a cluster among gay men of unusual cases of Kaposi s sarcoma, the cancer-like skin disease whose disfiguring purple lesions were a terrifying signature of a bygone era of the AIDS epidemic. All 15 patients under treatment for the condition are long-term survivors of HIV whose infecti
New cases of sexually transmitted diseases among young people in California are occurring at 10 times the reported rate, according to a new analysis by the Public Health Institute, an Oakland health care think tank. This epidemic is like an iceberg. What you see is a small part of what you have, said Petra Jerman, lead
Annie Lennox has sold nearly 80 million solo albums worldwide, earned four Grammys and scored both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Into the West from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Not bad for a woman who started her career dressed like a man with a bad dye job as a member of the Eurythmics in the early
Holding the Man: Drama. By Tommy Murphy, adapted from the memoir by Timothy Conigrave. Directed by Matthew Graham Smith. (Through Nov. 4. New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Two hours, 30 minutes. Tickets: $22-$34. Call (415) 861-8972 or go to www.nctcsf.org.) In Holding the Man, the Austr
Health care startups are modeling themselves after YouTube and social networking sites such as MySpace in an effort to connect patients with each other and help them navigate overwhelming amounts of medical information available online. -- At DailyStrength.org, people can choose among 500 support groups - from celiac d
San Francisco Chronicle - Sunday, September 30, 2007
C.W. Nevius
While the problems of homeless encampments and cast-off hypodermic needles have decreased in the east end of Golden Gate Park, the quality-of-life struggle continues for residents of surrounding neighborhoods. But there is hope. It comes in the form of an energized, activist public, ready to step up, speak out and defe
With little hope that they will be able to meet their goal of providing universal access to AIDS drugs by 2010, global health strategists have come up with a Plan B. It would take a quadrupling of current spending, to $42 billion a year, to treat all 14 million people who will need the drugs just three years from now,
Given another decade, it may have to start lying about its age. Theatre Rhinoceros, San Francisco and the nation s longest-running professional queer theater company, turns 30 this season. Founded in 1977 by Allan Estes, its first artistic director, and managing director Lanny Baugniet, the Rhino has long enjoyed a hig
A major international study of an experimental AIDS vaccine was halted by drugmaker Merck & Co. on Friday after an early peek at the results showed that it was not working. It was a notable failure for the first of a new class of experimental vaccines that were meant to prevent or sharply limit HIV infection by tra
Chuck Panozzo recalls the moment when he couldn t live the lie anymore. The Styx bassist was sitting in his high-rise Chicago condominium in 1999, gazing down at Lake Michigan, a few days before New Year s Eve. There were gold and platinum records on the wall, but his health was at an all-time low, and AIDS-related sic
The healthy newborn s death was a tragic shock, but just as stunning was the cause: He had overdosed on morphine, pathologists found. Neither the breast-fed infant nor his mother had been given the powerful narcotic. But due to a quirk of the mother s genetic makeup, her breast milk contained morphine that built up to
WHAT SHOULD San Francisco solons do to respond to the epidemic of hypodermic syringes littering public parks and streets or thrown into residents yards? While some residents want to curb city-funded needle-exchange programs, the harm-reduction community has suggested that The Special City set up America s first medical
DRUG THERAPY, education and prevention are mainstays in the fight against AIDS. But researchers have come up with another idea to stem infection: male circumcision. In developed countries, the operation is a commonplace option given to parents with infant sons. In Africa, however, the removal of the penis foreskin isn
African Americans living in San Francisco lose more years of life to just about every possible cause of death than city residents of other racial backgrounds, and violence robs African American men of more years of life than any other cause of death. Latinos and Asian Americans living in the city, on the other hand, ar
A month after we chronicled the march of the junkies at the needle exchange center near Golden Gate Park, longtime neighbors say things have improved. Residents who live near the center on Haight said it was the source of used syringes being discarded in the park and in their yards by drug users. It has lightened up, I
SAN FRANCISCO has a needle problem. One month ago, Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius wrote about residents who live near Golden Gate Park finding hypodermic needles discarded in their yards and littering the park. When Nevius returned this week, Haight residents told him, as Cole Street resident Les Silverman put it, It
Two San Francisco supervisors want to change the city s charter to create a $100 million annual fund for affordable housing. Supervisors Chris Daly and Tom Ammiano filed the charter amendment Tuesday, the deadline for such measures to make the February ballot. The proposal would establish base funding for affordable ho
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, August 8, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO doesn t want syringes in its sandboxes - or anywhere else in public. But that s not to say a clean-needle giveaway program should end. It just needs to be managed more sensibly. The city hands out, no questions asked, an enormous number of needles, more than 2 million per year at last count. The reason: t
City officials and nonprofit agency leaders, responding to an outcry over used syringes littering parks, say they are looking at ways to reform San Francisco s needle-exchange program - including locked, 24-hour syringe drop boxes and technologically advanced syringes. The city s needle-exchange program gives out 2.4 m
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, August 2, 2007
Andrew Gilbert
One of the most expressive and emotionally nuanced male singers in jazz, Andy Bey has a voice that can soar into a feathery falsetto or plunge into a cavernous, mahogany bass-baritone. But it s not just a superb set of pipes that makes Bey such an enthralling performer. He s honed a wide-ranging book of material perfec
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, August 2, 2007
C.W. Nevius
Finding the needle exchange in the Haight isn t easy. Walk west on Haight Street, take a right at Cole, and turn in the first doorway. There s no identification, just a blue sign that says, entrance. Walk up the hall, which smells of urine, and then knock on the scratched and battered wooden door. After two or three tr
They tell us he was steaming, but San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom shouldn t have been too surprised when The Chronicle reported that Golden Gate Park was littered with used drug syringes. After all, his own Public Health Department spent $800,000 last year to help hand out some 2 million syringes to drug users under t
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau, eepstein@sfchronicle.com
Washington -- Backers of a proposal that would have blocked federal authorities from interfering in state-approved medicinal marijuana programs, stung by a disappointing defeat in the House, are zeroing in on freshmen Democrats such as Rep. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton who opposed the proposal. The proposal, which advo
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
San Francisco will host the first of a series of community meetings tonight to consider a revamping of the city s system of AIDS care, which has been operating with successive annual reductions in federal funds and faces deeper cuts in the future. For nearly 25 years, the San Francisco model -- a combination of volunte
Husa, China -- From a distance, the collection of quaint wooden farmhouses folded into lush, terraced hills is a picture postcard of rural Asia, complete with colorful ethnic garb, water buffalo and lush green fields. Get closer and you re at ground zero of China s AIDS epidemic. Nearly 200 people, out of 20,000 po
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
Duke University scientists, following the genetic road maps laid out by the Human Genome Project, have discovered variations in three genes that might help people newly infected with HIV control the virus in the years before they develop AIDS. The discovery is the latest in what has been described as an avalanche of n
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau, eepstein@sfchronicle.com
Washington -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with almost all the House Democrats united behind her, beat back a Republican attempt to slash $6.3 million in federal HIV/AIDS funds for San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties. The effort, which came Wednesday evening during debate on a bill to pay for next year s federal gover
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Ulla Schmidt**
The role of political leadership and civil society in the response to HIV/AIDS is a key issue in the fight against the infection. As a politician and the responsible minister for health, I feel particularly challenged by this disease, still incurable. HIV is a political challenge; not just a medical problem. And the po
More than 25,000 walkers participated in the AIDS Walk in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Sunday. One of the sights along the 6.2-mile (10K) route was part of an AIDS quilt, above. More than $4.5 million was raised, according to Craig Miller, AIDS Walk founder and producer. This fundraiser benefits the San Francis
At least 25,000 hikers will turn out in Golden Gate Park on Sunday morning for the 21st annual AIDS Walk San Francisco, a fundraiser that is expected to bring in at least $4.2 million for Bay Area organizations fighting the epidemic. Opening ceremonies begin at 9:45 a.m. in Sharon Meadow, and guest speakers include the
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
Advocates for female-controlled AIDS prevention were dealt another setback Thursday after a three-year, multimillion-dollar study in Africa found that women who used a latex diaphragm for possible protection against HIV had the same infection rates as those who did not. As a consequence, researchers concluded that they
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Advocates for female-controlled AIDS prevention were dealt another setback Thursday after a three-year, multi-million dollar study in Africa found that women who used a latex diaphragm for possible protection against HIV had the same infection rates as those who did not. As a consequence, researchers c
Ron Kroichick, Chronicle Staff Writer, rkroichick@sfchronicle.com
Scottsdale, Ariz. -- Few of Rod Beck s longtime friends kept in regular touch with him in recent years or knew how he spent the majority of his days. Their memories of him essentially stop about the time Beck s major-league career ended in 2004. Like a lot of his friends, we all kind of got a little distanced from him
Declaring that times are good, San Francisco leaders finished the nitty-gritty work on the city s $6.06 billion budget Thursday night by including millions of extra dollars for affordable housing, environmental initiatives and children s and family services. The Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee complet
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Chronicle Staff Report
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums will kick off an effort today to encourage city residents to be screened for HIV and to offer free testing outside City Hall. At an event from noon to 5:30 p.m. today, residents will be able to get general health and HIV screening tests. They will also receive information about routine HIV tes
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
Researchers exploring the chromosomes of the modern chimpanzee have discovered an amazing tale in the DNA -- evidence of an ancient battle with a retrovirus against which early human beings and apes evolved different defenses. That battle left chimps, gorillas and old world monkeys vulnerable to the virus 4 million yea
In just two decades, Gilead Sciences Inc., the Bay Area s second-largest biotechnology company, has established itself as the nation s dominant seller of HIV drugs, with such products accounting for two-thirds of its $3 billion in revenue in 2006. That s a tremendous success story in an industry where thousands of comp
Edward Guthmann, Chronicle Staff Writer, eguthmann@sfchronicle.com
When Nancy McIlvaine told her parents that her newborn son wouldn t be circumcised, her mother gasped. McIlvaine, who lives in Napa with her husband, Willem Maas, said she consulted with health professionals about circumcision and never heard a compelling reason to snip her baby s foreskin. It s just inflicting pain to
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
City health and UCSF officials have pledged to keep open two federally funded HIV prevention programs for transgender people. Both programs were jeopardized by the ouster of a professor who specializes in services for transgenders and secured the federal grants in the first place. An audit by City Controller Ed Harring
While Natasha Martin was working as a volunteer in Kenya , the Maasai gave her a new name, Naisula, meaning she who has excelled. It was a perfect fit, since Martin, in 2001, started the Grassroots Alliance for Community Education, a nonprofit organization designed to help communities deal with HIV/AIDS. Through th
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
Four years after UCSF officials successfully defended the controversial work of an AIDS researcher under attack by a Republican-controlled Congress, the university is ousting the veteran professor, leaving up to $1 million in his grant money unspent and the future of HIV prevention programs for transgender people in do
Worldwide drug sales could more than double to $1.3 trillion by 2020, but traditional pharmaceutical companies must change their ways to thrive, a new report concludes. Global demand for medicines will expand substantially due to a host of factors, the study released Wednesday by accounting and consulting firm Pricewat
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau, eepstein@sfchronicle.com
Washington -- It was something of a shock 20 years ago to the newly elected congresswoman from San Francisco who had campaigned as a voice that will be heard when she arrived in the Capitol for her swearing-in and was promptly told to sit down and shut up. It might have been the last time anyone ever said that to Rep.
Skin allergies may be the next reason to use marijuana -- a topical form, at least. Scientists have long suspected that marijuana, used for recreational purposes and to help fight chronic pain, nausea and even some mental disorders like anxiety and depression, also had anti-inflammatory effects in the body. Now they th
The state Office of AIDS estimates that nearly 40,000 Californians have HIV and do not know it. They do not know it because their medical providers do not routinely screen them for HIV. They do not know it because they do not believe they have a reason to be tested or they do not have access to preventive medical care.
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
UCSF researchers have identified a new species of bacteria, similar to the bug that caused trench fever in World War I, in an American tourist who was sickened after a spending three weeks trekking in Peru . The culprit is a microscopic bacterium resembling a baked bean with a straggly beard.
San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly fired the first salvo Tuesday in the battle over next year s $6.06 billion city budget. Daly introduced a proposal to cut funding for several of Mayor Gavin Newsom s pet projects and instead pay for affordable housing, psychiatric beds at San Francisco General Hospital and services f
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer, begelko@sfchronicle.com
Days after California health officials approved their first grants for needle exchange programs to fight AIDS, the Assembly voted Tuesday to repeal a ban on the use of state funds to buy clean replacement needles for drug users. Both developments were victories for advocates of the effort to reduce the spread of AIDS a
Sigrid Fry-Revere, Director of Bioethics Studies at the Cato Institute*
The lure of federal dollars may be prompting California lawmakers to consider an ill-advised law to make HIV testing routine. But there s nothing routine about testing for HIV, and legislative efforts to make it more common show little concern for the frankness of the doctor-patient relationship, or the insidious threa
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is spending part of this week in New York and Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal funding for a variety of local projects including rebuilding public housing and providing health care to the estimated 82,000 city residents who lack health insurance. The mayor also will be doing a lit
THE BOOK on President Bush s foreign policy victories won t be long. But one fair-sized chapter will be his leadership record on AIDS. From nearly a standing start, he brought spending to $15 billion over five years. With that program nearly over, he wants to double the figure to $30 billion for the next five years, ma
A key question hung in the chilly air early Sunday as 2,300 bicyclists steamed out of the Cow Palace in Daly City to begin the seven-day journey and bonding exercise known as AIDS/LifeCycle, which raises money for and promotes awareness of the fight against AIDS and HIV. Did we bring enough butt balm? asked Barbara Bea
DALY CITY -- A key question hung in the chilly air this morning as 2,300 bicyclists steamed out of the Cow Palace in Daly City to begin the seven-day journey and bonding exercise known as AIDS/LifeCycle, which raises money for and promotes awareness of the fight against AIDS and HIV. Did we bring enough butt balm? sai
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
President Bush called Wednesday for a doubling of overseas AIDS spending by proposing a $30 billion, five-year extension of his emergency relief program that has brought antiviral drugs to more than 1 million people since it was started in 2003. This investment has yielded the best possible return: saved lives, Bush sa
San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties stand to lose as much as $8.6 million a year in federal AIDS money as a result of a Bush administration funding formula sharply criticized by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Health officials said Tuesday they were stunned by the allocation of money for the next fiscal year under
Significant progress has been made toward the goal of developing a safe and effective HIV vaccine, although many challenges remain. We now know more about HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and have more promising vaccines in development than at any other time in the history of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. While a vaccine that
The Rev. Jerry Falwell shepherded evangelical Christianity nearly 30 years ago out of the pews and into mainstream politics and public life. But his complex legacy inspired many to despise him and even prompted some evangelicals to use Falwell as a foil, a symbol of a Christianity to avoid. Those polarizing and varied
SAN FRANCISCO -- Members of San Francisco s gay and lesbian community this evening are staging an anti-memorial in the Castro neighborhood for the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died today. Michael Petrelis, a blogger, longtime HIV survivor and organizer of the 5 p.m. event, said that the founder of the Moral Majority needed
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
A quarter century into the AIDS epidemic, Dr. Peter Piot is considering the future, and his worries today are as much about politics as they are the vagaries of the virus. As executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS known as UNAIDS , Piot has, since the organization s founding in 1995, helped
Stanford University will hold a free public lecture titled AIDS: Pandemic and Agent for Change on Wednesday [May 9, 2007]. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS and undersecretary-general of the United Nations, will deliver the talk. Piot is a recognized expert on AIDS and women s health in the developing world and,
In her prime, Ola Carlson was an artist s model in San Francisco. Now she s 98, and her friends are all dead. But she is not alone. Carlson lives with a calico cat named Patches. They ve been together a decade. Last summer, they became the newest clients of PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support), an organization that allows
John Koopman, Chronicle Staff Writer, jkoopman@sfchronicle.com
Police! Open the door! There the john was, with his pants around his knees in the backseat of his car, an 18-year-old hooker from Oakland providing a sexual service for him, when he heard the words that no one wants to hear. It s Officer Wesley Villaruel, and he s shining a flashlight on the sordid little scene at 18t
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer, srussell@sfchronicle.com
Nearly four years into President Bush s $15 billion program for overseas AIDS assistance, the doctor placed in charge of it is touring the Bay Area this week, prepping for a fight over a reauthorization bill that will define the future size and shape of America s global response to the disease. Dr. Mark Dybul, an AIDS
A homegrown version of HIV prevention known as serosorting has increased dramatically among gay men in San Francisco, according to a newly published survey providing a snapshot of the evolving epidemic a quarter-century after it appeared. Serosorting is choosing to have unprotected anal intercourse only with partners o
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, April 26, 2007
Mike Ceaser, Chronicle Foreign Service
Bogota, Colombia -- Sebastian Romero had a nasty gash above his lip and several fractured teeth from a pistol-whipping he received by an off-duty police officer who nearly ran down him and his partner, Arturo Sanjuan, in a city park last year. Had he been heterosexual, says Romero, a then-unemployed biologist witho
**Joel Palefsky, Jen Hecht, Jason Riggs, Michael Scarce
If you have followed the news, you ve heard about advances in preventing cancers caused by HPV (human papilloma virus). The Food and Drug Administration has approved a vaccine for women and girls that is expected to prevent up to 70 percent of cervical cancers caused by HPV. Unfortunately, there have been fewer advance
I m not sure why it didn t occur to me sooner to treat my condition with medical marijuana. I have the journalist s disease -- repetitive strain injury, which results from excessive or nonergonomic typing and mouse use. When the RSI acts up, my fingers tingle and an electrical sensation radiates up my arms, causing nag
Bay Area doctors are leading a campaign to bring gay men into their offices for a basic exam that women have been enduring for decades -- the Pap test. The goal is to push back rising rates of anal cancer, a preventable disease that has increased 37 percent in the United States since a decade ago, when the total number
German researchers have opened a door to a potential new AIDS drug with the discovery of a small protein circulating in human blood that blocks multiple strains of HIV, even those resistant to existing medications. This natural anti-HIV factor -- a chain of 20 amino acids known as a peptide -- interferes with a feature
Two million people in low- and middle-income nations are receiving antiviral drugs to treat HIV infection, a milestone in the international battle against AIDS, but far short of the number of patients in need of treatment, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday. The most dramatic increase was seen in sub-Sahara
Benghazi, Libya -- Bashir Jarbou s wife first noticed something odd in the whitewashed corridors at Al-Fateh Children s Hospital in the autumn of 1998. The couple s pneumonia-stricken 4-month-old son, Milad, had been moved to a separate room. Nurses had started wearing rubber gloves. They said they were testing th
Activists hoping to return the clang of street protests to the fight for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights marked the 20th anniversary of the formation of ACT UP by staging protests in San Francisco and New York on Thursday. Several dozen people demonstrated outside a real estate agency in San Francisco s C
Jay Critchley knows how to draw attention to his condoms. Critchley, a Massachusetts artist best known for the national stir he caused in the early 1990s after he designed a logo of an American flag running along a condom, has now turned his attention to San Francisco s most pointed icon, the Transamerica Pyramid.
Sacramento - On a bipartisan unanimous vote, legislation that would end California s ban on donations of sperm from HIV-positive men was approved Wednesday by the Senate Health Committee. The ban was imposed 18 years ago before the development of medical technology which can wash HIV from sperm so it can then be used t
U.N. health authorities officially endorsed circumcision Wednesday as an effective means of curbing the spread of AIDS among heterosexual men, laying the groundwork for a widespread expansion of the procedure in Africa, where studies suggest it could eventually save millions of lives. The results of the studies are con
Thailand remains a challenging place to do business six months after an Army coup deposed the previous government, and foreign investment faces a possible slowdown, the U.S. ambassador to Thailand, Ralph Boyce, said in San Francisco this week. Boyce said the military junta that runs the country on an interim basis ha
Sacramento -- Dan Hartmann, a 32-year-old Oakland graphic artist, met his wife Susan six years ago, and like many couples they decided they wanted to start a family. There s a complication: A blood transfusion 20 years ago left Hartmann HIV-positive. Medical technology has existed for more than a decade to wash the HI
Many myths and misconceptions about the AIDS pandemic are spread by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS ) and other mainstream AIDS agencies and activists, either unintentionally out of ignorance or intentionally by distortion or exaggeration, including fear of a generalized epidemic. UNAIDS conti
Religious institutions need to step up the fight against HIV and AIDS by reaching out more to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender African Americans, a group of Bay Area religious leaders said Saturday. A panel discussion called Life of Hope: The Black LGBT Spirituality Forum at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church
San Francisco s Office of AIDS, long a symbol of the city s focused attention on the prevention and treatment of HIV, is being dismantled and its functions distributed throughout the Department of Public Health to cope with reduced federal funds and the ever-changing nature of the epidemic. Jimmy Loyce, who has been di
Lizette Green is one of the new faces of AIDS and HIV. For a long time, everyone thought that this was a gay, white men s disease. It s not anymore, Green, who is Latina, told teens at an event Thursday at Oakland High School highlighting women s and girls risk for AIDS and HIV. Infected with HIV nine years ago at age
Bob Hattoy, president of California s Fish and Game Commission, an official in the Clinton administration and a prominent and outspoken AIDS activist, died early Sunday at a Sacramento hospital. He was 57. Mr. Hattoy, who was elected president of the state Fish and Game Commission last month, gained national prominence
Sporting his trademark wraparound sunglasses and a superstar aura during his visit to the Bay Area Friday, musician and activist Bono said Oakland was the epicenter of a new wave of AIDS infections. He urged political leaders and the public to stop the disease s spread in the African American community. Bono met for tw
International rock star and social activist Bono will turn the focus of his global campaign against AIDS to the local level today when he visits Oakland to join Rep. Barbara Lee and church leaders to foster greater AIDS awareness among Bay Area African Americans. The presence of Bono, who has lobbied heads of state and
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Los Angeles -- San Francisco and African AIDS researchers reported Tuesday that they had virtually eliminated malaria in a group of highly vulnerable, HIV-infected children simply by providing them with a daily dose of antibiotic and having them sleep under an insecticide-treated mosquito net. The study conducted in Ka
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Los Angeles -- Two new AIDS drugs, which work differently than any available HIV medications, have been found to be highly successful at suppressing the virus in patients who have exhausted available treatment options, researchers said Tuesday. In an evening session of the 14th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunis
Los Angeles - A deadly outbreak of diarrhea among children in Botswana last year is forcing international health experts to reconsider strategies that encourage HIV-infected mothers in poor countries to bottle-feed their babies. The Botswana babies who took infant formula instead of breast milk were 50 times more likel
Los Angeles - A meeting of international AIDS researchers opened here Sunday amid growing concerns about a deadly strain of tuberculosis that has been killing HIV-infected patients in South Africa and has been spotted in 27 other countries around the world. Known as XDR-TB, or extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, t
To the list of accolades that make San Francisco the gayest city around, you can add this: world headquarters of the gay adult entertainment industry. Over the past few years the core of that industry has shifted from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and nearly every leading studio that makes gay adult content now is cent
Medical marijuana advocates tried a new approach Wednesday in their tug-of-war with the federal government, filing suit under a law that requires the government to correct its own misstatements -- including, the advocates say, the assertion that marijuana has no medical value. Citizens have a right to expect the govern
THE virus that causes AIDS is the full metal jacket of the germ world. The bug mutates in design, cloaks itself with molecular armor and eludes attackers sent by the immune system defending human bodies. This shape-shifting makes it hard to devise a vaccine, at least until now. A team of U.S. scientists who broke the v
AIDS researchers reported Wednesday that they had successfully mapped a spot on the surface of HIV that might make the virus especially vulnerable to an assault by antibodies, rejuvenating hopes that science might eventually find a way to stop the epidemic with a vaccine. The spot is located on the tip of spikes that p
Is there a single date on the calendar that invokes more collective gloom than Feb. 14? Valentine s Day may be beloved by certain micro-thin segments of the population -- trufflemakers, FTD executives, second-graders slipping handmade paper hearts into foil-covered boxes in the classroom -- but for many if not most of
San Francisco supervisors called for new procedures Tuesday to ensure police misconduct allegations made in civil lawsuits are followed up on to prevent the kind of glitch that may have doomed a potentially serious disciplinary matter. The Chronicle reported last week that no city agency investigated accusations made i
PROVING THE worth of medical marijuana isn t easy. Skeptics doubt the science put forward by advocates, and Washington is in no mood to loosen tough laws barring its use. Now comes a rigorous-sounding study by AIDS researchers at San Francisco General Hospital that shows smoking cannabis can ease nerve pain in HIV-infe
Doctors at San Francisco General Hospital reported Monday that HIV-infected patients suffering from a painful nerve condition in their hands or feet obtained substantial relief by smoking small amounts of marijuana in a carefully constructed study funded by the state of California. Although the study was small, it is t
San Francisco police officers -- accused in a lawsuit of forcing a gay man they caught urinating in the street to kneel down and use his hair to mop up after himself -- will not face the prospect of discipline because the department missed a deadline to act after the man sued the city in 2005. Members of the Police Com
Two major studies of a vaginal gel being tested as a substance to block HIV transmission were halted Wednesday after early results from one of them appeared to show that the women who used it had higher infection rates than those who were given a placebo. The decision to halt the costly trials in Africa and
THE BRIGHT lights of the House Democrats 100-hour agenda are in the rearview mirror. From here on, what will the new majority in Washington do with an unfinished budget that will reflect its values and not overspend? The answer surfaced this week as Congress produced a hurry-up package costing $463.5 billion. It almost
Peter H. Morse, Jr. 36, a pioneer and leader in harm reduction policy and practice, passed away on January 13, 2007. Dr. Morse was fiercely committed to protecting the health and well-being of drug users and their communities by reducing drug-related harm. His work in these areas has helped make harm reduction part of
Naomi Gray, appointed by former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein to the city s first-ever Health Commission and considered among the Who s Who of strong black women in the city, has died. She was 84 when she died Dec. 29 at Laguna Honda Hospital after a series of strokes. While it was her two terms on the Health Co
IT SOUNDS implausible: a Democratic-led Congress is holding up overseas-bound AIDS money. Yet this outcome is very real, unless party leaders relent on spending plans. What s happened is a political car crash. A scheduled increase in AIDS money is smacking into a Democratic pledge for thrift and reform. Speaker Nancy P
A stalemate in Congress over financing the federal government through the remainder of the year could shortly upend progress in bringing AIDS drugs to needy patients in poor countries hardest hit by the global scourge. At stake is nearly $1 billion in new spending for various programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and ma
China From the Inside: Documentary. Directed by Jonathan Lewis, co-produced by KQED and Granada Television. Parts 1 and 2 at 9 p.m. Wednesday; Parts 3 and 4 at 9 p.m. Jan. 17, KQED. After watching all four richly detailed hours of Jonathan Lewis documentary China From the Inside, viewers are likely to wonder how the
Meet the new players in the great American debate about values: Ryan, a 25-year-old newlywed, who is helping other men find husbands; Doug, 50, who is helping gay men in San Francisco create their ideal community; and Chris, 36, whose pursuit of happiness has switched from chasing New York hotties to seeking down-home
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, January 4, 2007
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
A small portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt that was to come back to San Francisco to stay may have to make yet another detour through court -- if it ever gets here. An attorney for the foundation that owns the iconic quilt said Cleve Jones, who started the quilt and the Names Project Foundation in 1987, has not met a k
San Francisco Chroincle - Thursday, January 4, 2007
Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer
VaxGen Inc., rocked by the failures of its high-profile AIDS and anthrax vaccine programs in recent years, said Wednesday that it has received an infusion of cash and will now have to chart a new course. Brisbane s VaxGen received $51.3 million for almost all of its remaining shares of common stock in Celltrion Inc.,
Los Angeles is not a city that struggles for attention, and its massive population dwarfs San Francisco s, but when it comes to the popular understanding of gay and lesbian history, the City of Angels might as well be under the bay. Two prominent historians are trying to change that. In a 361-page tome called Gay L.A.
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