A group of prominent AIDS and gay advocates across the country are uniting on an unlikely front: They re calling for fair treatment of two activists who have harassed many in San Francisco s AIDS community for years. Most in the local AIDS community were jubilant when Michael Petrelis and David Pasquarelli were charged
Al Williams is president of the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society, a group sponsoring The Greater Good, an exhibit showcasing artist Tony Hooker s contemporary view of the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment through January. Williams discusses what the experiment means to the African-American comm
While your hairdresser must complete 1,500 hours of study and pass a written and practical exam to trim your locks, a person need only fill out a simple form to pierce your privates. That will change if Supervisor Mark Leno has his way In an effort to regulate the fringe piercing industry that is rapidly becoming mains
Although District Attorney Terence Hallinan said he plans to prosecute controversial AIDS activists Michael Petrelis and David Pasquarelli on each of the 15 felony counts they are charged with, one local expert said the two men will walk free. Former federal prosecutor Jerrold Ladar said it is unlikely the pair will be
Controversial AIDS activists Michael Petrelis and David Pasquarelli dodged a bullet in a San Francisco courtroom Wednesday, only to be surprised -- and arrested -- by plainclothes police as they walked out the door. Officers handcuffed the men after the postponement of a hearing that would extend a restraining order to
A judge has ordered two controversial AIDS activists to stay away from Department of Public Health spokeswoman Eileen Shields, bringing the number of restraining orders city employees have against the two men to three. Assistant City Attorney Scott Burrell said Tuesday the latest order bars Michael Petrelis and David P
A recent Health and Human Services Department report will put the AIDS nonprofit world under a financial microscope and could likely put a chokehold on federal funding for San Francisco organizations. The report, circulated last week, investigated the funding and material of provocative classes given by San Francisco s
A judge placed a second round of temporary restraining orders in less than a week on two AIDS activists, ordering them to stay away from a Department of Public Health official, Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, and his wife. Superior Court Judge Ronald Evans Quidachay ordered Wednesday that Michael Petrelis and David Pasquarelli,
Ronald Ballantyne kept missing appointments. But it wasn t until the 40-year-old airline executive couldn t get out of bed for an important meeting that he knew the HIV diagnosis he received two years earlier had finally caught up with him. Ballantyne had to quit his job -- a demanding, high-stress position that he hel
Poppers were the gay club drugs of the 80s, but when links between the over-the-counter inhaled drug and HIV surfaced, use among gay men declined. It did not go away. Alkyl nitrate has now gone from the club to the bedroom. It is not a party drug, it is a sex drug, said Alan Brown, spokesman for Electric Dreams Foundat
A House aide is investigating allegations that a San Francisco Department of Public Health official urged health officials in Virginia to help shut down a gay men s chat room on America Online. In an Oct. 3 letter obtained by The Examiner and sent to the Centers for Disease Control by the Committee on Government Reform
It affects at least 20,000 San Franciscans, kills as many as 10,000 nationwide and they may have found a cure for it. If caught soon enough, hepatitis C , the liver damaging virus that affects 4 million Americans, can be cured, according to a group of researchers at Hanover Medical School in
Basketball superstar Magic Johnson recently opened a 24-Hour Fitness/Magic Johnson Sports Club in Richmond. This new club is part of Johnson s effort to encourage economic growth in America s minority communities and commitment to improving people s lives through health and fitness. Johnson plans to open up to 10 more
In their fight to guarantee higher rates of reimbursement, HIV specialists are plagued with a persistent problem: The American Board of Medical Specialties recognizes no such specialty. At present, those who call themselves HIV specialists often are internists or infectious disease doctors who stay current on new treat
HIV specialist Leslie Squires can t say he wasn t warned about the financial strain of caring for chronically ill patients. Before taking over another doctor s practice in 1996, he had worked with several HIV specialists. One earned $50,000 a year, which for a private practitioner in San Francisco hardly paid the bills
Whether monkeys gave us AIDS, they are already providing clues to how to beat the disease. University of California, San Francisco researchers say that a new vaccine developed to shield monkeys against a virulent HIV-like virus has worked -- prompting plans for human clinical trials with a human version of the vaccine.
Joel Barraquiel-Tan has worked as an HIV/AIDS health educator since 1987. He is currently consulting for Asian Health Services HIV/AIDS Program and working with the CDC in a program designed to empower HIV/AIDS service agencies in ethnically diverse communities. He is also the artistic director of the Asian American Th
Dr. Michelle Roland works with the UCSF Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital, which was formerly known as Ward 86, the AIDS ward. Fred Dodsworth: What is the status of the HIV epidemic? Dr. Michelle Roland: It s a disaster. We have people who are getting infected. We have people who are getting sic
Prior to becoming San Francisco s director of public health, Dr. Mitchell Katz served as director of the Community Health and Safety unit, director of Epidemiology, Disease Control and AIDS, director of the AIDS Office and chief of the research branch of the AIDS Office. Fred Dodsworth: We re now entering our second de
WESTERN nations had to clean up their language a little, but the news was mostly good in the global AIDS fight yesterday. The United Nations special session on AIDS cleared a hurdle when negotiators agreed on the language of the closing resolution, the document that will provide the guiding principles for the worldwide
San Francisco s medical marijuana clubs reacted with a shrug to the U.S. Supreme Court s decision Monday stating their operations are illegal under federal law. A handful of clubs that dispense the weed throughout the city said they plan to continue holding regular hours until someone tells them otherwise. So far, they
In a setback for proponents of medical marijuana, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday there can be no exception to the federal law prohibiting use of the drug. The 8-0 decision upholds an injunction against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative that prohibits the not-for-profit group from distributing marijuana. Thou
Marcus Conant, M.D., is medical director of the Conant Medical Group, one of the Bay Area s largest private HIV/AIDS practices. He is a globally respected authority on HIV and AIDS. Fred Dodsworth: What have we learned in 20 years of the AIDS epidemic? Dr. Marcus Conant: The answer seems to be nothing. Q: Why? A: A
Martin Delaney is the founding director of Project Inform, an advocacy group in San Francisco that promotes research and education about drugs used to fight HIV and AIDS. His group is at odds with another local group, ACT UP San Francisco, which contends among other things that HIV does not cause AIDS and that drugs us
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