WASHINGTON, Dec 30, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A triple-drug treatment effective against one type of aids also appears effective against another in patients with complications, say U.S. researchers. Two groups of previously untreatable patients with HIV-1 subtype C were successfully treated with a
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Public faith in the science advice provided by the federal government took several hard hits during 2004, as politics and circumstance converged to undermine further the general credibility of science policy and federal researchers. Concerns voiced during the first few years of the current
United Press International - Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Holli Chmela, UPI Correspondent
In 1951, Katherine McCormick and Margaret Sanger set in motion the ideas and funding that would revolutionize women s sexual and reproductive health for generations. Their groundbreaking work paved the way for today s standard oral contraceptives, known collectively as the pill. This was long before the advent of HIV/A
United Press International - Monday, December 06, 2004
Dee Ann Divis, Senior Science & Technology Editor
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- The National Institutes of Health, to the delight of patient advocates and the dismay of journal publishing companies, appears to be moving forward with plans to make the results of the research it finances available for free. NIH is proposing to post journal articles based on the research i
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- According to UNAIDS -- the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS -- 66 percent of the 38 million people infected with the virus worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 3.1 million Africans newly contracted HIV in 2004, while 2.3 million died of AIDS. The statistics need no inte
Christian Bourge, UPI Congressional and Policy Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Prominent House Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California proved to be a thorn in the side of the Bush administration again this week with the release of findings that the most popular abstinence-only education curricula funded by the federal government teaches children misleading and outri
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Asunta Wagura, a 22-year-old aspiring doctor, was just beginning her studies at Nairobi Medical School when she was diagnosed as being HIV-positive. It was a disease that neither she nor her medical examiners knew much about. It was a disease of death, her examiners told her. She didn t have
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Organizations around the world used Wednesday s World AIDS Day to call attention to the soaring rates of HIV among women and girls and the treatment and prevention that is needed to address their experience of the epidemic, but in Mexico , the focal point was one that Mexicans have struggle
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (United Press International via COMTEX) -- U.S. researchers Tuesday said a clinical trial of the cancer drug Gleevec shows it has promise in fighting AIDS-related Kaposi s sarcoma. Kaposi s sarcoma is a cancer characterized by soft purplish lesions on the skin, mucous membranes and internal organs. The
NEW DELHI, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- India may be home to world s second-largest HIV positive population, but it is second to none in finding innovative ideas to contain the spread of the deadly virus. India s southern state of Andhra Pardesh, which was a dry state not long ago, has made it mandatory for the liquor vendors to d
LONDON, (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Sexually transmitted disease levels are reaching epidemic proportions in Britain among young women, says British Health Secretary John Reid. We need to alert people to this danger -- to bring it out of the closet, put it in front of everybody and not be embarrassed abo
Calif., (United Press International via COMTEX) - A U.S. study indicates people undergoing antiretroviral therapy who lose fatty facial tissue might be helped by silicone facial implants. The HIV/AIDS drug treatment often makes people appear gaunt and emaciated. Traditionally, facial wasting syndrome has been treated u
NEW DELHI, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A leading Indian pharmaceutical company has pulled the plug on world s fight against AIDS by withdrawing all its medicines from the World Health Organization pre-qualification. India s Ranbaxy Laboratories has informed the World Health Organization that it was voluntarily withdrawing seven o
LOS ANGELES - A study released Wednesday concludes African-American HIV patients might receive better treatment from African-American physicians. The UCLA study said black patients who are treated by white doctors are slower to receive HIV medications than black patients seeing black doctors. In a survey of HIV patient
United Press International - Friday, October 29, 2004
Katherine Arms
NAIROBI, Kenya , Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Violent crime in Kenya is escalating, and these days when there is a robbery or a carjacking often, tragically, there is someone raped as well. Stories of children attacked and raped appear in the country s newspapers every day. Sickened by what has become the norm in violent crime her
NAIROBI, Kenya , Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Violent crime in Kenya is escalating, and these days when there is a robbery or a carjacking often, tragically, there is someone raped as well. Stories of children attacked and raped appear in the country s newspapers every day. Sickened by what has become the norm in violent crime her
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- The campaign against California s hotly debated stem-cell research ballot measure has taken an unexpected turn in the final days leading up to next week s election. Opponents of the measure have publicly shied from the ethics and morality of conducting research on embryonic stem cells and have inst
United Press International - Friday, September 24, 2004
IRVINE, CA - U.S. researchers said Friday they have successfully targeted an HIV protein that up to now has eluded existing therapies. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, targeted Nef, a protein responsible for accelerating the development of AIDS from HIV infection. They targeted Nef with small, synth
United Press International - Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Dee Ann Divis, ddivis@upi.com
WASHINGTON - Not all research organizations working with infectious diseases may be following a recommended safety procedure that could help researchers track an outbreak of disease or determine more quickly if a staff member has become infected. At least twice, local biosafety officials have recommended dropping the p
United Press International - Monday, September 20, 2004
Pat Nason, UPI Hollywood Reporter
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Go ahead and say it: It s HBO s world, they just let the other television networks live in it. The Time Warner-owned cable channel took home 16 Emmys at the 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday night -- more than the rest of the networks combined. Counting awards handed out in creativ
BOSTON -- U.S. law on the privacy of healthcare information hinders researchers and slows the progress of clinical trials, analysts said. The Privacy Rule is part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and covers how, when and with whom a patient s medical information can be shared. Violator
BALTIMORE - Scientists at Johns Hopkins University and the New York Academy of Medicine say Highly Active Antiretroviral therapy delays the progression of AIDS. The HAART therapy also reduces mortality, but the optimal time to start it remains unknown. The study says the current guidelines for starting the therapy when
Dee Ann Divis, Senior Science and Technology Editor
WASHINGTON -- Publishers who make money printing biomedical research in scientific journals are insisting a proposal in Congress to force free access could undermine the availability of information, and they are not at fault for high prices or the budget problems of their librarian customers. The outcome of the argumen
United Press International - Monday, August 16, 2004
BETHESDA, Md. -- U.S. researchers have discovered a new gene target that may help eliminate reservoirs of HIV that are resistant to treatment. The scientists at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health also have linked HIV, which causes AIDS, with several genes not previously associated with i
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- A cheap and effective preventative measure against HIV/AIDS in the form of blood-transfusion test kits has become a valuable remedy in sub-Saharan Africa, a region ravaged for decades by the deadly epidemic, and could prove useful for the rest of the developing world. Last month the Washington-based
United Press International - Wednesday, August 11, 2004
**David Mcintosh, A UPI Outside View commentary
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Politicians everywhere are looking to drug importation from Canada and Europe as a miracle cure for high drug prices. This short-sighted quick fix looks good at first, but in the end leads down a path of dire consequences for the future health of Americans. Drug importation bills like the Dorgan/McC
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Anger over high prices and limits to research access by scientific journals has finally risen to the point a federal backlash is brewing. Congress is moving to force a shift to open access, a form of free-to-consumer publishing, for scientific papers. The move angers commercial publishers, who see t
United Press International - Friday, July 30, 2004
SEATTLE -- A protein the body uses to attack the AIDS virus is actually a stealthy defense mechanism that evolved 32 million years ago, U.S. researchers said. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found a protein called Apobec3G, which they think shows potential to shed light on the genetic mechanis
Michael Smith and Ed Susman, United Press International
BANGKOK (UPI) -- The XV International AIDS Conference closed in much the same way as the previous two -- Nelson Mandela made a stirring call to arms, children sang and delegates lit candles in a darkened arena. This year s closing was different in one way, however: For the first time, speakers were not calling for more
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Andy Wilson is not a physician, researcher, health policy expert or a missionary. This self-described regular guy, however, is on a mission -- to help HIV/AIDS victims in Africa. The 43-year-old husband and father of two children, who lives near Philadelphia, had been working for Abbott Laboratories
LIMA (UPI) -- Since the appearance of AIDS, more than 60 million people around the world have been affected by this disease, most of them between the ages of 15 and 24. Peru is no exception, and according to statistics almost half of those who have the disease were infected as school-age adolescents. As elsewhere,
BANGKOK (UPI) -- The critics warned that widespread treatment of people with AIDS in Africa couldn t work, but organizers of a Botswana program said statistics released Thursday at the XV International AIDS Conference prove the naysayers wrong. Critics had said such a program couldn t work because state-of-the-art, hig
BANGKOK (UPI) -- The 2004 Human Development Index produced by the United Nations shows the pandemic of AIDS, often exacerbated by poverty and civil strife, has eroded life expectancy in seven African nations to levels that rival the lowest points in human history. In the Central African Republic ,
Michael Smith and Ed Susman, United Press International
BANGKOK (UPI) -- A U.S. government report s criticism that Bush administration efforts to combat HIV and AIDS are in danger of getting bogged down in red tape were echoed at the XV International AIDS Conference this week. The U.S. Government Accountability Office -- formerly the General Accounting Office -- reported th
United Press International - Tuesday, July 13, 2004
EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada , Jul 13, 2004 -- Some rural African men claim to have AIDS, believing it is an indicator of their masculinity and sexual prowess, found University of Alberta researchers. Dr. Amy Kaler found a high number of sexually active Malawian young men say they are HIV-positive, without having any medi
BANGKOK, July 13 (UPI) -- It is as simple as A, B, C. Many attendees at the XV International AIDS Conference have found reason to criticize the United States and/or the Bush administration because of its controversial AIDS prevention message: Abstinence. Be faithful. Use Condoms if necessary. Few people argue about
BANGKOK, July 13 (UPI) -- Cartoon condoms, whose light-hearted adventures have taken South African television by storm, are being touted at this week s XV International AIDS conference as the latest weapon against HIV infection. Obviously, they don t look much like condoms -- they have arms and faces and they talk, sa
United Press International - Monday, July 12, 2004
BANGKOK, Jul 12, 2004 -- California scientists say some HIV patients treated with antiretroviral therapy soon after infection tested negative for the virus. The negative test results were found on six of 87 patients tested, the leader of the research team told the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok Monday.
GENEVA, Switzerland , July 12 (UPI) -- The global workforce will have lost 74 million people to HIV/AIDS in 2015 -- up sharply from the 28 million total workers that will have been lost by next year -- unless drastic measures are taken to stem the pandemic, according to a report by the International Labor Organization
Ed Susman and Micheal Smith, United Press International
BANGKOK (UPI) -- The ambitious worldwide goal of getting 3 million of the sickest AIDS victims treated with state-of-the-art, drugs by the end of the year apparently is out of reach -- beset by shortfalls in funding and in putting together the foundations to make the project work. As the keynote speaker at the 15th Int
PHILADELPHIA -- U.S. researchers said they have achieved success in monkeys of an innovative triple-vaccine strategy aimed at creating an effective anti-HIV vaccine. Researchers at the Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania said they sought to maximize the immune response to an HIV gene called Gag and succ
BETHESDA, Md. -- Adding the drug nevirapine to standard treatments reduces mother-to-child HIV transmission, a group of international researchers reported Friday. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement in Paris reported a single dose of nevirapine given to
United Press International - Friday, July 09, 2004
Reena Vadehra, UPI Correspondent
To counter critics who say President George W. Bush s AIDS initiative is inadequate or ineffective, the independent AIDS Responsibility Project, along with several U.S. government officials, is backing a documentary detailing U.S. efforts to combat AIDS in Africa. The film examines the nature of the epidemic in
United Press International - Thursday, July 08, 2004
Ellen Beck, United Press International
WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- Experts on HIV/AIDS from science, medicine and policy will meet in Bangkok next week for the XV International AIDS Conference and will face the very difficult task of figuring out how to move critical drugs to developing countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, that lack the infrastru
United Press International - Thursday, July 08, 2004
Ed Susman, United Press International
BANGKOK, July 8 (UPI) -- United Nations officials warned Thursday that Thailand s internationally lauded program, which took control of its explosive AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, is threatened by complacency, lack of government funding for key programs and worrisome increases in the disease outside the commerc
BANGKOK, Thailand (UPI) -- Asia has become the home of the fastest growing AIDS epidemic, with more than 1.1 million more people infected in 2003, United Nations officials said Tuesday. In its biennial report, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS -- also known as UNAIDS -- report
NEW YORK -- Project ACHIEVE in New York Friday reported the largest initiative ever to reduce HIV infection among gay men was not as successful as predicted. Project ACHIEVE is run by the New York Blood Center and is part of the HIV Prevention Trials Network of the National Institutes of Health. The initiative, the Exp
United Press International - Thursday, July 1, 2004
BOSTON, Jul 01, 2004 -- The progression of HIV symptoms can be slowed by taking a simple multivitamin once a day, a Harvard study indicates. The study began in 1995 by the Harvard School of Public Health, and focused on 1,078 pregnant women with HIV in Tanzania over six years, the Boston Globe reported Thursday. Su
United Press International - Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Ellen Beck, United Press International
WASHINGTON, June 29 (UPI) -- The decision by the Supreme Court to hear a California medical marijuana case this session renews the debate whether to legalize medical use of marijuana at the federal level and have a uniform national policy regulating it. The Supreme Court Monday put on its docket for consideration a cas
United Press International - Monday, June 28, 2004
MINNEAPOLIS, Jun 28, 2004 -- University of Minnesota researchers said they may have discovered a mechanism by which HIV interferes with neuron generation in the brain to cause dementia . The discovery would enable scientists to develop a new class of drugs to fight AIDS dementia, researchers said. The researchers f
United Press International - Friday, June 25, 2004
MINNEAPOLIS, Jun 25, 2004 -- U.S. researchers reported a human protein that mutates the HIV virus could prevent infection and halt the spread of the disease in the body. Scientists at the University of Minnesota said the new protein, APOBEC3F, can directly mutate HIV and act as retroviral restrictor to increase HIV res
United Press International - Tuesday, June 22, 2004
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A top U.N. aid official says a downward death spiral of HIV-AIDS and food insecurity is depleting public services and debilitating southern Africa. The number of trained health practitioners, teachers and other professionals that are succumbing to HIV/AIDS is causing a truly extraordinary
CHICAGO, June 15 (UPI) -- Are young black males an endangered species? Looking at the statistics one could make a pretty good case they definitely are at risk. Of the 500,000 African-American males living in Chicago, U.S. Census figures show nearly one-third live below the poverty line. The high school dropout rate for
United Press International - Monday, June 13, 2004
TOKYO, Jun 13, 2004 - Japan will make free and anonymous HIV tests available in its hospitals starting next year, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported Monday. Alarmed by an unabating increase in the numbers of full-blown AIDS patients and HIV carriers in the country, the ministry wants to encourage HIV patients to re
WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- When the G8 met in Evian, France , one year ago, it hoped to kick-start reforms in Africa through its African action plan. But now, one year and many unfulfilled commitments later, African countries are taking matters into their own hands. South Africa s President Thabo Mbeki is leading thi
SAVANNAH, Ga. (UPI) -- The Group of Eight nations Thursday unveiled measures to extend until 2006 a global initiative providing debt relief and grants to the world s poorest, most-indebted countries on the closing day of their summit on Sea Island, Ga., a decision that advocacy groups said was not enough to alleviate p
PHILADELPHIA -- A large but late invasion of HIV-infected macrophages, rather than a small but early one, causes dementia in AIDS patients, U.S. researchers said. The finding debunks a longstanding Trojan Horse theory that dementia is caused by a small, early invasion force of latent, infected macrophages -- long-lived
United Press International - Tuesday, June 1, 2004
WASHINGTON - A U.S. District Court has stopped the sale of an HIV/AIDS home testing kit and ordered the seizure of any of the Canadian-made kits not already sold. The Federal Trade Commission, in a complaint, alleges Seville Marketing Ltd. of British Columbia, deceptively advertised the Discreet tests kits results were
United Press International - Tuesday, May 25, 2004
STANFORD, Calif. -- California researchers are seeking volunteers with HIV to test a method of empowering an infected person s own cells to destroy HIV as it enters the cell. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine said the process used the patient s stem cells -- ones in the bloodstream that form the dif
WASHINGTON -- Military members must submit to HIV tests every two years, according to a new Defense Department policy that was implemented in late March. The military began testing service members for HIV in the mid-1980s but the individual services varied in the frequency of testing, the Pentagon news service reported
United Press International - Wednesday, May 19, 2004
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers said they have identified a way to manipulate the body s own natural killer cells to destroy the HIV virus. Current treatments for the virus that causes AIDS block it from replicating, but do not kill the cells that contain HIV. The xistence of these HIV-harboring cells -- of
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- There are two sides to the HIV/AIDS story -- foreign and domestic -- and though the Bush administration is pushing for faster approval of low-cost, anti-retroviral medications as part of its international AIDS relief plan, its own domestic program struggles to meet the growing needs of U.S. sufferer
United Press International - Wednesday, May 12, 2004
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- More than one in 25 young adults in the United States is infected with the organism that causes the sexually transmitted disease known as chlamydia. The latest results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a continuing University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill investigation,
United Press International - Tuesday, May 11, 2004
SEATTLE -- A study in the New York City area suggests American Indian women may engage in risky behavior that places them at a high risk for contracting HIV. The study by the University of Washington in Seattle said the risky behavior may result because the women endure extremely high rates of physical and sexual traum
WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- Activists have been converging on D.C. all week for a series of protests that culminate this weekend during meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Many of the protest this week against the IMF/World Bank have been organized by umbrella group 50 Years is Enough whic
WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- On the eve of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington, a report by the World Economic Forum says the world is not doing nearly what it could and should to combat poverty, war, ignorance and disease. On a scale of 0 to 10, the world scored no better than a 4 in
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa , April 13 (UPI) -- It s a foregone conclusion the African National Congress will retain its position as the majority political party in South Africa after Wednesday s elections, despite its inability to tackle high levels of poverty, unemployment, crime, rape and HIV/AIDS during its 10-yea
MBOTYI, South Africa , April 13 (UPI) -- The introduction of democracy to South Africa 10 years ago has brought about much-needed progress and improvement, but this same progress also might threaten certain cultural customs, such as the traditional healers that play a significant role in the lifestyles of the indigenou
EAST LONDON, South Africa , April 12 (UPI) -- Circumcision, a traditional rite of manhood practiced by the Xhosa tribe in South Africa, has become an issue of concern because unsafe techniques employed by those doing the surgery have led to the deaths of young boys in recent years. Xhosa people are very worried ab
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (UPI) -- Ten years after the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, AIDS is rampant in the slums -- or townships as they are called locally -- and the situation is likely to grow worse before it improves, those on the front lines told United Press International. Although precise figures
EAST LONDON, South Africa , April 7 (UPI) -- In poverty-stricken rural South Africa, basic healthcare measures such as proper diet, hygiene and even a clean toothbrush can be powerful tools in fighting AIDS, the deadly disease that has infected 30 percent or more of the country s rural population. Many indigenous p
EAST LONDON, South Africa (UPI) -- In a country hard-hit by poverty, unemployment and a severe doctor shortage, a train provides the only modern healthcare some ever will see. Called Phelophepa, meaning good, clean health, the healing train, as some locals have taken to call it, celebrates its 10th anniversary this yea
WASHINGTON, March 30 (UPI) -- HIV/AIDS patients are caught between tight state budgets and Medicaid payments to the physicians they depend on to ensure they get the lifesaving, anti-retroviral drug cocktails that make the diagnosis a chronic illness rather than a death sentence. The American Foundation for AIDS Researc
William M. Reilly, UPI United Nations Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, March 25 (UPI) -- West Africa s problems stem from abuses of the region s governance and human rights, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday. Until they are addressed with real resolve, until there is a fundamental break with authoritarianism and the culture of violence, exclusion and impunity
William M. Reilly, UPI United Nations Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, March 8 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, marking International Women s Day, Monday noted the increase in HIV/AIDS infection among women and called on men to assume their responsibilities on behalf of women. Women and HIV/AIDS was the theme of a special meeting in a large conference room at U.
WASHINGTON, March 5 (UPI) -- Representatives from several organizations receiving new U.S. government grants for foreign AIDS/HIV treatment and prevention efforts say the amounts still fall short of foreign need. Faith-based aid organizations, meanwhile, defend their use of federal funds and their broader interpretatio
LAGOS, Nigeria , Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Obarou Adjarhu carries a Bible under one arm, and he knows what it says. It says homosexuality is a sin, according to Adjarhu s reading. Today. Tomorrow. And as far as the 32-year-old Nigerian businessman is concerned, forever. Those are the sins of Sodom and Gomorra, he said on the s
United Press International - Monday, February 23, 2004
David J. Kent, United Press International
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The Bush administration released a five-year plan Monday for the treatment and prevention of AIDS/HIV worldwide and said Congress so far has approved $350 million of a planned $15 billion to fund the program. The majority of the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- or some $9 billion -- is ear
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Long-time foreign correspondent and current Washington Post reporter Neely Tucker says his book Love in the Driest Season is not a story about AIDS in Africa. It might, however, be just the book to put a human face on the epidemic. Like Philadelphia, the movie that gave many Americans a per
United Press International - Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Ed Susman, UPI Science News
A decade ago a diagnosis of HIV, which causes AIDS, meant a life expectancy of about two years. Now highly effective drug cocktails are keeping people alive far longer and doing it so well researchers are looking at the side effects long-term use of these medications may create. It was 1996 when the era of highly activ
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- More than 75,000 people in New York City are known to be living with AIDS or are infected with the virus that causes the disease, health researchers reported. The finding puts the prevalence of the deadly epidemic in the city at levels usually seen in Third World nations. Overall, about
William M. Reilly, UPI United Nations Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- A donors conference opened Thursday at U.N. world headquarters in New York seeking almost $500 million over the next two years for strife-torn Liberia . Speakers were making pleas for generous donations for Liberia to help the country and stabilize the West Africa region. U.N. Development Pr
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The big three in the State Department s FY 2005 budget are the global war on terror, HIV/AIDS, and the new Millennium Challenge Corp., a senior State Department official said Tuesday. The $8.552 billion request out of a $2.4 trillion federal budget was revealed Monday. On Tuesday, three seni
United Press International - Saturday, January 17, 2004
BANGKOK (UPI) -- A U.S. drug company has given a 20-year patent for an HIV/AIDS medicine to Thailand to settle a lawsuit, the Bangkok Post reported Saturday. Bristol Myers Squibb, which held the patent for the HIV/AIDS drug didanosine , was facing litigation from a host of activist groups, includi
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