2000

ACT UP crashes Bristol-Myers Squibb holiday party: Activists, shouting 'Greed equals death!', charge 'price-gouging' by pharmaceutical giant
Washington Blade - December 22, 2000
Sarah L. Rasmusson
NEW YORK - Refusing to swallow what they say is an outrageous price for an oral AIDS medication, about 10 members of the AIDS activist group ACT UP from New York and Philadelphia staged a protest inside the Manhattan-based international headquarters of Bristol-Myers Squibb Wednesday. The protest, which was at the compa


Ritonavir or indinavir - makes little difference
The Washington Blade - December 15, 2000
Lisa Keen
A study from Rome of 1,251 people with HIV found they experienced similar efficacy whether they were taking the protease inhibitor ritonavir or indinavir in combination with nucleoside analogs. The study was reported in the Nov. 20 issue of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses.


Many patients asking to interrupt therapy
The Washington Blade - October 13, 2000
Lisa Keen
About 60 percent of people with HIV who are taking drug therapies have asked their physicians for help in implementing strategic treatment interruptions, according to an informal poll conducted last month at a conference of disease specialists. New York researcher-clinician Roy Gulick asked an audience of physicians an


Liver dysfunction monitoring urged with d4T
The Washington Blade - August 11, 2000
Lisa Keen
One of the most commonly prescribed nucleoside analogs -- d4t or stavudine -- may be capable of causing a life-threatening liver dysfunction in a small percentage of patients, notes an article from a National Institutes of Health team. The syndrome -- known as hepatic steatosis and lactic acidosis -- had been associate


Treatment interruption: Still too soon to tell
The Washington Blade - June 30, 2000
Lisa Keen
Just two weeks away from the international AIDS conference, the assessment still seems to be quite cautious about the prospects for patients to benefit from deliberate -- or strategic -- interruption of therapy. One of the leading optimists for the therapy, Dr. Franco Lori of the Research Institute for Genetic Human Th


World: `There's nothing, as far as I know': At AIDS epidemic's center, medications are unavailable - Last of four parts
The Washington Blade - May 19, 2000
Kai Wright
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Lynde Francis keeps a gentle voice for the woman on the other end of the phone, but her face shows her real frustration. She sits with her head in her hand, grimacing, as she tries to talk the anonymous caller into taking a second HIV-antibody test. You aren t there with your husband 24 hours a day,


World: `They have to deal with me'`They have to deal with me' Tiny cadre of `liberated queens' asserts small but sure existence - Third of four parts
The Washington Blade - May 12, 2000
Kai Wright
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe - It is a little after midnight and, for sleepy Bulawayo, that is late enough for everything to be closed. Bulawayo may be the second most cosmopolitan city in the country, seen as the capital of western Zimbabwe, but it is still a far cry from the excitement of Harare. Simba and Carlos know this, bu


Lesbians admonished with `sew them up'Lesbians admonished with `sew them up': Organizing challenges for Zimbabwean women come from outside, within Gay community - Second of four parts
The Washington Blade - May 5, 2000
Kai Wright
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Ska remembers wanting to go back for her other shoe. She remembers a security guard, with his orange and green uniform, standing idle and watching the beating. And she remembers thinking, at first, there was only one attacker but then realizing, after someone grabbed her from behind and locked her ar


Totally unacceptable to cultural norms: Gays in Zimbabwe fight institutionalized homophobia, see slow gains in social acceptance - First of four parts
The Washington Blade - April 28, 2000
Kai Wright
HARARE, Zimbabwe - The words slam across the reports pages: Lesbians should be sewn up ; Homosexuality must be punishable by hanging ; Homosexuality and lesbianism should be banned and culprits must be severely penalized by death, castration. These are some of the responses government-appointed commissioners recorded j


Nevirapine alert sounded again, in Europe
The Washington Blade - April 21, 2000
Lisa Keen
For at least the second time in two years, experts are warning doctors to carefully monitor their patients with HIV who are taking the non-nucleoside antiviral nevirapine , particularly in the first two months of taking the drug. The statement also urged that patients with a history of skin and liver complaints, such a


National: Name-dropping in San Francisco; ACT UP chapter changes moniker to distinguish from other group
The Washington Blade - March 31, 2000
Peter Freiberg
The ACT UP/Golden Gate chapter did last week what no chapter has ever done: It dropped ACT UP from its name. Why? To put an end to the continuing confusion between ACT UP/Golden Gate and a group of people using the name ACT UP/ San Francisco, said they group. From now on, the ACT UP/Golden Gate group is to be known as


National: Viatical probe targets PWAs; Fla. judge orders names released
The Washington Blade - February 18, 2000
Lou Chibbaro Jr.
Florida prosecutors say they are looking into the possibility that a large number of people with HIV/AIDS have conspired with certain insurance agents and viatical settlement brokers to defraud many of the nation s life insurance companies out of millions of dollars. In a development that has stunned AIDS advocacy grou


Beware the flu, an 'accelerator' of progression
The Washington Blade - February 18, 2000
Lisa Keen
A report in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses warns that the influenza virus may contribute to HIV disease progression in at least one more way than originally understood. For years, experts have noted that common infections, such as the flu, are more dangerous for people with comprom


HEALTH: Oral sex study omitted detail; Researcher: Mouth, gum sores were not considered
The Washington Blade - February 11, 2000
Lisa Keen
With all the alarming reports last week about the study showing that oral sex carries a higher risk of transmitting HIV than originally thought, one important detail was missing. The reports were that, in the most definitive study to date, researchers found that eight out of 102 Gay and bisexual men most likely acquir


HEALTH: Researchers: Oral sex threat underestimated
The Washington Blade - February 4, 2000
Lisa Keen
Out of more than 850 reports delivered at the Retrovirus conference this week, only one addressed the oral transmission of HIV among men having sex with men, and that one was a poster in a far corner of a large exhibit hall. But the news was worrisome and attracted a swarm of observers Tuesday afternoon, followed by a


HEALTH: Chasing HIV's changes
The Washington Blade - February 4, 2000
Lisa Keen
SAN FRANCISCO - If there is one thing a person can count on with HIV disease, it is this: almost nothing. After years of growing consensus around the strategy of hit early, hit hard, many experts now appear to be backing off the early. After assuming the development of certain fat deposits were linked to the use of


Local: CDC funds study on Lesbians and HIV; Whitman-Walker part of anaylsis of female-to-female transmission
The Washington Blade - January 14, 2000
Rhonda Smith
The Lesbian Services Program of Whitman-Walker Clinic has begun recruiting women with HIV to take part in a study funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether there are any cases of female-to-female sexual transmission of the virus. Another goal of the study, which will involve


National: AIDS demographic shifts; CDC: Gay men of color infections pass white numbers
The Washington Blade - January 14, 2000
Peter Freiberg
For the first time, Gay and bisexual men of color now outnumber white Gay and bisexual men in newly diagnosed AIDS cases, according to a new study published today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, published in the Jan. 14 issue of the CDC s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, says da


Hydroxyurea-ddI-indinavir before antibodies
The Washington Blade, January 7, 2000
Lisa Keen
Once again, a group of researchers has emerged with some evidence to argue that early intervention with a triple-drug therapy can have a major effect on the outcome of HIV infection and provide[s] the highest chance of normalization of the immune system. The latest to weigh in is a team led by renowned Italian research


National: From worse to bad: U.S. AIDS drug trade policy lamented, criticized
The Washington Blade - January 7, 2000
Bill Roundy
Only five percent of people with HIV infection in Thailand can afford even the cheapest of HIV medications, say activists in that country, and many believe that pressure from the U.S. prevents the Thai government from making the drugs available more cheaply. That is why, on Dec. 23, more than 100 activists and people w



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©1980, 2000. AEGiS.