Roger Thurow, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
PUPU, Zimbabwe -- There will be no traditional Christmas goat roasting on a spit here this year, and no Christmas chickens, either. The prospect of Christmas beer dried up long ago, along with the supplies of sorghum used for brewing. The big holiday helpings of corn meal will be smaller than usual, for corn, the natio
Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Abbott Laboratories has raised the U.S. price of a key AIDS drug by 400%, a move that could roil the market for HIV treatments and has already reignited the debate over drug pricing policies. The medication is called Norvir , a protease inhibitor that hasn t been a lucrative seller for Abbott but is
The cremated remains of 50 Thai women are shipped home from Japan by the Thai embassy each year. Their death certificates list AIDS as the cause of death, but according to the Thai ambassador: They are dying of enslavement. Most of the approximately 15,000 Thai women illegal immigrants in Japan are owned by organized
Michael Waldholz, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. is by far the world s largest single donor of funding to fight the AIDS epidemic in poor nations, but the amount it and others are providing now and promising in the future falls far short of what is needed, according to a report from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. The U.S. is expected to spend abou
Julia Flynn and Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- In a move that could dramatically lower the cost of AIDS drugs in Africa, two pharmaceuticals companies agreed Wednesday to allow more generic versions of their patented AIDS medicines to be made in South Africa and other sub-Saharan countries. As part of an out-of-court settlement Wednesday with AIDS activis
WASHINGTON -- President Bush plans to ask Congress for relatively small funding increases to fight AIDS and poverty in the developing world, stepping back from his highly publicized pledge to spend huge sums to help fight them. With the federal budget stretched to pay for the war in
Bernard Wysocki Jr., Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
LA JOLLA, Calif. -- More than a decade has passed since scientists began a form of genetic engineering known as gene therapy, injecting genes into living organisms as reinforcements in the body s battle against a variety of serious diseases. From the start, the technique seemed full of both promise and pitfalls. And th
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Three provocative studies, to be launched next year, will test the ability of a pill to prevent HIV infection in people, raising the possibility that the spread of AIDS can be curbed. The pill, Viread by Gilead Sciences Inc., is already widely used to treat AIDS.
Gautam Naik, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- Acknowledging that the global spread of AIDS is probably the toughest health assignment the world has ever faced, the World Health Organization is launching an ambitious $5.5 billion plan to make HIV drugs available to three million infected patients by the end of 2005. Although the plan doesn t provide some
Antonio Regalado, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
A team of scientists in Boston has found a receptor on human cells that the SARS virus uses to invade them and multiply. The discovery may help guide efforts to create drugs and vaccines for treating severe acute respiratory syndrome, the new infectious illness that killed 774 people and sickened more than 7,000 others
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
People living with HIV or AIDS total about 40 million world-wide, a figure down from the 42 million originally estimated for 2002, said the United Nations AIDS Secretariat and the World Health Organization . The lower estimate isn t due to any slowing of the global epidemic but rather to revised data collection and sta
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
People living with HIV/AIDS now total about 40 million world-wide, a figure down from the 42 million estimated for 2002, said the United Nations AIDS Secretariat and the World Health Organization . The lower estimate isn t due to any slowing of the global pandemic, but rather to revised data-collection and statistical-
Marilyn Chase and Betsy Mckay, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Syphilis case reports surged 12% in 2002, rising for the second year in a row, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned. The increases followed a decade of decline and a low in 2000. Syphilis cases among men rose more than 27%, with the largest increase -- more than 85% -- seen in white men. Cases ros
South Africa has taken a major step in the battle against HIV and AIDS, one that may help the world defeat the pandemic once and for all. Yesterday s decision by the South African cabinet to approve a plan for the nationwide treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS is a milestone for a country that has one of the
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- In a dramatic shift in its AIDS policy, the South African government Wednesday said it would undertake the world s largest AIDS treatment program by providing the expensive and complex AIDS drug regimens free of charge in the public sector. The decision ends years of divisive debate that dela
WASHINGTON -- House and Senate negotiators approved substantial new funding to fight AIDS overseas while cutting by half President Bush s request for his prized initiative challenging poor countries to move toward democracy and open markets. Monday night s action came as lawmakers neared agreement on an estimated $17.3
Scott Hensley, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
At Pfizer Inc., while one hand gave, the other was taking away. Tuesday, the pharmaceutical giant pledged $500 million toward eradication of a common form of blindness in the developing world. Yet almost simultaneously, Pfizer retreated from a novel licensing deal for an AIDS drug that had been hailed as a new way to
Elena Cherney, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The Canadian government introduced legislation to implement a landmark World Trade Organization agreement aimed at improving poor countries access to generic versions of patented medications. The proposed amendment to Canada s patent law would allow generic-drug makers to produce lower-cost medicines for export to poor
Mark Ingebretsen, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Apparently it was all a misunderstanding; nevertheless, the story below shows how politics can clash with science -- and to the detriment of both. Things got off on the wrong foot when the National Institutes of Health placed over 150 researchers on notice in recent weeks that lawmakers were taking a skeptical look at
David P. Hamilton, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
It may take the average biotech more than a decade or longer to bring a drug to market. But once a biotech makes it across the finish line by winning regulatory approval for its first product, it s time for celebration, right? Not exactly. Consider Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., biotech that s been ar
Former President Bill Clinton plans to announce Thursday a landmark program that attacks two of the toughest obstacles to treating AIDS in the developing world: high drug prices and low-quality health infrastructures. The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative has clinched a deal with four generic-drug companies, inclu
New research into the demographics of AIDS reveals that about 90% of those with the disease can expect to live 10 years or longer, according to an article in HealthDayNews. The results of the study, which appear in the journal Lancet, Have boosted optimism that AIDS can be transformed from a killer disease into a chro
Amy Dockser Marcus, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
It has become one of the most perplexing problems in medicine: Only about half of the people on prescription drugs actually take them. Much of the national debate focuses on how to help more people afford costly medicines, but that in many ways has masked the increasingly urgent problem of getting patients to take medi
Tamsin Carlisle, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Canadian AIDS researchers have taken an important step toward unraveling the mystery of how the human immunodeficiency virus causes brain damage, raising hopes of developing better treatments for an AIDS complication that causes devastating neurological symptoms in many patients living with the deadly disease. While do
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it is doubling its commitment to fighting AIDS in India to $200 million, and disbursed the first $65 million in grants to groups working with truckers, sex workers and drug users at high risk. Last year Mr. Gates, the Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist, visited India and
Elena Cherney and Christopher J. Chipello, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
TORONTO -- In a first for a Group of Seven industrial country, Canada appears poised to allow exports to poor countries of generic versions of patented medications for treating infectious diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis . Paul Martin, who is in line to succeed the retiring Jean Chretien as Canada s pri
Antonio Regalado, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The National Institutes of Health announced a road map for the future of U.S. investment in medical research, including 28 initiatives ranging from new computer centers to better ways of measuring pain. To speed the discovery of new medicines, the NIH said, the U.S. must create technologies for probing cells, get physi
Matt Pottinger, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Hong Kong -- Scientists in Taiwan say they have found evidence to support a surprising, though tentative, hypothesis: SARS may be deadlier to patients born with a gene found in 10% to 15% of people of southern-Chinese ancestry.
Anna Wilde Mathews and Heather Won Tesoriero, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Prescription drugs are among the most tightly regulated products in the American marketplace, with strict oversight of drug factories and pharmacies. But in between lies a vast industry with far less regulation that s now getting a lot more scrutiny: drug distributors. A spate of cases of counterfeit medicine showing u
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
One of the most stubborn problems in treating HIV/AIDS is the difficulty of attacking the virus where it hides in silently infected cells. These cells, sometimes called latently infected cells, contain a reservoir of virus that fuels the disease but remains out of reach of powerful antiviral drug cocktails. Now in a sm
Though an especially gloomy report was presented to the United Nations this week on the global fight against AIDS, at least one relatively inexpensive program is becoming a model for preventing HIV infections among newborns. At an aging hospital on the edge of the rough-and-tumble Soweto section of Johannesburg in
Anna Wilde Mathews, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- The head of the Food and Drug Administration is expected to warn that wealthy nations need to more fairly share the cost of developing new drugs, and to criticize price controls maintained by some European and other countries that force Americans to shoulder too much of the burden. The message from
Leila Abboud, Anna Wilde Mathews And Heather Won Tesoriero, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Recent court cases and federal investigations provide growing evidence that counterfeit drugs are getting onto pharmacy shelves and into the hands of consumers. The Food and Drug Administration may spotlight the issue as early as this week when it issues a draft plan that is expected to call for sweeping changes in the
Gautam Naik, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- Global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline PLC has dominated the market for HIV drugs ever since it launched AZT , the first drug for the disease, more than 15 years ago. These days the British company s position is looking less secure. A big reason is that the global market for HIV drugs
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it awarded $168 million in grants to projects devoted to the treatment and prevention of malaria in Africa, a continent besieged by the mosquito-borne disease. World-wide, malaria sickens up to 500 million people a year and kills 1.2 million to 2.7 million people a year. Most
The changing demographics of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. are stirring a host of discomfiting race-related concerns about the best way to fight the deadly disease these days. The latest statistics show that African-Americans account for 54% of the 43,000 or so new cases of HIV infection in the U.S. last year, up from 35% of n
WASHINGTON -- For a moment last week, President Bush reminded me of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi information minister who became a favorite of late-night comics for his brazen denial of reality. Mr. Bush, in a speech in Kansas City outlining his economic plans, assumed a look of steely determination in saying the
Miriam Jordan, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Raising the stakes in a high-profile battle over drug prices, Brazil is expected to publish a decree Friday that authorizes imports of generic versions of patented AIDS drugs that the country says it can no longer afford to buy from multinational pharmaceuticals companies. The decision drew pr
Jeanne Cummings, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- From Pretoria, South Africa , to Pittsburgh, President Bush this summer is touting an agenda of boosting minority homeownership, improving inner-city schools and giving government money to church-based counseling programs. A campaign tailor-made to appeal exclusively to blacks? Not exactly. Mr. Bush is p
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
MOSCOW -- Calling attention to a growing sore spot between Washington and Moscow, Russia s newly appointed top drug cop said the U.S. could do more to reduce the flow of heroin from Afghanistan . Gen. Viktor Cherkessov, whose appointment this spring to head Russia s huge new drug-enforcement agency signals Moscow s new
Jason Dean, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Lawyers representing seven Taiwan citizens have filed suit in a California court against the U.S. unit of Bayer AG of Germany and four other pharmaceutical companies, alleging the companies knowingly sold hemophilia medicine that could
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- After years of acrimonious debate between AIDS activists and South African President Thabo Mbeki, the country s cabinet has ordered the health department as a matter of urgency to develop a detailed operational plan on how to deliver so-called antiretroviral AIDS drugs in public hospitals
Matt Moffett, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
OBERA, Argentina -- The stress of living in this economically hobbled nation can wear a body down. So Ruben Dieminger takes strong measures to boost his immune system. Prying open a plastic container that holds a wriggling mass of small brown beetles, Mr. Dieminger shook about a dozen into a glass of lemon-flavored so
Sean Marciniak, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
It isn t supposed to be there, but medical data can show up in your credit report. It means your banker, after seeing that credit-card payment you made to the local psychiatrist, might decide he would rather not give you a loan. Congress is attempting to come to the rescue. Last month, the House Committee on Financial
Vanessa Fuhrmans , Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
State health officials have won about $65 million in annual price concessions for AIDS treatments from drug makers after banding together to increase their negotiating clout. The initiative, which involved more than four months of negotiations, marks the first time that all 56 state and territorial AIDS drug-assistance
Leslie Chang, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING -- As China emerges from the shadow of severe acute respiratory syndrome, Beijing appears to be shifting its attention to another disease that is infectious, feared and potentially fatal: AIDS. China last week declared its last 12 SARS patients free of the virus, marking the final chapter in a months-long campa
Andrea Petersen, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
As kids trek through Europe on post-graduation jaunts or plan soul-searching trips to Nepal and junior years abroad, many parents are probably worried about terrorism and mysterious viruses. They re nervous about the wrong things. The real scourges of overseas travel are far more mundane: pregnancy, drug use and menta
Betsy Mckay, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
ATLANTA -- The number of gay and bisexual men diagnosed with the AIDS virus rose in 2002 for the third year in a row in the U.S., fueling concerns about a potential resurgence of the disease and a growing debate over the federal government s plans for fighting it. After steady declines during the late 1990s, diagnoses
Julia Angwin, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
CHENNAI, India -- Munuswamy Suresh used to be a middle-class Indian. He owned a 2,000-square foot house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage. But since last year, he has been on the verge of poverty. Mr. Suresh, his wife and his parents have been sharing a rented three bedroom, one bathroom house with two o
David Rogers, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- President Bush s tax cuts are coming back to bite him, as his prized foreign-aid initiatives now must compete within the tight spending limits of the Republican budget plan. Early Thursday morning, after a long night of debate, the House approved a $17.1 billion foreign-aid bill that would cut almost $1.8
While members of the House and Senate struggle to hammer together a compromise Medicare prescription drug program, potential problems with the legislation were revealed this week, possibly slowing down the already arduous process. Both the U.S. House and Senate versions of bills to add prescription drug coverage to the
Some scientists believe that without free access to the vast volumes of genetic data via the Internet, the human genome wouldn t have been completed nearly as fast. Yet in the world of research and academic publishing, free access is often the exception rather than the rule. The Chicago Tribune reported that Most jour
Criticism of the proposed Medicare prescription drug benefit has rightly emphasized its cost to taxpayers. But another price could be lost lives due to a decline in the number of innovative new medicines. As part of the deal to secure one-vote passage of its Medicare bill last month, the House will soon be voting on a
Christopher Windham, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The stimulant Ritalin, long the subject of fierce debate about whether it is overprescribed for children with attention problems, is showing promise in treating elderly patients, some doctors say. Geriatricians who have prescribed the drug say it can quickly combat depression and apathy in seniors suffering from a vari
Leila Abboud, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration is launching a battle against counterfeit pharmaceuticals, which have been cropping up with greater frequency and growing more sophisticated. FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said that to combat fakes, the agency will consider use of high-technology packaging, closing gaps
During a meeting of the International AIDS Society in Paris earlier this week, several news stories that emerged made clear it will take more than money and free drugs to win the global AIDS fight. Case in point: German pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim claimed that only two African nations
Gautam Naik, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- Roche Holding AG, the big Swiss pharmaceutical concern, said its new HIV drug, Fuzeon, showed encouraging results when used over the longer term, and it could make the drug available for more patients than previously anticipated. Fuzeon caused a stir about a year ago when a 24-week study showed that patients
Gautam Naik, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- The world may be losing its battle to contain tuberculosis because of the rising scourge of HIV and the lax response in some nations. In a report released during a big AIDS conference Tuesday in Paris, the World Health Organization said that although a typical TB treatment costs as little as €8.
Just before President Bush left for Africa, the U.N. warned that at current rates it would take black Africa 150 years to reach the minimum development targets. Growth rates are negative on a continent littered with collapsed states. Africa needs help but that help is not measured quantitatively by the size of aid pack
Roger Thurow, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
MAPHATSINDVUKU, Swaziland -- Their father died in 1999, their mother in 2000, both of them from what social workers and village officials believe were complications from AIDS. Since then, Makhosazane Nkhambule, now 16 years old, has been caring for her four younger brothers and sisters in their one-room mud-brick shac
WASHINGTON -- In a five-nation African tour this week, President Bush is trumpeting his $15 billion program to fight the continent s AIDS epidemic. But that program s gains could be undercut by a separate U.S. effort to impose strict drug-patent protections that make AIDS drugs more expensive and harder to obtain. The
Jeanne Cummings, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
GOREE ISLAND, Senegal -- President Bush committed the U.S. to assisting in a peaceful transition of power in Liberia , but refused to detail what role his administration will play and whether he will send troops to the war-torn nation. In an exchange with reporters, Mr. Bush said he assured
President Bush s trip to sub-Saharan Africa this week will solidify one of his most surprising achievements. Even before the prospect of a military intervention in Liberia , Mr. Bush was well on his way to becoming the American president most engaged with the African continent in U.S. history. This despite the fact th
David P. Hamilton, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new AIDS drug from Gilead Sciences Inc., kicking off what could be a heated market battle with another leading AIDS treatment. The new drug, called Emtriva, inhibits an enzyme key to the replication of HIV, the AIDS virus. While Gilead will sell Emtriva as a stand-alone drug
Marilyn Chase and David Bank, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Two dozen AIDS researchers and public-health officials, citing the lack of a vaccine two decades into the pandemic, are calling for the creation of a global HIV vaccine enterprise, adding that it is unrealistic to expect private industry to shoulder the burden alone. The policy statement, published in Friday s edition
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Two dozen AIDS researchers and public-health officials, citing the lack of any preventive vaccine two decades into the AIDS pandemic, are calling for the creation of a global HIV vaccine enterprise, saying that it is unrealistic to expect private industry to shoulder the burden alone. The policy statement, published in
Peter Landers, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., after a disastrous year dominated by an accounting scandal, finally has a spurt of good news, including U.S. approval for a drug the company is pitching as a first-line treatment against the AIDS virus. The AIDS drug, known by the brand name Reyataz, was approved Friday by the Food and Drug
WASHINGTON -- The House Appropriations Committee approved a $30.4 billion homeland-security bill, exceeding President Bush s budget request by $1 billion and setting the stage for a larger battle among Republicans over spending priorities in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. In programs ranging from education to vetera
David P. Hamilton, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Chiron Corp. s new chief executive said the company s planned $878 million acquisition of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals PLC will likely serve as its springboard into the large U.S. vaccine market. Howard Pien, named Chiron CEO in March, said that PowderJect is one of only two makers of flu vaccine approved to sell their p
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Eli Lilly & Co. is casting old drugs in new roles to fight tuberculosis , a perennial killer. And in the process, Lilly plans to teach some developing nations how to treat the toughest kind of TB -- and hand them the technology to make the medicines. Eli Lilly announced Thursday that it is joining with the Wo
Roger Thurow And Scott Miller, Staff Reporters Of The Wall Street Journal
N DJAMENA, Chad -- At the central hospital in this decrepit capital, the lone cardiologist writes prescription after prescription for medicine to relieve hypertension. But he acknowledges that few of his patients will ever fill his orders. They often can t find the medicine in Chad, and if they do, they can t afford i
Kris Maher, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The number of students entering nursing, a profession that has been facing a drastic shortage for nearly a decade, is finally on the rise. But the crisis is far from over, and recent events have only added uncertainty to the profession s recovery. The total U.S. student-nursing population rose 3.7% in 2001 and 8% in 20
Vanessa Fuhrmans and Gautam Naik, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
After rousing the world s scientific community to help hunt and conquer the SARS virus, the World Health Organization is doing the same with big business, prodding companies to raise $100 million toward stamping out the disease. The fund, which the WHO plans to announce on Thursday in Geneva, is aimed primarily at buil
The global response to SARS shows that the world can get it together to fight a potentially devastating outbreak. Now, better late than never, it s finally time to do the same for AIDS. This week, Congress is expected to send President Bush a historic bill unleashing $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS in 12 hard
David Rogers, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Congress will send President Bush this week a $15 billion global AIDS bill that reflects a new emphasis on direct U.S. assistance to fight the disease and a greater concentration of power to manage the overseas efforts. The five-year funding represents a historic commitment by the U.S., and Mr. Bush hopes
Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
In a venture that could provide a model for attacking diseases in the developing world, a health group has convinced two corporate rivals to lay aside their differences and cooperate in bringing a potential malaria drug to market. The drug, a synthetic copy of an extract from the Chinese sweet wormwood plant, could fig
David Bank, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
More than 80% of the world s population still lacks access to basic AIDS-prevention programs, according to a study that estimates nearly $4 billion each year is needed to slow the AIDS epidemic. The study, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, highlights preventio
WASHINGTON -- Over the next 10 days, President Bush is planning to exploit war for political gain. If only it could happen more often. Mr. Bush will capitalize on the war against AIDS -- the one the world is losing. He has demanded passage of a five-year, $15 billion U.S. commitment to the global pandemic by Memorial D
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The long and bitter fight over the treatment of AIDS in South Africa, in which President Thabo Mbeki has questioned whether anti-AIDS drugs are too toxic and even whether HIV causes the syndrome, may be nearing a climax. The government has often argued that, toxicity aside, the antiretrovi
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
On April 13, AIDS researcher David Ho and associate Linqi Zhang found what they believe may be an Achilles heel of the SARS virus. Dr. Zhang brought the just-completed genome of the SARS virus to Dr. Ho and pointed out a hauntingly familiar DNA sequence. It was similar to one they had seen on the AIDS virus, where it c
Karen Richardson, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Amid concerns that Hong Kong s drug-treatment protocol for SARS might be adding to the high level of deaths from the respiratory disease there, a panel of doctors treating SARS patients said they will reduce their use of the antiviral drug ribavirin and delay the use of corticosteroids because of adverse side effects.
WASHINGTON -- Pressed by conservatives and the calendar, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will bring a House-passed $15 billion global AIDS bill to the floor next week in hopes of sending legislation to President Bush before the Memorial Day recess. This will be the cleanest and most efficient way to go, predicted the
Michael M. Phillips, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is in danger of running out of money, a new U.S. government report warns. The impending shortfall is likely to put pressure on Europe and Japan to keep pace with growing American contributions to the fund. But AIDS activists also see it as an implici
U.S. House members last week undoubtedly congratulated themselves for passing -- by a lopsided vote of 375 to 41 -- President Bush s $15 billion program to fight AIDS in Africa and elsewhere. One reason for the huge victory was an amendment added by House conservatives aimed at bringing their caucus aboard. In effect,
WASHINGTON -- The House approved legislation pledging $15 billion over the next five years to fight AIDS overseas, a historic commitment that would be directed at programs for Africa and the Caribbean. The 375-41 vote represents a victory for President Bush, who wants quick Senate action this month and hopes to leverag
Antonio Regalado And Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporters Of The Wall Street Journal
SARS is the biggest news in the world of virology since AIDS, and some of the world s leading scientists are jumping into the pursuit of a weapon to fight it. AIDS researcher David Ho, who runs the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York and was a key driver of AIDS-treatment approaches now in use, said he has a
Karen Richardson and Betsy McKay, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Is the real death rate for SARS higher than the public has been led to believe? The World Health Organization maintains that the mortality rate for severe acute respiratory syndrome is currently about 5.6%. That figure, often cited by public health officials and the media, represents the number of known SARS-related de
Severe acute respiratory syndrome is the newest of the newly emerging infectious diseases to break into the headlines -- and into our consciousness. Starting from Asia, SARS has been extending its reach all over the world as travelers have brought the virus with them, seeding new outbreaks as far away as Toronto. It is
Danielle Reed, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The May 12 episode of Girlfriends, UPN s urban-relationship comedy, has to stretch to be funny. In it, characters deal with implications of AIDS, including one college friend who has the illness. That was our hardest story ever to do, says the show s producer, Mara Brock Akil. How do you talk about AIDS and then be fun
Roger Thurow and David Bank, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. has diverted more than a half billion dollars from relief efforts for famines, epidemics and civil wars around the world to prepare for the aftermath of the war in Iraq , delaying aid to displaced Sudanese and homeless Afghans, among others. The White House is planning to repay most of the money diverted f
Trish Saywell, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Top disease specialists are debating the theory of whether some people with SARS might be superinfectors or superspreaders -- that is, unusually contagious and able to transmit the illness to larger numbers of people. Robert Breiman, head of a World Health Organization team investigating severe acute respiratory syndro
Elena Cherney and Mark Heinzl, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
TORONTO -- Doctors weren t sure what to make of 43-year-old Tse Chi Kai when he came to Toronto s Scarborough Grace hospital on March 7 complaining of fever and shortness of breath. They initially suspected pneumonia, and kept him under observation overnight in the emergency room. Mr. Tse s breathing worsened the next
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Eager to join the battle against the SARS virus, laboratory scientists studying smallpox, AIDS, and the West Nile virus are helping to search for drugs that treat severe acute respiratory syndrome. While creation of any specific treatment may be years off, scientists are hoping to find some therapies that can help SARS
Peter Wonacott, Susan V. Lawrence and David Murphy, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
China revealed that a lethal strain of pneumonia has caused an additional 12 deaths and hundreds of new cases, and said it would allow a team of foreign specialists to visit the area where the outbreaks first occurred. Wednesday s developments suggest that China s leadership -- facing its first major challenge since
Joel Baglole, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Angering U.S. officials fighting the war on drugs, the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia, is opening North America s first safe-injection sites for heroin users. Backers insist it s better to treat drug addiction as a public-health issue rather than a criminal matter. Emulating European countries such as
Matt Pottinger and Richard Borsuk, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Governments are finding out just how hard it is to implement mass quarantines in an era of fast information, global travel and widespread concern over civil liberties. Now Canada , Singapore and Hong Kong all have imposed quarantines to combat the spread of severe a
Gardiner Harrism, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Merck & Co. and Aventis SA are combining their two most promising AIDS vaccines candidates in a joint human test in the U.S. that will begin later this year. For reasons neither company understands, monkeys that were injected first with the Merck vaccine and then later with the Aventis medicine got their immune s
Marilyn Chase, Matt Pottinger, Betsy McKay and Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Just before midnight on March 18, as scores of infected patients fought for their lives on an upper floor, virologists at Hong Kong s Prince of Wales Hospital announced a break in the hunt for the cause of a killer pneumonia. The team, led by microbiology professor John Tam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said
Mark Schoofs, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
A brash and savvy AIDS activist group is about to take a dramatic step to push the South African government to provide AIDS drugs in public hospitals and clinics: mass civil disobedience. The protest action, to begin this week and last for seven days, is believed to be the first time in Africa that AIDS patients will h
Antonio Regalado, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The virus that causes AIDS evolves more rapidly than previously thought, according to a new finding that underscores challenges to developing an effective vaccine. The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, has long outwitted both scientists and the body s own defenses with its rapid ability to adapt. The protective env
GENEVA, Switzerland -- Like a dysfunctional family, the world s richest and poorest countries are squabbling again. And the poorest, most helpless people are the unwitting victims of this unseemly dispute. Despite several attempts, the 145 countries that make up the World Trade Organization have been unable to agree on
Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The Food and Drug Administration cleared a highly anticipated AIDS drug for sale, giving patients who no longer respond to other treatments a powerful but costly new weapon in fighting the disease. Doctors and researchers consider Fuzeon, developed by Roche AG and Trimeris Inc., the biggest advance in AIDS treatment si
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
In a study suggesting a possible alternative for people who can t tolerate smallpox vaccine, researchers said a new antiviral drug taken before or after exposure to a lethal smallpox-like infection reduced death rates in mice. Not yet available for human use, the drug faces much more work, including animal studies, hum
Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
SAN FRANCISCO -- During a health inspection of a gay sex club two years ago, Jeffrey Klausner felt something crunch underfoot. It was an empty blister pack of Viagra. Dr. Klausner, this city s director of sexually-transmitted-disease prevention, began to wonder whether Pfizer Inc. s impotence drug was contributing
Laurie McGinley, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Worried about the escalating costs of AIDS treatments, state health officials are joining forces to press for price concessions. The strategy will come to the fore the week of March 17, when the six states with the biggest AIDS-drug programs plan to meet here with drug makers. The state officials plan to
Gautam Naik, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
LONDON -- The United Nations reduced its estimate of the global population for the middle of this century by an additional 180 million because of the worsening effects of AIDS. That chilling revision reflects not a statistical error but a more serious and prolonged impact of the epidemic, according to new figures publi
Although the first AIDS vaccine to undergo rigorous human study appears to be a bust, the experiment still can contribute to AIDS vaccine research, where advances come in small steps. This week s news1 was that biotech outfit Vaxgen Inc. s three-year trial to vaccinate people against AIDS overall didn t work. Shocked i
David P. Hamilton, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Independent scientists contested a suggestion by VaxGen Inc. that its experimental AIDS vaccine protected some people against HIV infection, arguing that the available data are too weak to support such claims. VaxGen conceded that the first major trial of its AIDS vaccine, known as Aidsvax, overall failed to protect vo
Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
A new AIDS drug that promises to help patients who have failed to respond to other medications carries a price tag more than double the most expensive treatments on the market, setting up a wrenching debate over who will get it and who will pay for it. Roche Holding AG Monday said it is pricing the drug, called Fuzeon,
In a finding that could bring some relief to cash-strapped AIDS-drug assistance programs, a study shows a cheaper antiretroviral drug works as well as its better-selling rival. The 1,216-patient study, the first to compare the two drugs directly, found that Viramune , an AIDS medicine that its maker
Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
A rapid, new portable test to measure critical immune cells in people with the AIDS virus could soon be available for less than $1 in poor countries, making it easier to identify patients most in need of newly available inexpensive AIDS medicines. Using a microchip that contains miniaturized wells, the postage stamp-si
Vanessa Fuhrmans and Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Roche Holding AG said that it would sell a critical AIDS medicine in developing countries at cost, bowing to criticism that it hadn t done enough to make the drug affordable. The new policy, effective in March, will knock the price of Viracept , an antiretroviral therapy, to about a quarter of its current official p
Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Reversing years of sharp declines, diagnoses of the AIDS virus have risen in 25 states, suggesting to public officials that sexually active Americans may be growing complacent about contracting the deadly virus. Researchers also reported that new venues for finding sex partners -- namely the Internet -- may be contribu
Ann Carrns and Betsy McKay, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Last week, Kathleen Paluczak, a 58-year-old office administrator in St. Louis, deposited a unit of her blood in a local blood bank. This week, she plans to make a withdrawal -- for her own knee-replacement surgery scheduled for Thursday. The number of people banking blood for their own use has increased in the South si
When President Bush proposed a $15 billion initiative to tackle AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean last week, lots of folks professed surprise. We re not sure why. When it comes to foreign aid, the President has shown consistently that compassionate conservatism is no mere slogan. Mr. Bush has pushed the World Bank to of
WASHINGTON -- President Bush s budget plan for next year marks the end of a brief era when shrinking defense needs and a strong economy made it possible to please nearly every constituency. The new budget is a return, instead, to the old days of tradeoffs and tough choices. While Mr. Bush has been touting an array of n
Greg Hitt, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Saying he wants to act, not just talk, President Bush plunged more deeply into the fight against AIDS, proposing an increase in domestic spending and announcing that his administration had cleared the way for more widespread use of a new, quicker diagnostic test. In the fiscal 2004 budget being released M
President Bush s announced intention this week to spend $15 billion fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa got me thinking about the plan he began last year for African-Americans: No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind is the name of his strategy to raise performance in the nation s inner-city schools. Of the AIDS effort, one
Michael M. Phillips And Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- A day after proposing a huge spending increase to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, President Bush faced skepticism from health activists and the specter of being trumped by the Senate Republican leader and a Democratic presidential aspirant. The president opened himself up to a fight over support f
Scott Hensley, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Attempting to break a stalemate over getting AIDS drugs into developing nations, Pharmacia Corp. is near a deal to allow generic drug makers to sell cheaper versions of its drug Rescriptor in poor countries only. Pharmacia, one of the world s largest drug companies, would license Rescriptor to the nonprofit Internation
The World Economic Forum grew out of an initiative to bring together Europe s chief executives for an informal gathering in the Swiss mountain town of Davos in 1970. These chief executives formally met in January 1971, at the instigation of Klaus Schwab, to discuss a coherent strategy for European business to face chal
Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt is spot on in his analysis of the failure so far of trade negotiators in the WTO talks to recognize the irrelevance of patents to resolving the problem of access to medicines in the Third World, especially Africa ( Fight Poverty, Not Patents, Jan. 6). Unfortunately, not enough p
Time is running short for the World Trade Organization to fulfill the pledge made last November at Doha to find a way to guarantee poor countries access to medicines through the effective use of compulsory licensing of patents. Talks on this urgent issue stalled in December, and that is bad for everyone, but the burden
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.