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December 1, 2008 9:38:10 AM CST


AIDS

AIDS news stories

1 - 20 of 48 Stories | 1 2 3 Next >>

 UK Deporting HIV Patients 
 to 'Death Sentence' 

Critics say British policy hypocritical

(Newser) - An African policy group is accusing the UK of deporting immigrants who were being treated for HIV to almost certain death in places where they will be unable to acquire drugs needed to survive. Advocates call the move hypocritical since Britain is a vocal backer of an international declaration calling for universal access to AIDS drugs, the Guardian reports. More »

More about:  Great Britain AIDS immigrant HIV refugee universal health care deportation medical treatment

Mbeki AIDS Denial Killed 365K in South Africa

Study blames Mbeki for keeping antiretrovirals from citizens

(Newser) - South Africa's failure to provide antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients has cost 365,000 lives,  a new Harvard study finds. The report places the blame for the deaths with ousted president Thabo Mbeki, whose denial of AIDS' viral cause led Africa's richest country to ignore its sick citizens while other southern African nations provided medicine, the New York Times reports. More »

More about:  South Africa AIDS Thabo Mbeki HIV HIV/AIDS AIDS epidemic Kgalema Motlanthe

 Assassin Cells Slay Hidden HIV 

Human trials set next year

(Newser) - A promising new treatment for AIDS may be in the works, with the discovery that genetically engineered immune cells can detect and destroy HIV even when the virus tries to hide by mutating. The so-called “assassin” cells, created from the T-cells of an HIV patient, have worked their magic in a lab dish but have yet to be tested in humans, Reuters reports. More »

Cancer Treatment May Have Cured Man's AIDS

After marrow transplant, patient stays virus-free

(Newser) - A German doctor has inspired hope for a new approach to AIDS treatment with his handling of a leukemia case, the Wall Street Journal reports. Because the patient also had AIDS, Gero Hütter looked for a bone marrow donor with a specific mutation that seems to stymie the HIV virus. Nearly 2 years later, the American patient remains AIDS-free. More »

More about:  Germany cancer medical breakthrough AIDS HIV transplant gene therapy bone marrow

New HIV Study Shows Disease Accelerating

CDC finds 40% more cases than thought; blacks' rate alarming

(Newser) - A new CDC study of Americans with HIV conducted with new technology shows that the virus is spreading faster than previously thought, reports the New York Times . In 2006, more than 56,000 were newly infected with the virus that causes AIDS—40% more than anticipated. The study also showed that whites and blacks tend to contract the virus at different times in their lives. More »

More about:  public health AIDS HIV HIV/AIDS CDC infection African-Americans STD whites

Swazi King's Birthday Bash
Infuriates
Suffering Public

Ruler spends fortune to celebrate turning 40

(Newser) - Swaziland's king is throwing a lavish 40th birthday party for himself and the kingdom this weekend—and Swazis are seething over the extravagance, the New York Times reports. The day marking the double birthday has been dubbed the "40-40 Celebration." But critics of the monarchy point out there's little to celebrate with unemployment and the AIDS infection rate both runnning at 40% in the country—while life expectancy is just 32.  More »

More about:  Africa AIDS monarchy king

HIV Rates
Rise for Gays, Ignored by World Programs

Targeted by 1% of prevention funds

(Newser) - Even as fewer people are dying from AIDS, new HIV infections continue to rise at alarming rates among the global gay and bisexual population, who are tageted by less than 1% of the $669 million spent on prevention worldwide, AP reports. In 86 nations, homosexual sex is considered a crime, and in seven countries it's punishable by death, according to the Foundation for AIDS Research, More »

More about:  AIDS HIV homosexual bisexual

A Pill a Day Could Keep
HIV Away

Massive 15,000-person trial will test drug's effectiveness

(Newser) - With 2.7 million people contracting HIV every year, the race is on to test the efficacy of a daily pill meant to prevent the virus, the New York Times reports. After recent unimpressive results in tests of vaccines and microbicides, the PrEP drugs are now some scientists’ leading hope for stopping infection before it starts. More »

More about:  AIDS HIV infection drug trials AIDS prevention

 Gene Raises AIDS Risk in Africa 

Africans 40% more likely to contract HIV

(Newser) - A gene extremely common among Africans but almost unknown other ethnic groups may be rendering people of sub-Saharan Africa more susceptible to HIV and AIDS, the Times of London reports. The gene variant—common because it provides malaria protection—makes carriers 40% more likely to contract HIV and could be responsible for 11%, or 2.5 million, of the AIDS cases in Africa, the continent hardest hit by the disease. More »

More about:  United Nations Africa AIDS HIV malaria AIDS epidemic University College London

OPINION

Putting Helms' Name on
AIDS Bill the Ultimate Insult

Blogger outraged at move by Sen. Dole to link measure with anti-gay Republican

(Newser) - A move by Sen. Elizabeth Dole to honor former Republican colleague Jesse Helms by adding his name to a bill that would combat AIDS has Pandagon blogger Pam Spaulding seeing red. "Dole spits in the face" of gay activists, Spaulding writes, by attaching the stridently anti-homosexual Helms to a measure that could save thousands of lives. More »

More about:  AIDS Elizabeth Dole Jesse Helms Kay Hagan

Senate Targets Ban on HIV- Positive Visitors

$50B AIDS bill, nearing vote, could dismantle 20-year prohibition

(Newser) - The Senate moved today to repeal a ban on allowing immigrants and vistors who are HIV-positive to enter the country, the AP reports. The measure was part of a $50 billion bill to combat AIDS worldwide. The US is one of only a dozen countries—including Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Libya—that forbids the entry of visitors with AIDS. More »

More about:  Senate Africa immigration John Kerry AIDS HIV Gordon Smith visas

OPINION

Stubborn Mbeki Denies  the Blood on Hands

From HIV to Zimbabwe, S. African's inaction has cost lives, says Cohen

(Newser) - Five years ago Roger Cohen interviewed Thabo Mbeki in the New York Times , and even then the South African president insisted that Zimbabwe will "get over" its conflicts. So as supposed mediator in Zimbabwe's deepening economic and humanitarian disaster, why has Mbeki still done nothing? An earlier act of stubbornness might provide a clue: his AIDS denialism, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives in his own country. More »

More about:  Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe South Africa AIDS Thabo Mbeki HIV HIV/AIDS

 Stars Turn Out to Fete Mandela 

Concert honoring 90th birthday draws huge crowd to London's Hyde Park

(Newser) - A benefit concert for Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday drew a constellation of music stars to London today, the BBC reports. Will Smith kicked off the festivities, and Leona Lewis was a hit with the crowd, but the star of the show, as expected, was Mandela. "Even as we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete," he said. More »

More about:  South Africa AIDS concert Nelson Mandela

City Plans to Test Every Bronx Adult
for HIV

Bid to tackle highest AIDS death rate in NY

(Newser) - City officials aim to test every Bronx adult for HIV by 2011 under an ambitious initiative to tackle the high rate of AIDS deaths in the borough, the New York Times reports. The voluntary testing would become routine in emergency rooms and storefront clinics and would pare down consent requirements into a 5-minute presentation health care providers could quickly run through. More »

More about:  New York public health