The War on HIV

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June 2009
- Calif. Porn Actress Tests Positive for HIV
  
  Los Angeles Times | Jun 11, 09 9:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - California's pornography industry has confirmed its first case of HIV since 2004, the Los Angeles Times reports. The female performer worked infrequently, according to a rep for the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, who denied rumors of an outbreak. LA County health officials said they planned to investigate and renewed calls for the self-policing industry to improve performer safety. More »
- AIDS Victim Infected by Dad Vows to Fight On
  
  Associated Press | Jun 7, 09 5:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Brryan Jackson wasn’t supposed to live. Injected with HIV-positive blood by his father at 11 months of age, Jackson has grown into a compassionate teenage advocate for AIDS sufferers. Graduating from high school near St. Louis yesterday, he vowed to go into politics. More remarkably, he has forgiven his father. "God wants us to forgive people," Jackson, 18, tells the AP. More »
- Scientists Urge WHO to Slam Homeopathy as HIV Remedy
  
  Guardian (UK) | Jun 1, 09 8:51 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Concerned about deaths tied to choice of treatment, British scientists are calling on the World Health Organization to speak out against homeopathy as a way to battle HIV, TB, malaria, influenza, and infant diarrhea. Clinics throughout Asia and sub-Saharan Africa offer to treat such diseases through homeopathy, though there is no evidence that it is effective, reports the Guardian . Currently, the WHO’s position on homeopathy is “wishy-washy,” said a biophysicist. More »
May 2009
- African Lawmaker Calls for 'Branding' HIV Sufferers
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | May 26, 09 4:31 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A member of Swaziland's parliament has come under fire for suggesting making HIV tests compulsory and branding warning logos on the buttocks of those with the disease, the Telegraph reports. "Before having sex with anyone, people will have to check their partners' buttocks before proceeding," he explained. Health campaigners in the country—where the HIV infection rate, at 43%, is the highest in the world—accused the lawmaker of disregarding human rights. More »
- Gene Tests Yield Results in AIDS Fight
  
  Associated Press | May 18, 09 3:01 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A back-door approach to battling AIDS that could revolutionize treatment has succeeded in monkeys, AP reports. Scientists inserted a gene that produces protective antibodies into the muscles of six monkeys, then injected them with SIV—the animal equivalent of HIV. None developed AIDS, and most still had high amounts of the antibodies a year later. More »
- Forget Swine Flu— 5 Pandemics to Fear
  
  Foreign Policy | May 10, 09 10:00 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - While the world panics over swine flu, many far more serious outbreaks lie in wait, reports Foreign Policy . Here are some you won’t see on TV—yet: Cholera: The deadly diarrheal infection is rampant in Africa, with infections shooting up 96% in 2006. The current outbreak in Zimbabwe has killed 4,200 since August. Ebola: Unlikely to become a pandemic, but has an absolutely terrifying mortality rate. More »
April 2009
- Freed Gay Activists Flee Senegal Lynch Mob
  
  GlobalPost | Apr 25, 09 7:50 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Gay AIDS activists in Senegal are fleeing a mob that vows to turn them into "fish food," GlobalPost reports. Arrested late last year, the nine activists were sentenced to 8-year terms for “indecent acts against nature," but an appeals court freed them early this week. Now social conservatives plan to hunt them down. “In our society, homosexuality will never be accepted,” said one religious leader and lawmaker. More »
- German Singer Arrested for Spreading HIV
  
  BBC | Apr 15, 09 5:35 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A singer in Germany's biggest girl band has been arrested on suspicion of having unprotected sex while aware she was HIV-positive, the BBC reports. Prosecutors suspect that No Angels singer Nadja Benaissa had unsafe sex with three men after she knew she was infected, at least one of whom now has the virus. She may be charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm. More »
- Bush Gang Will Reunite to Reflect on Legacy
  
  New York Times | Apr 10, 09 4:46 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The George W. Bush administration is planning a reunion in honor of the former president’s nascent policy institute, the New York Times reports. Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes, speechwriter Michael Gerson, and White House counsel Dan Bartlett will meet the former president next week in Dallas for dinner and a day of discussion about the goals of Bush’s project. Dick Cheney will not be present. More »
March 2009
- Facebook Users to Deluge Pope With Condoms
  
  CNN | Mar 28, 09 7:57 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The pope’s recent remark that condoms not only don’t prevent the spread of HIV but make it worse hasn’t earned him many friends on Facebook, CNN reports. Almost a dozen groups have sprung up in protest of the pontiff’s scientifically inaccurate statement, with thousands of Facebookers—many of them in Europe—pledging to send millions of condoms to the Vatican. More »
- Top Medical Journal Blasts Pope's Condom Remark
  
  Financial Times (UK) | Mar 27, 09 12:44 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The UK's most prestigious medical journal has joined the condemnation of Pope Benedict’s comments on contraception, the Financial Times reports. “By saying that condoms exacerbate the problem of HIV/AIDS, the Pope has publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue," says an editorial in the Lancet . And the Vatican's "attempts to tweak the Pope’s words" are "not the way forward." More »
- US Condom Maker in Peril as Feds Buy Chinese
  
  Kansas City Star | Mar 23, 09 5:25 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The sole supplier of condoms to Washington's overseas AIDS campaign is likely going out of business thanks to Asian competition, the Kansas City Star reports. The feds are close to signing contracts with companies in South Korea and China, which charge 2 cents per condom; Alabama-based Alatech charges five. Three hundred American jobs hang in the balance. More »
- French Blast Pope's Anti-Condom Remarks
  
  BBC | Mar 18, 09 3:14 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Irked by Pope Benedict’s anti-condom remarks in Africa, the French foreign ministry today called them “a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life” and voiced “extremely sharp concern over the consequences,” the BBC reports. The pontiff said on the first day of his current visit that condom distribution worsens the AIDS crisis. The Vatican advocates abstinence instead. More »
- Pope: Condoms Make AIDS Crisis Worse
  
  Associated Press | Mar 17, 09 8:09 AM CDT
  
  (AP) - Condoms are not the answer to Africa's fight against AIDS, and in fact exacerbate the epidemic, Pope Benedict said at the start of a 7-day visit to the continent today. It's the first explicit statement about condoms from the pontiff, who has said that the Roman Catholic Church is at the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease. More »
- DC's AIDS/HIV Rate Soars
  
  Washington Post | Mar 15, 09 7:40 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The soaring 3% HIV/AIDS rate in Washington, DC, is triple the proportion that qualifies as a “generalized and severe epidemic,” according to a new report. That means some 15,120 people in the city over the age of 12 are infected, the Washington Post reports. Such rates are “on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya,” said a local HIV/AIDS official. The reports found HIV and AIDS have jumped 22% since the end of 2006. More »
- HIV Soars in People Over 50
  
  AFP | Mar 4, 09 4:06 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The number of people over the age of 50 with HIV is growing swiftly worldwide, AFP reports. In America, the percentage of those infected with the virus in that age group rose from 20% to 25% between 2003 and 2006, says a WHO report. In Brazil, the over-50 infection rate doubled between 1996 and 2006. More »
February 2009
- HIV+ Brit Arrested for Unprotected Sex
  
  BBC | Feb 28, 09 2:38 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Police have arrested a British man for allegedly keeping his HIV status secret while having unprotected sex with women, the BBC reports. Cops in Cornwall and Devon captured the suspect after multiple complaints from women who say they learned of his infection after sleeping with him. The man, 39, can be charged with causing grievous bodily harm, the Press Association reports. He was released on bail until May. More »
- AIDS Vaccine Quest Gets $100M Injection
  
  Boston Globe | Feb 4, 09 12:25 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - A technology entrepreneur has given Massachusetts General Hospital its largest gift ever—$100 million—to create an interdisciplinary institute focused on finding an AIDS vaccine, the Boston Globe reports. The institute will bring together doctors and scientists from MGH, Harvard, and MIT, including engineers and mathematicians, who would otherwise not have collaborated. One doctor calls Phillip Terrence Ragon's effort “exactly what the field needs.” More »
January 2009
- Drug Centers Hit by Worker Overdoses
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jan 10, 09 5:47 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Needle exchange programs have helped drastically cut rates of HIV infection among heroin users but often take a heavy toll on their volunteers, the Wall Street Journal reports. Unpaid or poorly paid staff members work long hours in tough inner-city conditions, often without proper training. All too often they end up using hard drugs themselves, and some have died from overdoses. More »
December 2008
- The World's Worst Humanitarian Crises
  
  Doctors Without Borders | Dec 23, 08 4:42 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Aid organization Doctors Without Borders has released its annual list of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Here's a sample: Somalia: Increased friction between insurgents and the government unleashed some of the worst violence in a decade. One in five children there dies before turning 5. Congo: Hundreds of thousands have fled a devastating civil war and have no access to health care, food, water or basic shelter. Avoidable diseases like measles and diarrhea are taking a devastating toll on the displaced. More »