Jacqueline Barton is on intimate terms with DNA, the master molecule of life. She knows its secret crevices, weird loops, strange digressions and switchbacks. When she talks about DNA, her hands trace its imaginary contours, lovingly, like a sculpture.
The run-down hospital at Men's Central Jail is infested with rats and roaches. Medical records--some too messy to read--are kept by the thousands on long shelves and are often lost or misplaced. Every day, carts packed with scores of vials are trundled from one cell to another by nurses dispensing medication.
In response to several critical internal audits of Los Angeles County's AIDS services--including one that documents a potential loss of $26 million because of unreimbursed expenditures--county health director Mark Finucane has quietly begun to revamp the Office of AIDS Programs and Policy.
SAN FRANCISCO - This is Paul's dream of the perfect death: Retired math teacher, avid sailor, he circumnavigates the globe at age 99, is lost at sea and never seen again. His hands shake a little with Parkinson's disease as he tells this story in his soft, wheezy voice.
"Nothing Sacred," the TV series about a fictional Catholic parish, recently won a full season on the air despite its poor ratings, leaving Catholics divided over whether it's an insulting portrait of trendily liberal priests or a worthy attempt to show them grappling with moral problems as doubt-plagued humans.
WASHINGTON - In one of numerous events held to commemorate World AIDS Day, the AIDS community launched the first-ever "virtual" march on Washington, enabling citizens all over the globe to participate Monday without having to leave the comfort of their computer screens.
It had been so long since he was part of the 9-to-5 office routine that Michael did not know what kind of tie to wear to interviews. At a temp agency he had to scan the chests of other job hopefuls for fashion tips.
It's been years since there was a sofa in this San Juan Capistrano living room. It had to go to make way for the bank of computers. The computers had to come in so Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark could do her chosen work among the afflicted, the curious, the dying.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Under the chilly brick archways of the Right-Bank Market here, the Russian-style dance of death that experts say is bringing an AIDS epidemic to this huge country is in full swing.
NEW YORK - It has grown from a simple arrest for allegedly selling $20 worth of crack cocaine into one of the largest public health investigations in this city's history.
At least nine women in a semi-rural area of western New York state, including one as young as 13, have been infected with the virus that causes AIDS by a 20-year-old man who gave drugs to schoolgirls in exchange for sex, even though he knew he had the disease, officials said Monday.
A record crowd of more than 26,000 walkers converged Sunday on Hollywood for the 13th annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles, which officials said raised at least $3 million to fund AIDS services and educational programs.
Reversing a decades-long decline, the incidence of gonorrhea among gay males has begun to rise sharply, a sign of spreading unsafe sexual practices that may presage a new explosion of AIDS cases, federal authorities said Thursday.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Physician Charles Farthing has spent more than a decade battling the AIDS virus in his patients' bodies. Now, he proposes putting the virus into his own.
WASHINGTON - Researchers seeking to develop an AIDS vaccine addressed with skepticism Monday, even an undercurrent of scorn, the announcement by a physicians' group that 50 volunteers are willing to subject themselves to an injection of a live, weakened strain of the virus that causes the disease.
From time to time, Health will look at a common ailment and its remedies from three perspectives: traditional Western medicine and two alternatives. Today, how to treat a common headache.
WASHINGTON - For the first time since the AIDS epidemic was identified 16 years ago, the number of newly diagnosed cases of the disease in adolescent and adult Americans declined last year, federal health officials reported on Thursday.
The Clinton administration has nominated Dr. David Satcher to the long-vacant position of U.S. surgeon general. The White House has had nothing but trouble with this post, but it looks as if this nominee could solve the political problems.
Groundbreaking for a 25-apartment complex for people with HIV and AIDS will be held today. "These are long-term apartments for independent living. They are not a hospice or health care facility," said Scott Figenshow, executive director of Project New Hope, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit agency.
In the first study of its kind, researchers report today that so-called triple therapy for HIV-positive individuals can not only reduce blood levels of the virus, but also significantly slows the progression from infection to actual clinical symptoms of AIDS.
SACRAMENTO - For seven months, convicted burglar Frederick Lopez lay dying of AIDS in a bleak prison hospital while a warden's request "strongly urging" that he be allowed to spend his last days in the care of his family languished in the Orange County courthouse.
CHOWCHILLA - The heroin underground here at the largest women's prison in America never stops scheming, a nimble supplier of drugs and hypodermic needles and butane lighters, each commanding a swindler's price.
The Labor Day L.A. Foundation is hosting a fund-raising dinner tonight at the Regent Beverly Wilshire honoring the producers of the television series "E.R." Foundation President Ronald Palmieri called the black-tie dinner the centerpiece of a series of weekend events expected to raise $250,000 for AIDS-related charities.
Around 2 on Thursday afternoon at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, a 13-year-old girl infected with the virus that causes AIDS became the first child to undergo experimental gene therapy to combat the disease.
SACRAMENTO -- Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, the most vocal critic of California's new medical marijuana law, announced his support Tuesday for a $3-million research program intended to settle the decades-long dispute over the drug's benefits and failings for the ill.
Diane Watson; Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), a state senator since 1978, chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee
In response to President Clinton's mission to promote racial healing, Americans of all backgrounds have expressed hope for bridging the racial divide and preventing race relations from becoming, in his words, a "powder keg of problems."
WASHINGTON -- Fearing that the ban on federal funds for needle exchange programs might be lifted, opponents on Wednesday warned Congress and the Clinton administration that a majority of the public is against reversing the current policy.
WASHINGTON -- In a move expected to spark an avalanche of commercials for prescription drugs, the Food and Drug Administration on Friday announced a policy giving pharmaceutical companies more leeway to promote their products on television and radio.
Los Angeles Times (MEDICINE) - Thursday, July 24, 1997
Juanita Darling; Times Staff Writer
HAVANA--For years, Cuba has been notorious for its draconian treatment of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS: The government has rounded up everyone infected with the human immunodeficiency virus and locked them in sanitariums until they developed AIDS and died.
Los Angeles Times (Valley Edition): Wednesday July 23, 1997
Sylvia L. Oliande; Times Staff Writer
Kaiser Permanente awarded nearly $30,000 in grants to several organizations that work to help those with AIDS and HIV in the San Fernando Valley and neighboring areas.
Los Angeles Times (Home Editon) - Tuesday July 15, 1997
Marlene Cimons; Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- AIDS deaths fell 19% over a nine-month period last year compared with the same period in 1995, accelerating a decline reported earlier this year, federal health officials said Monday.
Understandably uneasy with government agencies giving drug addicts needles and other paraphernalia, Congress prohibited federally funded needle exchange programs in 1988. The ban could be lifted, Congress said, when there was proof that such programs reduced transmission of the AIDS virus without increasing illegal drug use. Now, that time has come.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Parental Advisory: The following story contains mature themes and language that may be inappropriate for children and adolescents. Or not.
Thursday's Supreme Court ruling striking down the Communications Decency Act was widely praised by the online community and roundly criticized by advocates for family values.
SACRAMENTO -- It has been five years since California helped fan the debate over letting doctors hasten death for the terminally ill. But despite the high amount of attention the issue has received in the state, supporters of a "right to die" concede that for now, they have little chance to win their battle legislatively.
Kim Murphy and Maria La Ganga; Times Staff Writers
Dale Gilsdorf sometimes imagines the moment of his death, and it makes him feel powerful. It's an odd thing, really: how knowing he is going to die gives him the ability to choose how it will happen.
WASHINGTON -- Saying the nation's "profound debate" about doctor-assisted suicide should continue, the Supreme Court on Thursday nonetheless upheld state laws that forbid physicians to help the terminally ill end their lives.
Crammed between a steamy nightclub and a sidewalk eatery on the oh-so-hip strip of Santa Monica Boulevard that cuts through West Hollywood, the WeHo Lounge is giving new meaning to the way AIDS information is delivered.
A newly discovered herpes virus recently linked to Kaposi's sarcoma may also cause a deadly form of bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma, researchers at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center reported today.
WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials are expected to recommend today that most HIV -infected patients be treated early and aggressively with potent triple-drug combinations that include a protease inhibitor, a regimen that is not always currently practiced among clinicians nationwide.
Los Angeles (Orange County Edition) Monday June 16, 1997
Peter Noah; Times Staff Writer
Linda developed a severe case of pneumonia, and rashes swelled her eyes shut. It was early 1995, and no medical remedy seemed to be helping the AIDS patient. Believing she had just a short time to live, Linda maxed out her credit cards and cashed in her life insurance policy.
Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition) Thursday June 12, 1997
Marcida Dodson; Times Staff Writer
SANTA ANA -- Health officials should establish an Orange County Office of AIDS to raise awareness of the disease and do a better job of coordinating education and prevention programs, the county grand jury recommended Wednesday.
Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition), Tuesday, June 17, 1997
Marcida Dodson; Times Staff Writer
Junior high and high schools are teaching students the basic facts about AIDS but are failing to instruct them uniformly how to resist peer pressure and abstain from sex and other high-risk activities that could lead to infection, according to an Orange County Grand Jury report released Monday.
Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition) Thursday June 5, 1997
Lee Romney; Times Staff Writer
SANTA ANA -- The Orange County district attorney's office has filed the county's first drug case challenging the power of Proposition 215--the measure that allows people with certain illnesses to grow and use marijuana with a doctor's approval.
SACRAMENTO -- Minors who want their bodies pierced would need a note from Mom or Dad under legislation that won overwhelming approval Tuesday in the Assembly.
Thomas H. Maugh II, Marlene Cimons and John-Thor Dahlburg; Times Staff Writers
President Clinton's call for the accelerated development of an AIDS vaccine has a good chance of success, especially if he is able to stimulate an international effort, senior researchers say.
SACRAMENTO -- The California Medical Assn. is throwing its weight behind a legislative effort to finance $6 million in research on the therapeutic uses of marijuana and design a distribution system for patients who may need the drug.
For ages, women have been going to beauty salons to chat and gossip with their stylists while getting their hair done. That tradition still exists at the Salon 21 beauty shop in Los Angeles' Mid-City area, but the conversation topics have been expanded: breast cancer and AIDS prevention.
In celebration of its expanded facilities, staff and supporters of the Northeast Valley Health Corp.'s HIV Early Intervention Program clinic will host an open house today.
When Californians passed Proposition 215 six months ago, federal drug officials understandably complained that the state was legalizing something--the medical use of marijuana--over which only Washington had jurisdiction. Then the government took a series of overly zealous steps that exacerbated state-federal tensions.
WASHINGTON -- Even today, the memory makes scientists cringe. On a spring day in 1984, Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler, surrounded by prominent AIDS researchers and public health officials, announced that the virus responsible for causing AIDS had been found.
The California Supreme Court's unanimous decision last week on pain and suffering awards applies to a rather limited set of cases. But as the legislative tort wars heat up again in Sacramento, the court's decision is nonetheless a broad reminder that a key goal of the tort system still is to compensate people found to have suffered injury or damage.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has appointed a receiver for a Southern California company that allegedly sold more than $80 million in investments backed by illegitimate life insurance policies for the terminally ill.
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Orrin G. Hatch was not looking forward to his meeting with Trent Lott. He knew that the Senate Republican leader would not be happy to learn that he was collaborating with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, of all people, on a plan to raise taxes to pay for health insurance for millions of low-income children.
SAN FRANCISCO -- In a victory for asbestos victims, AIDS patients and other terminally ill litigants, the California Supreme Court decided Monday that jury awards for pain and suffering can be passed on to the heirs of plaintiffs who die while their cases are on appeal.
"When you love somebody, you love somebody," says the boyfriend of Denise LaVigne. With her for 15 years, he stayed at her side even after she learned she was HIV -positive in 1990. "I am here," he says.
WASHINGTON -- For the first time in more than 20 years, there is evidence that the rising wave of premarital sexual intercourse among America's teenagers finally may have crested and begun to subside.
Maria La Ganga and Eric Bailey; Times Staff Writers
SAN FRANCISCO -- Saying the Clinton administration has sent mixed signals on medical marijuana, a judge blocked the federal government Wednesday from carrying out threats to punish California doctors who recommend the drug to patients.
WASHINGTON -- The government is organizing a television blitz to warn Americans who gulp hormone pills to restore their youth and strength that they could be flirting disastrously with high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.
NEW YORK -- Daniel J. Baxter's Upper West Side apartment is not the kind of place you'd expect a doctor to live. In the first place, it's a bit too far north to be fashionable; in the second, it's only a single room. Then, there are the various religious icons that dot the walls and odd corners, like watchful reminders of another world.
In an effort to fight prejudice and show that people who have AIDS can perform even the most daunting of tasks, members of Ventura County's newest AIDS advocacy group will sail 2,200 miles across the Pacific Ocean.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ratcheting up its battle against facilities that distribute marijuana to AIDS and cancer patients, federal authorities Monday raided a small supplier, confiscating 331 plants and a variety of growing equipment.
The U.S. attorney's office has charged three men and a woman with fraud in connection with an alleged $50-million scheme involving investments secured by illegitimate life insurance policies for the terminally ill.
IRVINE -- She started out studying homeless people, but Lois Takahashi now finds herself researching the mysteries of the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) syndrome.
They're called cowboys, but they don't ride the range and they aren't chasing cattle. Instead, they are a dedicated group of virologists who saddle up at the first hint of a disease outbreak and go looking for strange and exotic viruses.
There was a time when Herb Hall thought Valentine's Day never would mean anything to him again. It was 1989, and it wasn't as though he wanted to come out of the closet and tell everyone his past included a promiscuous life, but the jolting AIDS diagnosis he just received left him little choice. For the next year, he wallowed in depression and thoughts of dying.
The 1995 survey, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that about half of the 118 responding doctors said they had agreed to help at least one patient commit suicide by prescribing lethal doses of sedative drugs.
Once again, a San Diego biotechnology company seems poised to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell a new "magic bullet" drug, the company's stock is heading through the roof, and hopes are high that the city will soon see the flowering of its first major home-grown drug company.
WASHINGTON - AIDS researchers reported for the first time Sunday that a medicinal combination containing one of the powerful new protease inhibitor drugs appears to have restored partial immune system function in people with moderately advanced HIV disease.
WASHINGTON - Leading AIDS researchers said Saturday that the powerful new drug combinations having a major impact on AIDS patients are still too complicated and cumbersome to take, and they predicted that an imminent second generation of drugs will greatly simplify the task.
WASHINGTON - In what is likely to be a harbinger of a welcome national trend, New York City recorded an unprecedented and unexpectedly sharp decline in AIDS deaths last year, public health officials said Friday.
In the tastefully decorated lobby of Irvine-based PharmaPrint, a fledgling biotech company, hangs an offbeat piece of corporate art: two sprigs of mistletoe, nicely framed.
WASHINGTON - A leading AIDS researcher on Wednesday raised the provocative notion that powerful drug combinations could eradicate the AIDS virus from the body after three years.
LAGUNA HILLS - The presiding judge of Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel ordered a traffic commissioner Friday to stop offering errant motorists the option of donating blood to local blood banks instead of paying $50 fines.
SAN FRANCISCO - Two months after California voters legalized medical use of marijuana, and five months after the Cannabis Buyers Club was shut down by state narcotics officers, the club reopened Wednesday with a promise to supply high-quality, low-cost weed just steps from this city's Civic Center.
SACRAMENTO - A group of doctors and patients filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block the federal government from punishing physicians who recommend marijuana for sick people in their care.
Even as excitement grows that new treatments have vastly improved the outlook for AIDS patients, a cruel irony has emerged--those who were most conscientious about treating their disease in the past may have put themselves beyond help from the promising new discoveries.
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Pete Wilson's proposed budget, reflecting a rapid increase in the demand for new AIDS drug treatments, calls for a raise in state and federal government funding from $18 million two years ago to more than $86 million next year, senior administration officials said Saturday.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.