JOHANNESBURG, South Africa--Two startling reports on AIDS show the disease is spreading so rapidly in South Africa that it threatens to cripple the economy and devastate families for decades, perpetuating the ills of apartheid.
As World AIDS Day approaches on Tuesday, there is still no cure for the disease, although researchers have made major strides in developing effective treatments. But preventing infection is still the most important thing for you to know.
A federal study suggests that tracking HIV cases by name does not affect people's willingness to be tested for the disease--a finding that clashes with the contentions of major AIDS advocacy organizations that collecting names will drive the epidemic underground.
WASHINGTON--President Clinton today will announce $156 million in new government funding to better combat the AIDS epidemic among blacks and other minorities, administration officials said Tuesday.
Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have required the state to begin tracking cases of HIV as well as full-blown AIDS, sending legislators and lobbyists back to the drawing board to improve California's slipping surveillance of the fast-changing epidemic.
WASHINGTON--The Food and Drug Administration approved efavirenz, a powerful new AIDS drug, on Friday, adding another significant weapon to the growing arsenal of potent AIDS therapies that have exploded onto the marketplace in recent years.
GENEVA--Scientists have found for the first time that strains of the AIDS virus resistant to protease inhibitors and other widely used AIDS drugs can be transmitted from one person to another, it was reported Tuesday at the 12th World AIDS Conference.
Los Angeles Times - Wednesday, February 25, 1998 Page: 1 Pt. A
Ann M. Simmons; Times Staff Writer
KISUMU, Kenya - When Mary Magdelena Akinyi's husband died, the custom of her Luo ethnic group dictated that she be "inherited" by one of her already married brothers-in-law.
Los Angeles Times - Saturday, February 21, 1998, Page: 4 Pt. B
Karen Robinson-Jacobs; Times Religion Writer
With AIDS gaining an increasingly strong foothold in the African American community, debate is also growing about whether black churches are doing all they can to address the problem.
Los Angeles Times - Thursday, February 19, 1998 Page: 10 Pt. A
Marlene Cimons; Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON - In findings that could prove important for controlling the spread of AIDS in developing nations, short-term use of the drug AZT for infected women late in pregnancy and during delivery reduced transmission to infants by half, U.S. and Thai health officials announced Wednesday.
Los Angeles Times - Sunday, February 8, 1998, Page: 1 Pt. A
Thomas H. Maugh II; Times Medical Writer
CHICAGO - What a difference four years make. In 1994, AIDS researchers met in Yokohama, Japan, under a very dark cloud. Drug treatments were failing, patients were dying and the future of the epidemic looked extraordinarily bleak.
Los Angeles Times - SUNDAY February 8, 1998 Page: 11 Pt. B
PEARL JEMISON-SMITH; Pearl Jemison-Smith is the founding member of the Orange County AIDS Services Foundation and has devoted much of her time on behalf of victims.
HIV--"the epidemic of the century"--will continue to plague us well into the next millennium. Are we doing enough to help the people it affects and protect the rest of us from its spread? Globally, the answer is a chilling "no."
Los Angeles Times - FRIDAY February 6, 1998, Page: 1 Pt. A
Thomas H. Maugh II; Times Medical Writer
CHICAGO - Researchers in Los Angeles and Washington have identified what may be the first inexpensive AIDS drug, a finding that could have major importance for the 50% of HIV-positive Americans not receiving treatment because of its cost.
Los Angeles Times - Thursday, February 5, 1998, Page: 11 Pt. B
Josh Meyer; Times Staff Writer
Less than a week after his client was placed on 30 days' administrative leave, a lawyer for Los Angeles County's chief epidemiologist demanded Wednesday that Dr. Peter Kerndt be immediately reinstated, and flatly denied that the physician failed to inform his superiors of his participation in a federal study designed to pave the way for testing potential AIDS vaccines.
Los Angeles Times - WEDNESDAY February 4, 1998 Page: 1 Pt. A
Thomas H. Maugh II; Times Medical Writer
CHICAGO - Researchers have tracked down the oldest known specimen of the virus that causes AIDS, a feat that has allowed them to pinpoint the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic to shortly after the end of World War II, a decade earlier than many experts had suspected.
Los Angeles Times - Tuesday, February 3, 1998 Page: 1 Pt. A
Thomas H. Maugh II; Times Medical Writer
AIDS cases--In a Times story Tuesday on a decrease in AIDS-related deaths and new cases nationwide, data provided by the Orange County Health Care Agency was incorrect. The number of AIDS-related deaths in the county dropped 36.9%, from 122 in the first half of 1996 to 77 in the first half of 1997, according to Kathy Higgins, an epidemiologist with the agency.
Los Angeles Times - Saturday January 31, 1998, Page: 1 Pt. B
Josh Meyer; Times Staff Writer
The county's chief epidemiologist Friday was placed on 30 days administrative leave after investigators alleged that he improperly committed the health department's resources to a federally funded study designed to lay the groundwork for the testing of AIDS vaccines.
Los Angeles Times - Friday January 30, 1998, Page: 1 Pt. B
Josh Meyer; Times Staff Writer
In a confidential report to be finalized today, investigators for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services allege that the county's top epidemiologist failed to obtain the permission of--or even notify--his superiors before committing public resources to a federal research project designed to lay the groundwork for testing future AIDS vaccines.
Los Angeles Times - Thursday January 29, 1998 Page: 2 Pt. E
Pamela Warrick; Times Staff Writer
What is the color of love? At the Hard Candy cosmetics company in Beverly Hills, love is a shimmering, pearlized white that gleams like a sunbeam caught in a raindrop.
WASHINGTON--In the coming months, the National Institutes of Health plans to open a research laboratory that, by its very nature, will ensure its membership in an exclusive club.
Los Angeles Times - Friday January 9, 1998 Page: 5 Pt. A
David Lamb; Times Staff Writer
YEN BAI, Vietnam - The re-education camp for women with "social disorders" stands amid rice paddies and peasant farms at the end of a long dirt road, a lonely reminder of all the changes, good and bad, sweeping Vietnam.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.