2006

African Monarchy Sparks a Debate Over AIDS and Sex: Amid Swaziland's Polygamy And Barriers for Women, Disease Is at Record Rate: A Courtier's Fiery Radio Show: Wall Street Journal - December 20, 2006; Michael M. Phillips, michael.phillips@wsj.com; MBABANE, Swaziland - Talk-show host Jim Gama was at his provocative best, answering letters from listeners who sought traditional Swazi solutions to the daily problems of modern life in this tiny African nation. He told a woman troubled by her husband s impotence that a foul and moody wife would put any man off his ga
Melinda Gates, Unbound: After Shunning the Limelight, She Assumes a More Public Role At Her Global Health Foundation: Wall Street Journal - December 11, 2006; Marilyn Chase,marilyn.chase@wsj.com; After the birth of her first child a decade ago, Melinda Gates, the wife of Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, left her job as a manager at the software giant and devoted her time to caring for their children and quietly guiding strategy for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropic powerhouse the coupl
Melinda Gates Tops the List: Wall Street Journal - November 20, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; One hot Sunday in October, the world s richest philanthropists, Bill and Melinda Gates, stood in a cassava field outside Abuja, Nigeria . They asked growers pulling up the tuber how to improve this bitter root that fills many African bellies but lacks vitamins and contains a natural form of cyanide. After the techn
WHO's New Chief Takes Reins, Outlines Agenda: Wall Street Journal - November 10, 2006; Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com; GENEVA -- World Health Organization member countries approved Margaret Chan, a Chinese infectious-diseases expert, as the United Nations agency s new chief. Dr. Chan s candidacy was approved in a special session of the World Health Assembly, which comprises WHO s 192 member countries. She was nominated Wednesday for th
WHO Is Expected to Name New Chief This Week: Wall Street Journal - November 6, 2006; Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com; The World Health Organization is expected to elect a new chief this week, following the unexpected death in May of its director-general, Lee Jong Wook -- and the winner is expected to face some tough challenges. The post is one of the most important leadership positions in global public health. The person chosen to fil
You Might Help a Teen Avoid Dumb Behavior By Nurturing Intuition: Wall Street Journal - November 3, 2006; Sharon Begley, sciencejournal@wsj.com.; As adolescents and young adults head into another weekend of (for many) driving too fast, drinking too much, smoking and doing their all to perpetuate the species, at least we know why they engage in self-destructive risk-taking. Adolescents feel invulnerable ( Me, get hurt? No way. ) and drastically underestimate risk
Global Fund Seeks New List Of Candidates for Top Post: Wall Street Journal - November 2, 2006; Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria declined to name a new chief this week as planned and, in a surprise move, said it would seek a fresh crop of candidates. The foundation s 24-member board had been scheduled to appoint a new executive director to succeed its current executive director, Richard Fea
U.S. Cuts Funding For AIDS Program: Wall Street Journal - October 12, 2006; Michael M. Phillips, michael.phillips@wsj.com; WASHINGTON - The Bush administration cut funding for the only U.S. foreign-assistance project that provided male circumcision as a method of AIDS prevention. At a time when scientists are lining up behind the idea that circumcision provides substantial protection against HIV transmission, the U.S. Agency for Internatio
Finalists Are Named for Global Health Fund Post: Wall Street Journal - October 9, 2006; Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com; A U.S. congressman and a senior executive with Viacom Inc. s MTV Networks are among the leading candidates to become the next chief of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to people familiar with the search. A list of five finalists to succeed the Geneva-based foundation s current executiv
Drug-Resistant TB Draws Global Health Response: Wall Street Journal - September 9, 2006; Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com and Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; International health officials agreed to implement urgent measures to stem the world s largest outbreak to date of a super-resistant strain of tuberculosis that has already killed dozens of AIDS patients in South Africa . At a two-day meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, that ended Friday, officials from the
AIDS Bill Faces Serious Hurdles: Wall Street Journal - September 8, 2006; Sarah Lueck; Senate aides say they re close to a bipartisan deal on the contentious reworking of the Ryan White CARE Act, which funds AIDS treatment in the states. Unless Congress passes a bill by Oct. 1, several states risk a drop in federal funding under the program. Even with the deadline looming, negotiations between the House
AIDS Scientists Call for Resignation Of South Africa's Health Minister: Wall Street Journal - September 5, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; International AIDS scientists, including an American Nobel laureate, sent a letter Tuesday to South African President Thabo Mbeki, protesting the government s unconventional stand on origins of AIDS, and calling for the removal of his health minister who supports a dietary regimen against the viral epidemic. One of the
Three Top Jobs In Global Health Face Vacancies: Wall Street Journal - September 5, 2006; Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com; Three of the most important global public-health jobs are up for grabs this fall. How these leadership positions are filled will help determine the world s strategy for confronting health threats ranging from AIDS to pandemic flu for years to come. The United Nations World Health Organization is preparing to elect
REVIEW & OUTLOOK: Mbeki Blames the Press: Wall Street Journal - September 1, 2006; Twelve years after the end of apartheid and despite its many cruel legacies, the new South Africa has made extraordinary strides, enjoying steady economic growth and free and fair elections. At the same time, it often seems to be running just a hair s breadth ahead of disaster, with unemployment at nearly 40%, an AIDS
Simmering Controversies Erupt On Last Day of AIDS Conference: Wall Street Journal - August 19, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; TORONTO - On the last day of the XVI International AIDS Conference here Friday, two international controversies simmering all week erupted into passionate denunciations by scientists of two countries AIDS programs. And that s not even counting predictable potshots at President Bush. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harp
AIDS Drug Tests Offer Some Hope Of New Treatments: Wall Street Journal - August 18, 2006; Marilyn Chase; TORONTO -- Three big pharmaceutical companies reported mixed safety and early efficacy data on experimental AIDS drugs, offering tentative hope to patients needing new medicines because they are intolerant or resistant to existing regimens. While far from conclusive, the studies, presented at the big AIDS meeting here,
Researchers Report Emergence Of Super-Resistant TB Strain: Wall Street Journal - August 18, 2006; Marilyn Chase; TORONTO -- Researcher at the AIDS Conference here presented an alarming report on the emergence of a super-resistant strain of tuberculosis that ripped through AIDS patients in a rural African clinic, killing dozens. TB has long been known to co-infect vast swathes of AIDS patients in the developing world, and can trig
Researchers Aim to Study People Whose Bodies Block HIV's Effect: Wall Street Journal - August 17, 2006; Marilyn Chase; TORONTO -- Harvard University researchers are heading an international search for a special group of HIV-infected people whose bodies control HIV so well that their virus remains virtually undetectable, and their health remains robust for as long as 25 years. Dubbed elite controllers, these patients genes are being stu
WHO Lays Out AIDS Battle Plan: Wall Street Journal - August 16, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; TORONTO - Moving beyond a growing recognition that the fight against AIDS is woefully understaffed, the World Health Organization has quantified the problem and the cost of fixing it, and laid out a strategy for stopping a health-care brain drain from countries stricken by the disease. More than four million doctor
Needle Exchange Gets A Boost at AIDS Meeting: Wall Street Journal - August 15, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; TORONTO - Needle exchange got a boost from advocates including an Australian clinician and a former U.S. President Tuesday at the XVI International AIDS conference. Harm reduction is a controversial strategy of providing hopelessly-addicted persons with the means to stay HIV-free -- even if they are unable or unwilling
Four Million Health Professionals Needed to Fight AIDS, Report Says: Wall Street Journal - August 15, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; TORONTO - Moving beyond a growing recognition that the fight against AIDS is woefully understaffed, the World Health Organization has quantified the problem and the cost of fixing it, and laid out a strategy for stopping a health-care brain drain from countries stricken by the disease. More than four million doctor
AIDS Care-Delivery as Hurdle: Wall Street Journal - August 15, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; TORONTO - Weak health-care infrastructure in countries fighting the AIDS virus poses the worst roadblock to corralling the epidemic, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton agreed in a joint appearance here at a biennial meeting on the disease. Though the two men have long taken different approaches to fighting AIDS, recently they
Gilead Signs License Pacts For Generic HIV Drug: Wall Street Journal - August 15, 2006; Gilead Sciences Inc. said it signed nonexclusive license agreements to provide generic versions of its anti-HIV drug Viread to three generic manufacturers in India . Financial terms weren t disclosed. The license agreements grant rights to Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
HIV Prevention Pill Clears Key Safety Hurdle: Wall Street Journal - August 12, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; TORONTO - A controversial prevention pill to shield people from infection by the AIDS virus cleared a key safety hurdle during a small test, which also offered intriguing hints that the drug could prove effective. The pill s preventive effects could have been due to the play of chance, and scientists downplayed them un
AIDS Battle Turns Toward Prevention: Wall Street Journal - August 12, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; The annual AIDS confab starting Sunday in Toronto is unlikely to live up to the ambitious theme selected by its organizers: Time to Deliver. There will be plenty of sizzle: Singer Alicia Keys will rock the house for the 24,000 scientists and activists on hand, and Bill Clinton and Bill Gates will make a joint plea for
In India, Call Centers Warn Young Workers About HIV Risk: Wall Street Journal - August 9, 2006; Peter Wonacott and Marilyn Chase; As loud music throbs in the air, Rohit Nag and his friends recline on steps just off the dance floor at the nightclub Elevate in Noida, a middle-class suburb of New Delhi. The 22-year-old Mr. Nag sports a thumb ring and four tattoos. His female companion, who works at the same call center as Mr. Nag, has a silver stud
In India, HIV Threatens Economy: Epidemic Could Trim The Country's Growth Over Coming Decade: Wall Street Journal - July 21, 2006; Peter Wonacott; NEW DELHI -- India , on pace to become the nation with the largest number of HIV-positive people, risks paying a steep economic price if the virus is allowed to spread unchecked, according to a new report. The cost of an epidemic could trim an average 0.86 of a percentage point off annual economic growth over the next
Two Bills, One Mission: Vastly Different Personalities, Messrs. Clinton, Gates Join Forces In a Global Effort to Fight AIDS: Wall Street Journal - July 11, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; THEIR STYLES are worlds apart, but they have at least two things in common: supersize egos and a zeal for bettering global health. Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. and the world s richest man, gives away billions through his family foundation to underwrite health programs from childhood vaccines in Africa to AID
New AIDS Pill Simplifies Treatment: FDA Is Close to Approving A Once-a-Day Medicine That Combines Three Drugs: Wall Street Journal - July 10, 2006; David P. Hamilton, david.hamilton@wsj.com; AIDS patients, who have long endured drug regimens requiring them to swallow multiple pills each day, may soon have a much simpler option: a triple-combination cocktail in a single daily pill. The new pill is the result of an unusual corporate joint venture between Gilead Sciences Inc., a Foster City, Calif., biote
Filling the Medicare Gap: Wall Street Journal - July 9, 2006; Kelly Greene; Some Medicare enrollees who signed up for the program s new drug benefit are starting to fall into a gap in coverage. Here s how to find some relief. Overall, 8% of the 43 million people enrolled in Medicare, or 3.4 million beneficiaries, are expected to feel the pinch this year, according to an analysis released in Ju
COMMENTARY: Bjorn Lomborg: Get Your Priorities Right: Wall Street Journal - July 8, 2006; Kimberley A. Strassel; NEW YORK - Bjorn Lomborg is a political scientist by training, but the charismatic, golden-haired Dane is offering me a history lesson. Two hundred years ago, he explains, sitting forward in his chair in this newspaper s Manhattan offices, the left was an incredibly rational movement. It believed in encyclopedias, in h
Plans to Expand AIDS Testing Alarm Activists: Wall Street Journal - July 5, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; Federal officials are readying new guidelines that propose routine HIV tests for people 13 to 64 years old. But fears that the change could short-circuit patients rights are prompting protests and even legislation. The proposed policy changes are part of a sweeping effort by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Pre
A 'Good Deed' For AIDS Drug Hits Obstacles: Wall Street Journal - June 30, 2006; David P. Hamilton, david.hamilton@wsj.com; Executives at Gilead Sciences Inc. thought they were doing a good deed in 2002 when they announced a plan to provide their AIDS drug Viread to developing nations at a sharply reduced price that would yield no profit to the company. Since then, however, Gilead s drug access program has been snarled in a string of
How $60 Billion Behemoth Will Affect World of Charity: Wall Street Journal - June 27, 2006; Sally Beatty, sally.beatty@wsj.com; Marilyn Chase; marilyn.chase@wsj.com and Gautam Naik, gautam.naik@wsj.com; What impact will a $60 billion megacharitable foundation have on the causes it espouses, and on the world of philanthropy in general? As the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation prepares to roughly double in size in coming years with a massive contribution from Warren Buffett, will its financial firepower and entreprene
Warren Buffett Gives $30 Billion to Gates Foundation: Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Donates 85% of His Stock Holdings To Five Charitable Organizations: Wall Street Journal - June 26, 2006; Karen Richardson, karen.richardson@awsj.com; In a dramatic shift in his philanthropic plans that will create a colossus in the world of giving, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett, the world s second-richest man, plans to give away the bulk of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, run by the world s richest man. The gift, valued toda
OPINION: Learning From Our Mistakes: Wall Street Journal - June 9, 2006; It s been 25 years since the first cases of what we now call AIDS were diagnosed, and in that time more than half a million people have died from the disease in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than a million others in America now either have AIDS or the HIV virus that causes it. Yet, thanks
Glaxo to Cut Prices for Some AIDS Drugs: Wall Street Journal - May 31, 2006; LONDON - GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the world s biggest AIDS-drug producer, said it is cutting the not-for-profit price charged for some of its medicines in poor countries by around 30%. The British company also is adding two antiretroviral medicines to the scheme and has signed an eighth voluntary license agreement, allowin
India Surpasses South Africa As Nation With Most HIV Cases: Wall Street Journal - May 31, 2006; Marilyn Chase at marilyn.chase@wsj.com; India has surpassed South Africa as the country with the largest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS, underscoring the growing impact the disease is having on the South Asian subcontinent. India s estimated total of 5.7 million infected people narrowly exceeds South Africa s estimated 5.5 million, a United Nation
Gates Donates $104 Million To TB Charity: Wall Street Journal - May 25, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pumped $104 million into the nonprofit Global Alliance for TB Drug Development to expand and speed the pipeline for new drugs to treat tuberculosis. TB is a lethal lung infection that remains the world s second biggest infectious-disease killer after HIV/AIDS. The illness has been
Despite Hope, Decade of Delay Afflicts Drug to Prevent AIDS: Company's Caution, Protests Have Slowed Trials of Pill But Pace Is Picking Up A Drenching With Fake Blood: Wall Street Journal - May 18, 2006; David P. Hamilton, david.hamilton@wsj.com and Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; In 1994, University of Washington scientists testing an experimental AIDS treatment in monkeys made a startling discovery: The drug, tenofovir, protected the monkeys from getting infected in the first place. The finding, published in 1995 in the journal Science, was big news to AIDS researchers. It raised a tantalizing
Court Bars Condition For U.S. AIDS Grants: Wall Street Journal - May 10, 2006; WASHINGTON - A federal court blocked the Bush administration from requiring two U.S. health charities to pledge opposition to prostitution in order to qualify for government AIDS grants. The decision, issued yesterday, signals a victory for financier George Soros, whose aid groups were among the plaintiffs arguing that
AIDS Initiative Will Tap Two From Drug Industry for Key Jobs: Wall Street Journal - May 10, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a nonprofit vaccine-development partnership, said it plans to appoint two senior pharmaceutical-industry officials to key scientific and management posts today. Stephen Udem, vice president of exploratory vaccine discovery research at Wyeth Vaccines Research, a unit of Wyeth,
Financial Bias Simmers in Europe Insurance, Lending Rates Often Vary by Nationality, Fueling Immigrant Tensions: Wall Street Journal - May 8, 2006; Charles Fleming, charles.fleming@wsj.com; Mazlum Hosgul, a Turkish immigrant who runs a small gardening business in The Hague, moved to the Netherlands 10 years ago. Recently, his request to refinance the mortgage on his apartment in a largely immigrant neighborhood was rejected. The reason, according to an email from his mortgage broker: He lived in the wrong
CDC to Urge Routine HIV Tests For a Broad Swath of Americans: Wall Street Journal - May 8, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to recommend that doctors begin to offer voluntary HIV tests as a part of routine medical care for everyone in the U.S., ages 13 to 64, regardless of lifestyle or perceived risk for HIV. In a sweeping revision of HIV guidelines, CDC officials say the agenc
Persuading Africans To Take Their Herbs With Some Antivirals: U.S.-Backed Program Pushes Doctors, Healers to Treat AIDS Patients Together: Wall Street Journal- May 5, 2006; Michael M. Phillips, michael.phillips@wsj.com; DURBAN, South Africa - Nokusho Bhengu was 35 years old when, she says, her dead father appeared to her in the form of a mustachioed snake and told her to leave her children and study to become a medium and healer. If you resist, Mrs. Bhengu says the snake warned her, it will go badly for you. She did as she was told.
As AIDS Drugs Fail Thousands, 'Salvage' Is Key: Wall Street Journal - May 3, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; Steve Kovacev, a sinewy 52-year-old from Truro, Mass., has run the Boston Marathon and sailed in the Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Neither event comes close to his current competition: a race for his life. Mr. Kovacev has AIDS. He has used all the drugs available to fight HIV, the virus that cau
Cold Virus Acts as Double Agent To Provide Cover for AIDS Drugs: Makeover for Common Bug Tricks Body's Defenses To Accept Some Vaccines: Wall Street Journal - April 16, 2006; Marilyn Chase; By tinkering with a common cold virus, a team from Harvard and Dutch biotechnology company Crucell NV may have found a way to keep the body s defenses from interfering with some AIDS vaccines. The virus being modified is Adenovirus 5, now used by Merck & Co. and the U.S. National Institutes of Health to make two le
Products Turn Red To Augment AIDS Fund: Wall Street Journal - April 13, 2006; Steve Stecklow, steve.stecklow@wsj.com; When United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called in 2001 for a new global fund to fight the AIDS pandemic, he described it as a public-private partnership with both governments and corporations pitching in. It hasn t worked out that way. Since 2001, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an ind
OraSure Has a Lot Riding on HIV Test: Wall Street Journal - April 12, 2006; Cynthia Koons, cynthia.koons@wsj.com; OraSure Technologies Inc. hopes its HIV test will soon resemble modern-day pregnancy tests: fast, easy to read and, most of all, available over the counter. A federal panel recommended last month how OraSure should design clinical trials in its effort to win approval to sell OraQuick, the rapid oral-swab test, without
Dangerous Decision - In South Africa, Poor AIDS Patients Adopt Risky Ploy To Get Disability Payments, Some Skip Medications, Putting Lives in Peril Aiming to Be 'Very, Very Sick': Wall Street Journal - April 7, 2006; Michael M. Phillips; DURBAN, South Africa -- Zolile, a 25-year-old single mother, is one of the lucky few here who receive advanced anti-AIDS drugs free from the government. The pills work just the way they re supposed to, boosting her immune system, relieving her symptoms and restoring her health as long as she takes them twice a day.
U.S. Abstinence Tack In AIDS Prevention Is Criticized by GAO: Wall Street Journal - April 5, 2006; Steve Stecklow, steve.stecklow@wsj.com; The federal government s increased emphasis on promoting sexual abstinence as a global AIDS-prevention strategy is hampering efforts to create comprehensive disease-prevention programs and causing some confusion in the field, a report by the Government Accountability Office found. The report by the congressional watchd
Sex-Ed Class Becomes Latest School Battleground: Some Parents and States Object to Restrictions Linked To Federal Abstinence Funds: Wall Street Journal - March 30, 2006; Elizabeth Bernstein, elizabeth.bernstein@wsj.com; A push to promote sexual abstinence in teens -- backed by a steady increase in federal funding -- is starting to affect the way sex ed is taught in the U.S. In middle schools and high schools across the country, sex-ed classes that discuss birth control as a way to prevent pregnancy and sexual diseases are increasingly
AIDS Study Sees Gains in India: Decline of Infection Rate In Some Women Reported, But U.N. Urges Caution: Wall Street Journal - March 30, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; AIDS researchers in India -- where an estimated 5.1 million people are infected -- reported the HIV-infection rate in young women in the southern part of the nation attending prenatal clinics declined more than a third, to 1.1% in 2004 from 1.7% in 2000. The researchers said a drop in HIV prevalence in the youngest wom
New Drug-Resistant TB Strain Poses Challenges: Wall Street Journal - March 24, 2006; Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com; A new form of tuberculosis that is highly resistant to drugs and nearly impossible to treat has been rapidly emerging world-wide, presenting challenges to public-health officials efforts to bring the infectious lung disease under control, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federa
In South Africa, Insurer Gives Points For Healthy Living: Frequent-Flier-Style Program Rewards Diligent Members; Model for U.S. Overhaul? A Diabetic Wins Elite Status: Wall Street Journal - February 21, 2006; Ron Lieber, ron.lieber@wsj.com; JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Taking care of your body should have its own rewards. But a South African health-insurance company is adding some new lures: discounts on travel, movie tickets and electronics. Just as frequent fliers accumulate miles, South Africans covered by Discovery Health can collect points for doing
G-8 Nations Shape Plan to Fight Diseases: Goal Is Getting Drug Makers to Generate Vaccines Against Illnesses in Developing World: Wall Street Journal - February 13, 2006; Michael M. Phillips, michael.phillips@wsj.com; MOSCOW - The U.S. and its wealthy allies are moving to approve a first-of-its-kind plan to encourage pharmaceuticals companies to develop vaccines for diseases that afflict countries too poor to afford them. Finance ministers from the Group of Eight major industrialized powers, who met here this weekend, expect to appr
New Drugs Aim At Achilles' Heel Of AIDS Virus: Wall Street Journal - February 9, 2006; Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com; DENVER - A new generation of experimental drugs that take aim at an Achilles heel of the AIDS virus showed promising results in two early studies presented at a big scientific meeting here. The new drugs target one of the few features of HIV that doesn t quickly shift its shape to evade treatment. Me
Gates Pledges $900 Million In Fight Against Tuberculosis: Wall Street Journal - January 27, 2006; Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal; The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it will triple its funding commitments for tuberculosis research to $900 million from the current $300 million over the next decade. The Seattle-based family foundation of Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates released its plan this morning in Davos, Switzerland .
Health Officials Warn on Growth Of AIDS Epidemic in China: Wall Street Journal - January 25, 2006; Shai Oster - Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal; BEIJING - China s AIDS epidemic is among the fastest-growing in the world and is likely to spread even quicker as it moves into the mainstream population, international health officials warned in Beijing Wednesday. About 70,000 Chinese were infected last year with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That brings the total
In Afghanistan, Heroin Trade Soars Despite U.S. Aid: A Threat to Fragile Democracy, The Drug Spreads Death On Its Route to Europe Just Three Euros for a Shot: Wall Street Journal - January 18, 2006; Philip Shishkin, philip.shishkin@wsj.com and David Crawford, david.crawford@wsj.com; The suspicious whirring of a motor came from somewhere in the dark skies above the river separating Northern Afghanistan from Tajikistan . Tajik border guards say they shouted warnings and then opened fire. What fell out of the sky was a motorized parachute carrying 18 kilograms of heroin. It was a small drop in a
Clinton Charity Gets Price Cuts For AIDS Drugs in Poor Countries: Wall Street Journal - January 12, 2006; Mark Schoofs, mark.schoofs@wsj.com; Former President Bill Clinton is expected to announce today that his foundation has secured price discounts on medicines for AIDS patients in developing countries and for HIV test kits. The price reductions -- involving nine companies from five countries -- cover two AIDS drugs usually used on patients who have become
Political But Not Preachy: Wall Street Journal - January 6, 2006; Terry Teachout, tteachout@wsj.com.; New York - What is political theater? Sometimes, as in the case of such relentlessly preachy exercises in agree-or-you re-evil propaganda as Guantanamo or The God of Hell, the answer is painfully clear. While these plays may be presented in an artful way, they typically use art as little more than a means to a politica

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