JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki used his New Year s message on Friday to call on South Africans to stop a wave of rapes of babies and children. As the year came to its end, we concentrated on rape and in particular the rape of children and infants. This demands that everybody should be involved in fighti
MAKENI, Zambia (Reuters) - Zambian presidential contender Christon Tembo tried to woo voters on the eve of Thursday s poll with a promise of cheaper AIDS drugs to help combat the epidemic that is decimating the professional class. Tembo said his Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) would boost the fight against HI
NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, patient advocates lobbied hard -- and for the most part, successfully -- to dispel the image of AIDS and HIV patients as helpless victims. Some 20 years after the disease burst onto the scene, activists may have the opposite problem. They are now work
BOSTON (Reuters) - Rich countries must spend an additional $38 billion a year on health aid by 2015 to break a cycle of disease, war and poverty in the world s poorest countries, according to a report launched on Thursday. The extra money would save 8 million lives each year, said the report by 18 of the world s top ec
BOSTON (Reuters) - The world s rich countries must spend an additional $38 billion a year on health aid by 2015 to break a devastating cycle of disease, war and poverty that grips the globe s least-developed economies, a World Health Organization panel reported Thursday. That new money, six times more than current expe
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s government said Wednesday it would appeal a high court ruling that HIV-positive pregnant women are entitled to a drug found to reduce a newborn s risk of contracting the virus. We have instructed our legal counsel to appeal the judgement to the Constitutional Court on this matter
ZURICH, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Swiss drug firm Roche said on Tuesday that it had presented new studies showing promising results of two experimental and one approved HIV drug at a conference in Chicago. A spokesman said in reply to queries that a study on novel fusion inhibitor T-20 showed expected results and good toleran
WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - More than three-quarters of all U.S. patients with the AIDS virus have an infection that resists one or more of the drugs used to treat it, researchers reported on Tuesday. They said the grim news meant that drug-resistant HIV had spread even faster than was feared, and the lifesaving coc
DALOA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - You can have her body for just over a dollar but no amount of money could persuade Joanna to have sex without a condom, or at least that s what she says. A beautiful 18-year-old with big, velvet eyes, Joanna is one of a group of AIDS-savvy prostitutes working at the Bataclan, a brothel in
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African activists won an important court ruling Friday in their campaign to force a reluctant government to help HIV-positive pregnant women save their babies from AIDS. Pretoria High Court Judge Chris Botha ruled that the government was obliged to provide the AIDS drug
LONDON (Reuters) - He s hardly cover model material, but flamboyant pop legend Elton John is to pucker up as the face of a new lipstick. The British singer, never one to shy away from outrageous behavior, will help promote cosmetic company MAC s new Viva Glam IV, the latest in a line of lipsticks sold to raise money fo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers using a gutted AIDS virus and a custom-made gene said on Thursday they had corrected sickle cell anemia in mice and that the approach holds promise for people. If so, gene therapy could be used to treat one of the most common genetic diseases. But the researchers, who published their
LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Thursday no one was immune to the AIDS epidemic sweeping the planet and called for innovative and urgent solutions to avert a catastrophe. Unless we deal aggressively with AIDS now it will make us all poorer and less secure, he told a packed auditorium as he
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 12 (Reuters) - South African miner Gold Fields Ltd , facing a growing AIDS crisis, said on Wednesday it had ratified a deal with unions to combat the disease that affects at least one in four of its 50,000 workers. Gold Fields -- the country s second biggest gold producer -- said the agreed workplace
DALOA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - You can have her body for just over a dollar but no amount of money could persuade Joanna to have sex without a condom, or at least that s what she says. A beautiful 18-year-old with big, velvet eyes, Joanna is one of a group of AIDS-savvy prostitutes working at the Bataclan, a brothel in
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Africa needs $5 billion a year to fight AIDS -- 10 times the amount currently being spent on combating the disease, the head of the United Nations AIDS group said. In Africa it would require $5 billion to organize effective prevention, to care for people living with HIV and to support AIDS orpha
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teens and young adults are flocking to the Web for health-related information as much as they are downloading music and playing games online and more often than shopping online, according to a national survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation released on Tuesday. A survey conducted by the foundatio
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. said on Tuesday it plans human trials next year of a new treatment against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, describing it as a potential breakthrough medicine. Merck, speaking to analysts and investors in a meeting at company headquarters in Whitehouse Station, New Je
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - US foundations announced on Friday a $100 million project to study and treat mothers who are at risk for passing HIV to their unborn children or to infants through breast feeding. The program, expected to last two to three years and operate mainly in Africa, would attach itself to 100 sites w
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Just what sort of person rapes a baby girl? This is a question shocked South Africans are asking after a spate of baby rapes. All the victims are girls and the most recent attack, last weekend, was on a five-month-old. Anti-rape activists citing police statistics say a woman is raped every 26 s
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong AIDS awareness group has launched the most candid publicity campaign yet in the territory--an explicit video about the dangers of having sex with prostitutes across the border in mainland China . The film s graphic language and scenes were a deliberate attem
ROME (Reuters) - Agricultural development is key to winning the war on AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa as grinding poverty is fueling prostitution and worsening the pandemic, delegates at a United Nations seminar said on Wednesday. People who have enough food do not need to sell their body to get food that day, Marcela Vill
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - An angry crowd hung a washing line of blood-stained diapers outside a South African court on Tuesday in outrage over the rape of a five-month-old baby at the weekend. The rape is the latest in a growing number of infant-rapes, fueled by a myth that sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV /AIDS
HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam s efforts to clear its streets of drug addicts ran into further problems last week when inmates at a drug rehabilitation center staged the second mass breakout in the country in less than two weeks. Officials in the southern coastal town of Nha Trang said 19 addicts broke out of a center there
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian opposition parties dismissed the country s HIV/AIDS program as ineffective on Tuesday and called on the government to declare a state of emergency to stop the spread of the disease. An estimated 3 million Ethiopians are believed to be HIV-positive, making the Horn of Africa country one
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Letting patients with HIV take their medicines on a one-week-on, one-week-off schedule might save some money and might help reduce side-effects, researchers said on Monday. They said such a regime -- carefully monitored by an expert doctor -- worked to control the AIDS virus well. Patients could
LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi s government said on Monday it would slash the price of antiretroviral AIDS drugs by at least 20% early next year to make them more affordable for an estimated one million Malawians living with the disease. The cost of a month s supply of the drugs will go down again by April. They should go
BEIJING (Reuters) - It didn t take long for the clean-cut Beijing real estate broker to get hooked on heroin after a friend introduced him to it this year. I was curious, explained Li Qiang, who injected the drug from the start and was soon shooting up two or three times a day, spending about $97 a week to feed his hab
BEIJING (Reuters) - Drug giants Bristol-Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline are preparing to slash the prices of their HIV drugs in China as the country faces up to the prospect of a major epidemic, industry sources said on Monday. Squibb is drawing up formal documents to lower the price of its two HIV drugs sold
GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana President Festus Mogae dedicated a $6 million AIDS laboratory on Saturday -- designated World Aids Day -- which is expected to complete trials of an HIV vaccine within five years. The project is a joint venture between the Botswana government, the pharmaceutical companies
LONDON (Reuters) - A veil of secrecy still shrouds AIDS in some countries 20 years after it first reared its head but on Saturday China , the latest convert to openness, marked World AIDS Day by airing a shocking TV drama on the disease. In South Africa , where more people live with HIV/AIDS than in any other countr
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela called on Saturday for AIDS victims to be given access to drugs that fight the disease and said heads of state must take the lead in raising awareness of the illness. Nothing threatens us more today than HIV/AIDS...AIDS is a scourge threatening to undo
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - There isn t even enough money to bury the dead AIDS orphans at the Cotlands baby sanctuary. Instead the ashes of 23 babies, the youngest just a month old, will be interned at a painful and moving memorial in a modest Johannesburg cemetery on Friday ahead of World AIDS Day. It will bring a digni
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Promise contracted HIV at age 16 when her first boyfriend raped her. But all she could think about as her doctor diagnosed the illness were her plans to party that night. Six years later, it is this memory that spurs her on as she travels the country with her braided hair and short skirts, trying
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Over 1,000 HIV-positive Thais rallied outside parliament on Friday, demanding cheaper access to anti-AIDS drugs and protesting against their exclusion from government-subsidised medical care. Dressed in yellow and waving banners reading we are being discriminated against , the protesters asked to be
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nearly one in 11 of the world s 40 million people infected with HIV/AIDS are in Nigeria , Nigerian government figures showed on Friday. Nigeria has 3.47 million cases, some 8.7% of the global total estimated by the United Nations. Government officials said the number of cases in Nigeria had risen from
NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - An anti-AIDS group headed by former U.S. ambassador Richard Holbrooke urged corporations on Friday to do more to combat the disease among their own staff, particularly in Africa. We re asking companies to take greater responsibility for their own workplace first, Holbrooke, instrumental in
LAGOS (Reuters) - Georgina Ahanefule was on the brink of death a year ago when a U.S. charity sent her new life in the form of AIDS drugs she could never afford in Nigeria . I was very, very sick last December, Ahanefule said. If I stood, a breeze would blow me over. The hopes of 3.47 million Nigerians, like Ahanefule,
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The viruses that cause AIDS and Ebola, two deadly, contagious and highly feared diseases, spread through the body using the same mechanism, U.S.-based researchers said on Friday. The researchers, led by Dr. Paul Bieniasz of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at New York s Rockefeller Universi
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Europe s biggest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will slash 20% off the price of two key AIDS drugs in South Africa starting next year, the company said on Friday. The discount on 3TC (lamivudine) and
COPENHAGEN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Danish biotech firm Bavarian Nordic and U.S. Epimmune Inc. (NasdaqNM:EPMN) said on Thursday they entered a collaboration agreement to combine technologies to develop vaccines for the treatment of HIV infection. The pact could eventually lead to a merger, the Danish company s chief executi
BEIJING (Reuters) - China could begin human testing of a potential HIV vaccine by the end of next year, a leading Chinese scientist said on Thursday. If Chinese drug authorities approve the tests on the serum, developed at the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine together with the University of Regensburg in
KIGALI (Reuters) - Scores of young Rwandan boys and girls crowd into a dimly lit classroom and painstakingly put the finishing touches to paintings daubed on worn-out pieces of brown paper. Many are AIDS orphans, learning the skills to cope with the legacy of an epidemic made harsher by the devastating impact of the co
MOSCOW (Reuters) - AIDS is continuing its grim march around the planet, with countries of the former Soviet bloc now facing the world s fastest growing infection rate, a United Nations report said Wednesday. An estimated one million people in Russia , other countries of the former Soviet Union and ex-communist states i
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The rate of syphilis infection in the United States fell to an all-time low last year, bolstering hopes the potentially fatal sexually transmitted disease can be eliminated, federal health officials reported on Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributed the decline to an on
LONDON (Reuters) - Twenty years into the AIDS epidemic, HIV sufferers in Britain still face prejudice and discrimination, AIDS activists said on Wednesday. A review by the Terrence Higgins Trust charity of AIDS research showed that one in five people with HIV have encountered discrimination during the last 12 months.
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The West should mobilize a worldwide campaign against AIDS similar to the international coalition against Osama bin Laden, Cameroon s government said. I am amazed by the magnitude and rapidity with which the global coalition was set up to combat terrorism after the sad September 11 events, Cameroon
PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) - The South African government, under heavy pressure to provide a key antiretroviral drug to pregnant mothers with HIV-AIDS, said Tuesday it could not afford to provide the treatment nationwide. AIDS activists and doctors this week took the government to court in a bid to force it to pr
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co. Inc. is not planning further cuts in HIV drug prices for poor nations, despite a World Trade Organization agreement this month that could lead to competition from cheaper copycat medicines, a company official said. Guy Macdonald, Merck vice president of anti-infectives, said generic
LONDON (Reuters) - Hip hop superstar Sean P Diddy Combs (formerly known as Puff Daddy) Monday warned millions of teen-agers around the world that AIDS knows no frontiers and can kill anywhere. HIV and AIDS touches everyone, it kills without conscience, rich or poor, black or white, young or old, he said, launching a do
PRETORIA (Reuters) - AIDS activists and doctors took the South African government to court Monday in a bid to force it to provide a key antiretroviral drug that cuts the risk of pregnant women passing the deadly disease to their babies. Activists say South Africa, which has more people living with HIV-AIDS than any oth
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore AIDS welfare group Monday called for the government to rethink its lack of drug subsidies as more than 70 percent of those infected in the city state cannot afford the life-prolonging treatments. Singapore is considered third world as far as HIV is concerned, Action for AIDS (AFA) sec
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Hundreds of people protested outside a South African court on Friday, demanding death sentences for six men charged with raping a nine-month old baby, police said. In a case that has shocked the nation, the six men made a brief court appearance on Friday in the north-western town of Upington, b
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in the United States have developed a quick method to test anti-AIDS treatments that could improve their effectiveness and prevent drug resistance, they said on Friday. Until now doctors were unable to determine whether a particular combination of drugs was fighting HIV until four to eight
LONDON (Reuters) - Most junior doctors know the risks they run of exposure to HIV but many are unaware that they can protect themselves by taking a course of drugs immediately after exposure, according to a survey published on Thursday. The postal survey carried out by researchers in Australia said two-thirds
BOSTON (Reuters) - The protease inhibitor treatments that have dramatically reduced the death rate from AIDS in adults are also effective in children and adolescents, Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine reported. Until now, doctors had suspected that the drugs prevented deaths in younger patients the way they ha
BEIJING (Reuters) - By breaking its silence on AIDS, China has taken a major step toward preventing an epidemic in a country where new HIV cases are rising by up to 30 percent every year, U.N. officials said on Wednesday. Mehr Khan, the Thailand-based East Asia Director for the United Nations Children s Fund, hailed Ch
LISBON (Reuters) - Cannabis remains the most commonly used illicit drug in the European Union, with at least one in 10 adults in the 15-nation group having used it, according to a report published on Tuesday. The Lisbon-based European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said in its annual report for
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A study done in Kenya provides additional backing for the use of formula over breast feeding by women in poor countries who carry the virus which causes AIDS, researchers reported on Tuesday. While previous research has verified that the AIDS virus can be transmitted to babies via breast milk, the n
RIBAUE, Mozambique (Reuters) - Almelia Joao has changed her life after hearing an anti-AIDS message, but many in northern Mozambique deny the killer disease exists and refuse to change. There are still people who remain ignorant--some willfully--of southern Africa s health time-bomb despite programmes to distribute con
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - AIDS activists in South Africa said on Monday they were pressing ahead with a court case to force the government to supply a vital drug cutting the risk of pregnant women passing the disease on to their babies. South Africa has more people living HIV and AIDS than any other country, and activists
ROME (Reuters) - Economic development and easing patent laws to allow cheaper drugs are key to combating AIDS, a senior United Nations official said on Friday. AIDS is an extremely complex problem, and the main solution to the problem is development, said Marcela Villarreal of the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Org
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Thursday agreed to stricter rules for the use of blood in transfusions in a bid to prevent future contamination scandals linked to HIV or the human form of mad cow disease. The decision of the EU s 15 health ministers is aimed at increasing the quality and safety standards for
NAIROBI (Reuters) - If African leaders could cure AIDS with speeches, the epidemic scything its way across the continent would have been vanquished long ago. More than six months after African presidents abandoned years of denial to declare the AIDS epidemic an emergency at a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria ,
SHANGHAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A handful of Chinese drug firms are gearing up to beat foreign pharmaceutical giants at their own game, lobbying the government for approval to start producing the country s first drugs to combat AIDS at rock-bottom prices. While the big foreign firms attach price tags of thousands of dolla
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Thursday agreed to stricter rules for the use of blood in human transfusions in a bid to prevent future contamination scandals linked to AIDS or the human form of mad cow disease. The decision of the EU s 15 health ministers is aimed at increasing the quality and safety standa
DOHA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Poor nations, displaying rare unity and preparedness, on Wednesday won a World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal that allows them better access to cheap drugs. The agreement was formally approved by trade ministers of the 142-nation WTO after six days of gruelling negotiations at a conference in
BEIJING (Reuters) - In a country that has long kept homosexuals in the closet and AIDS under wraps, gay activists in China at last have something to cheer about. The Chinese Psychiatric Association dropped homosexuality from a list of psychiatric disorders this year. And this week, the first national conference on AIDS
BRASILIA, Brazil , Nov 14 (Reuters) - Brazil celebrated its role on Wednesday in helping broker a World Trade Organization deal on medical patents that will give poor countries better access to discounts on drugs for AIDS and other major killers. Brazil, emboldened by its own success in challenging drug companies over
BEIJING (Reuters) - China s health minister vowed Tuesday to curb the spread of AIDS as he opened the country s first national conference on the disease, featuring top Chinese media stars and a giant yellow inflatable condom. But Health Minister Zhang Wenkang offered no new initiatives or policy changes at the opening
BEIJING (Reuters) - Zhang Xiaqin looks like a healthy eight-year old. But her father s face is lined with anxiety as he struggles to find affordable treatment in China for the girl, infected with the HIV virus by a blood transfusion six years ago. As China opened its first national conference on AIDS and HIV Tuesday, Z
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.N. AIDS chief Peter Piot urged China s leaders on Monday to get personally involved in the fight against the disease to pull the country back from the brink of a major epidemic. The day before China opens its first national conference on AIDS and the HIV virus , Piot also urged the government to f
VIENNA (Reuters) - Researchers at Vienna s Institute of Applied Microbiology say they are testing a possible way to prevent HIV infection with a modified flu vaccine. Dr. Boris Ferko, a member of the Austrian research team, said laboratory mice inoculated with flu viruses laced with material from the HIV/AIDS virus exh
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.N. AIDS chief Peter Piot urged China s leaders on Monday to get personally involved in the fight against the disease to pull the country back from the brink of a major epidemic. The day before China opens its first national conference on AIDS and the HIV virus, Piot also urged the government to fa
DURHAM, N.C., Nov 8 (Reuters) - Biotech company Trimeris Inc. (NasdaqNM:TRMS - news) on Thursday posted a wider third-quarter loss due to higher research and development costs, and said its experimental drug to treat patients with HIV remains on track. Trimeris, which is developing an anti-HIV drug called T-20 with Swi
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican on Thursday blasted the U.N. s refugee agency, saying a field manual it published on reproductive health offended the dignity of people because it promoted irresponsible sexual relations and abortion. The Vatican criticism was contained in a document sent to bishops conferences arou
LONDON (Reuters) - Trials of the first new vaccine against tuberculosis in Britain in 80 years will begin early next year, a research charity said Wednesday. The Wellcome Trust said the new prime boost vaccine will be tested on volunteers in the first part of a study of the treatment to protect adults against the disea
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A healthcare company on Wednesday launched a low-cost rape insurance scheme in South Africa , which faces the world s highest incidence of sexual assault. The 15 rand (US$1.58) per month policy offered by LifeSense Group, a private South African company, aims to help victims deal with the traum
NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY - news) said on Wednesday it plans to seek U.S. approval for five new drugs within the next 12 months and launch three new potential blockbuster drugs annually between 2003 and 2005. Speaking to analysts and investors at a conference in New Y
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - It s 5:00 p.m. on a Friday and a man looking rather like a motorcyclist from the future is sitting in a hotel lobby soothing a cough with a cup of black coffee. Over the last two hours, he has met with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Ivory Coast s prime minister, Affi N Guessan, an
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (Reuters) - Southeast Asia wants to cap rising HIV/AIDS cases in the region by stocking up cheap, but high quality condoms for use by its people. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said on Tuesday it would campaign against the disease by promoting condom use for safe sex. Am
BRASILIA, Brazil , Nov 6 (Reuters) - Brazil plans to seek allies at this week s World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar to support its ground-breaking fight to ease patent laws on AIDS drugs, Health Minister Jose Serra said on Tuesday. Serra, who will attend the WTO meeting in Doha Nov. 9 to 13, said Brazil will ask
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (Reuters) - Southeast Asian leaders agreed on Monday to step up the fight against HIV, which has infected about 1.6 million people in the region. Leaders of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), in Brunei for their annual summit, issued a declaration vowing to spend
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa is in shock over a surge in the rape of children and even babies, fuelled by a myth that sex with a virgin will protect a man against AIDS, activists said on Monday. When six men appeared in court in the Northern Cape town of Upington for the rape of a 9-month-old girl on Monday, s
LONDON (Reuters) - The global drugs industry, accused by critics of profiting from AIDS in Africa and bioterrorism in the United States , faces a rough ride at world trade talks in Qatar this week. Executives were on the backfoot at an industry conference in London on Monday, warning of a slippery slope as developing
BEIJING (Reuters) - The Web site of a Chinese AIDS patient, which acts as a forum for growing numbers of infected Chinese seeking advice on how to handle HIV/AIDS, has been publicized just days before a key conference on the disease. The pink-hued site of AIDS sufferer Xiao Cai is at http://aidscare.netsh.net and featu
ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana plans to begin producing its own generic versions of drugs for managing HIV/AIDS, so sufferers in the poor West African country can afford them, a government minister said. We re negotiating with the WHO (World Health Organisation) and the Ministry of Public Health in
LONDON (Reuters) - A rapid rise in the number of people infected with HIV in Russia could lead to a tuberculosis epidemic there, scientists warned on Friday. An estimated 16 million people, or one in six, in Russia are already infected with tuberculosis, a highly infectious airborne bacterial infection that affects the
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS activists protested outside U.S. trade negotiators offices on Thursday, accusing the officials of keeping cheaper medicines from poor nations while getting a discount on an anthrax drug at home. The protesters were trying to send a message ahead of a World Trade Organization meeting in Doha,
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - AIDS groups welcomed on Wednesday a decision by the South African government to boost spending on combating its HIV-AIDS epidemic, but said the funds needed to be properly spent to curb the disease. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced on Tuesday the country would quadruple state spending f
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday announced significantly increased spending on South Africa s twin scourges of HIV/AIDS and crime. Bypassing the reservations of President Thabo Mbeki, who has yet to publicly acknowledge that HIV causes AIDS or that AIDS kills more South Afri
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - US opposition to more flexible rules on drug patents is unreasonable given its own demands for cheaper anthrax-fighting Cipro, a top Brazilian health official said on Tuesday. The situation with US demands for cheaper Cipro is very similar to our demands for lower prices on AIDS drugs
ATHENS (Reuters) - A revolutionary new AIDS drug, which could help thousands of people who fail to respond to conventional therapy, has produced promising results in clinical trials, researchers said on Tuesday. T-20, being developed by Switzerland s Roche Holding AG and U.S. biotech firm Trimeris Inc, is the first of
NEW YORK, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Robertson Stephens on Monday said it raised its rating on biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) to a buy rating from a market perform rating, citing regulatory approval for an anti-HIV drug. Robertson Stephens also said that it expects a loss of $1.28 per share f
ATHENS (Reuters) - A new AIDS drug being developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co appears to avoid the fat-in-blood problems experienced by patients taking other similar medicines, a conference was told on Monday. Atazanavir , an experimental once-a-day drug in final Phase III clinical trials, belongs to the powerful prote
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa urged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Monday to make AIDS drugs cheaper for the developing world and said the drug industry put patents before lives. South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said trade ministers should change a law on drug patents, known as TRIPS o
Foster City, Calif., Oct 26 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) announced on Friday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) has approved Viread , a new type of AIDS medicine that could help patients who have developed resistance to othe
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki said Wednesday his government would not alter its approach to the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping South Africa until it had assessed new data on the disease and gathered additional information. I do not believe that at this particular moment, the government is going to do anything
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 23 (Reuters) - An uneasy peace between South Africa and the drug industry appeared under threat on Tuesday after Pretoria accused big companies of trying to peddle highly toxic AIDS drugs with the help of AIDS activists. Drug company executives denied allegations by the ruling African National Congres
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa said on Monday that HIV drugs were ineffective and produced side effects almost as bad as the disease itself. The African National Congress (ANC) government accused an alliance led by the pharmaceutical industry, and including HIV/AIDS activists and churches, of trying to force it
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A six-month-old baby who contracted HIV from her mother is suing South African authorities for failing to prevent it, lawyers and health officials said on Friday. Lawyers acting on instructions from baby Tinashe s 19-year-old mother--the family name was not made public--have demanded a provinci
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - The melodramatic wheels spin and soon fall off the lumbering One Life, a dubious, contrived, cautionary tale about the hazards of not facing up to the facts about HIV. Underneath the somewhat fading topicality of sexually transmitted disease in the black community is just another example in a long
LOS ANGELES, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) announced on Thursday that a European advisory panel has backed approval of the company s HIV-fighting drug Viread , a new type of AIDS medicine that could help patients who have developed resistance to other drugs.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is talking to German drug maker Bayer AG about relaxing its patent on Cipro, which has become the drug of choice for those worried about anthrax, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said on Wednesday. Asked on NBC s Today show whether he had nudged Bayer to
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa s Medical Research Council challenged President Thabo Mbeki s stance on AIDS on Tuesday, saying the disease accounted for a third of all deaths in the country this year. A report by the state-appointed council (MRC) contradicted Mbeki s statement in a BBC television interview in Augus
BEIJING (Reuters) - Battling widespread ignorance of the virus that causes AIDS, China is debating whether to allow an HIV patient to speak publicly about the disease for the first time, state media reported on Monday. An unidentified patient has put his name forward to speak at a China conference on AIDS prevention in
VIENNA (Reuters) - Researchers at Vienna s Institute of Applied Microbiology say they are testing a possible way to prevent HIV infection with a modified flu vaccine. Dr. Boris Ferko, a member of the Austrian research team, said laboratory mice inoculated with flu viruses laced with antigenic material from the AIDS vir
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The US-led attacks on Afghanistan will eventually disrupt the flow of opium from one of the world s top suppliers and could cause heroin-injecting to surge in neighboring Pakistan , leading to a potential AIDS catastrophe, researchers said on Friday. Heroin prices on the Pakistan-Afghan border
OSLO (Reuters) - The United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan won the centenary Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for working for a more peaceful world in the 21st century by tackling challenges from poverty to terrorism. The choice brought a flood of praise from around the globe, except from survivors of the 1994 gen
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - While world attention is focused on the crisis caused by the deadly attacks on the United States , Asia-Pacific ministers warned on Wednesday that HIV/AIDS also posed a serious threat of destabilisation. Global attention is currently on security threats of a different kind, but HIV/AIDS cannot be
LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - UK biotechnology firm Cambridge Antibody Technology Group Plc (CAT) said on Wednesday it had entered into a license agreement with U.S. pharmaceuticals giant Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK - news) for the research and development of treatments for HIV. Under the terms of the five year agreement, Me
TORONTO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Canada s Drug Royalty Corp. Inc. said on Tuesday it had bought a royalty interest in global sales of Celgene Corp. s (NasdaqNM:CELG - news) Thalomid, a drug derived from thalidomide, which was pulled from the market in the 1960s for causing birth defects when used to control morning sickness.
MELBOURNE, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Scientists are increasingly optimistic that an AIDS vaccine will be available in the next six to 10 years, although the first one may not be 100 percent effective, researchers said on Sunday. And because the design of any ultimately successful vaccine is not yet known, the cost could vary f
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Veteran anti-racism campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Sunday that HIV-AIDS was South Africa s new apartheid and criticised his country for dithering while people died of the disease. This is the new apartheid, the new enemy, Tutu told SABC public television s Newsmaker programme
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Sunday it had handed over rights to its market-leading AIDS medicines in South Africa to a local generic drug firm, in an attempt to defuse a continuing row over access to treatment. The move comes six months after 39 pharmaceutical companies backed down in a landma
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The spread of AIDS in Asia risks rising exponentially unless renewed prevention efforts are undertaken in the next few years, health experts told a regional conference on Saturday. At the opening of the five-day International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, around 3,000 delegates were to
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with top officials of seven major drug companies on Thursday to renew efforts to bring down the cost of treating AIDS in the world s poorest countries, a spokesman said. The meeting focused on improving access to AIDS drugs, lowering drug prices, expanding
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Prostitutes in China , Indonesia and Vietnam are falling victim to explosive AIDS epidemics which will spread to their customers wives and girlfriends, a U.N.-funded report said on Thursday. While large-scale preventative action had kept the disease at bay in parts of Asia, t
LONDON (Reuters) - An experimental drug for a rare but life-threatening lung disease helps to reduce its debilitating symptoms and improve patients quality of life, doctors said on Friday. Bosentan, produced by the Swiss biotechnology company Actelion under the brand name Tracleer, is the first oral drug for the treatm
SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. advisory panel on Wednesday backed Gilead Sciences Inc. s (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) HIV-fighting drug, Viread , a new type of AIDS medicine that could help patients who have developed resistance to other therapies. The need for new drugs to suppress HIV is growing as the vi
HAIPHONG, Vietnam (Reuters) - Barber Tien snips away at the mop of dark hair in front of him, chatting with his young male customer. You really must use condoms if you are sleeping with more than one woman because you don t know who could have AIDS, he says as he trims. What if you got AIDS and then passed it on to you
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. s experimental drug Viread on Tuesday received a favorable review from U.S. regulatory scientists, who said the pill appeared to help reduce levels of the deadly HIV virus. The assessment from Food and Drug Administration reviewers was posted on the agency s Web si
TORONTO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Visible Genetics Inc., a developer of products that use genetic information to improve patient care, announced on Wednesday that U.S. regulators have approved its kit for determining resistance to HIV drugs. The Toronto-based company said it received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Ad
FOSTER CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. on Tuesday said its experimental HIV drug combined with other antiretroviral drugs was shown to reduce a more significant reduction in the level of HIV in patients compared to those who received a placebo. The drug tenofo
NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs said it initiated coverage of Gilead Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:GILD - news) on Tuesday with a market outperformer rating and a price target of $60 to $65 per share, saying the company s future growth is linked to an AIDS drug. The bank said the company had established a strong
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African insurance actuaries, worried about the impact of AIDS on that industry, said on Friday that five million people could die of AIDS in the next decade if there is no widespread change in sexual behaviour or medical intervention. According to its latest model, the Actuarial Society o
SOFIA (Reuters) - A Libyan court is expected to announce on Saturday its verdicts in an unprecedented trial of six Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor charged with deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. The defendants, detained in Tripoli in early 1999, are accused of intentionally infecting
GENEVA (Reuters) - Leaders of the international pharmaceutical industry warned on Wednesday that research and development into AIDS drugs could dry up if current global trading rules on patents were loosened. The warning was issued as delegates to the World Trade Organization (WTO) met to discuss whether the body s TRI
SHESELWENI, Swaziland (Reuters) - Swaziland s king has forbidden Swazi men from having sex with teenage girls for the next five years and slapped a fine of one cow on those breaking the law. Those of us who were about to propose love to these girls should wait until the end of the five-year period, the girls will be re
LOS ANGELES, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Options for treating lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, look likely to broaden after Tuesday s support by a U.S. regulatory panel of Zevalin, an experimental drug that targets radiation to tumors. But makers of a potential rival drug called Bexxar said Zevalin, developed by San Di
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - AIDS is now South Africa s leading cause of death and the disease accounted for 40 percent of all those who died last year between the ages of 15 and 49, a local newspaper reported Sunday. The Sunday Times, citing a South Africa Medical Research Council report that has not yet bee
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - The South African government will oppose a court bid by AIDS campaigners to force it to provide drugs that cut mother-to-child HIV transmission at birth, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. Yesterday was the deadline for us to respond. We have indicated that we intend to opp
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders said on Wednesday it is working with Brazil to export the country s successful anti-AIDS program and its locally made AIDS drugs to other developing countries. The president of the Nobel Prize-winning organization, Bernard Pecoul, said he wi
ROME (Reuters) - HIV /AIDS is devastating farming and worsening hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations world food body said on Tuesday. In Africa s 25 most affected countries, 7 million farm workers had died from AIDS since 1985 and 16 million more might die within the next 20 years, the UN Food and Agricultu
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Only about half of HIV -infected patients in a study published Sunday were found to be taking their antiretroviral drugs according to directions, opening the way to treatment failure and possible drug resistance. Such drugs are prescribed on a complicated schedule, often requiring multiple doses two
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has attracted a storm of controversy for questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, has stated once again that AIDS is not the biggest killer in the country. In a letter to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, dated August 6, 2001 and published by B
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The editors of the world s most prestigious medical journals unveiled a new policy on Sunday aimed at limiting the influence of pharmaceutical companies in research they fund involving their own products. Following are examples of some recent controversies. -- In 2000, scientists at the Universit
BANGUI (Reuters) - Lucy Nadine Igala stares straight ahead as she describes the fate of her friend at Miskine grammar school on the outskirts of the Central African Republic s capital. Aged 15,and hoping to escape Bangui to live in Paris, her friend was diagnosed as HIV-positive. She caught it from one of the teachers.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Early AIDS vaccines are likely to offer only partial protection against HIV , but could still have a significant impact in North America and Europe, where the epidemic has already slowed, researchers said on Friday. The race to find a vaccine, which began soon after AIDS was first identified as
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil s health ministry said on Thursday it is stepping up efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS among older people with education campaigns and the distribution of condoms. The ministry decided to address AIDS and HIV among Brazil s older generations after statistics showed that the dise
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vaccine using a weakened form of a virus commonly found in livestock engineered to carry AIDS virus proteins succeeded in protecting monkeys from the deadly disease and offers great promise for people, researchers said on Thursday. Lead researcher John Rose, professor of pathology and cell biol
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Despite years of research and an arsenal of new biotech weapons, medical science has made little progress toward an AIDS vaccine capable of eliminating the threat of HIV infection, researchers said on Thursday. That is because human antibodies, called upon to squash diseases such as smallpox an
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Twenty years after medical science first identified AIDS as a disease, researchers said on Thursday that a U.S.-led quest for a vaccine was entering a make-or-break phase fraught with pitfalls but with some hope for progress. Potential vaccines can require a decade of painstaking work before re
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new generation of genetically engineered products, ranging from blue roses to anti-HIV spinach, is being developed to benefit consumers, the nonprofit Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology said on Thursday. The group said it had reviewed dozens of new gene-spliced plant and animal products b
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said on Wednesday it will help fund health services for minority patients in Florida s Medicaid program to ensure the company s prescription drugs are placed on the program s list of preferred medicines. The agreement between the nation s No. 3 drugmaker and Florida, which
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Leading AIDS researchers said on Wednesday they were more optimistic than ever about the prospect for developing a vaccine capable of controlling, if not eliminating, the deadly HIV virus. At the first conference ever devoted to the international effort to develop such a vaccine, AIDS researche
DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - U.N. AIDS chief Peter Piot said Wednesday around 99 out of 100 Africans infected with HIV had no idea they were. He warned that the fight against the AIDS epidemic had been made more difficult by the stigma of the disease, which frightened people away from getting tested. clue that they
BOMBAY (Reuters) - India s Cipla Ltd , which shook global drugmakers with an offer to supply HIV/AIDS drugs at less than $1 a day, said on Tuesday it has exported the drugs to a dozen countries and is in talks with more potential buyers. Cipla s managing director, Amar Lulla, told Reuters that the company has exported
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Under pressure from Brazil, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche agreed on Friday to cut the price of its AIDS drug, nelfinavir, by 40 percent in the country, which the Brazilian health minister called a victory for developing nations. The discount was in line with Brazilian demands. Braz
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , Aug 31 31 (Reuters) - Under pressure from Brazil, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche agreed on Friday to cut the price of its AIDS drug, nelfinavir, by 40 percent in the country, which the Brazilian health minister called a victory for developing nations. The discount was in line with Brazilian d
VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Hollywood legend and veteran AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor chided the world s youth Friday for becoming too complacent about the HIV virus and the need to practice safe sex. We are doing everything in our power to find a cure, she told Reuters Television at a fund-raising dinner for AIDS rese
LAGOS (Reuters) - Africa s most ambitious generic AIDS treatment program will not be ready for Nigerian patients by the September 1 target date, health officials said on Friday. The technicians who will monitor and evaluate the pilot program have not been trained, the government has not said where or how the drugs will
ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. health officials on Thursday warned doctors to limit their use of a promising drug cocktail when treating cases of latent tuberculosis because the therapy caused severe liver injuries and death in some patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Thoracic Society is
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Immune Response Corp. said on Thursday it will abandon a pivotal trial of its Remune AIDS drug and seek marketing approval based on information it has already collected. Remune is a vaccine designed to stimulate the immune systems of AIDS patients, but unlike traditional vaccines, the drug is used
BEIJING (Reuters) - China only has a few years to prevent an explosion of HIV infections that could come largely through sexual transmission, a leading US AIDS expert warned on Thursday. Despite widespread reports on the spread of HIV through tainted blood in some central China provinces, it is sex that is most likely
LOS ANGELES, Aug 30 (Reuters) - By 2005, nearly half of all HIV patients in San Francisco will not respond to drugs now used to treat the disease, due mostly to inaccurate use of those drug regimens by doctors, a study reported on Thursday. Researchers at the San Francisco and Los Angeles campuses of the University of
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African companies are offering treatment packages as an incentive to break the barriers of denial that surround HIV and AIDS in the country with the world s highest number of sufferers. But they differ sharply on whether they can or should offer antiretroviral drugs as part of the package. T
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , Aug 23 (Reuters) - Brazil upped the ante on Thursday in a feud over the high cost of AIDS drugs, demanding Swiss group Roche Holding AG slash the price of one of its drugs by 40 percent or face Brazilian production of a low-cost version. A day after Brazil said it planned to break the patent on
FOSTER CITY, Calif., Aug 21 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. said on Tuesday that a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel is scheduled to review Viread , the company s drug intended to treat HIV infection, on October 3. Gilead Sciences filed a New Drug Application for Viread on May 1 and the agency gave it a prior
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , Aug 20 (Reuters) - Brazil is stepping up pressure on Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche to cut the price of its AIDS drug or face competition from a locally made copy, an official at a government laboratory said on Monday. The director of the state-owned Far-Manguinhos said she has completed a co
ROME (Reuters) - Nearly four in 10 Italian teenage males had their first sexual experience with a prostitute, according to a survey reported in Rome s la Repubblica newspaper on Saturday. The survey, conducted by Help Me, an Italian volunteer aid group, said 37 percent of 14 to 18 year-olds polled had paid for their fi
ROME (Reuters) - Rome s city hall said on Saturday it was taking responsibility for the care of a two-month-old Nigerian girl who has become a horrifying symbol of the dark side of illegal immigration in Italy . The girl was found in the early hours of Friday lying naked next to her dead mother, a 28-year-old HIV-posit
BASEL, Switzerland , Aug 15 (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG said on Wednesday it hoped to launch a revolutionary new AIDS drug, which could save the lives of thousands of people who fail to respond to conventional therapy, in 2003. T-20, being developed by the Swiss group and U.S. biotech Trimeris Inc , is the first of a
ATLANTA (Reuters) - A large number of Americans infected with the human immunodeficiency virus are waiting often more than a decade before having an HIV test, undermining efforts to control the spread of AIDS , U.S. health experts said on Tuesday. A staggering 41 percent of all people diagnosed with AIDS in 25 states b
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Federal health experts said on Monday the battle against the AIDS epidemic had stalled in the United States and the disease showed signs of making a strong comeback among gay and bisexual men and parts of the black community. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its latest data from t
HANOI (Reuters) - Asia may have beaten the worst of the AIDS epidemic with condoms, but the region s growing sex industry highlights the need to promote wider usage to prevent new infections, World Health Organization experts said on Monday. Speaking at the start of a five-day conference in Hanoi they said the numbers
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The head of South Africa s health system said key antiretroviral drugs to fight HIV-AIDS were still too costly for the country, which has more AIDS sufferers than anywhere else. In a BBC television interview broadcast on Monday, Health Director General Ayanda Ntsaluba said scarce resources shap
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) - Six Central American nations will try to negotiate lower prices for AIDS drugs by buying together in bulk from major pharmaceutical companies, Honduran Health Minister Plutarco Castellanos said on Saturday. We agreed to design a strategy to negotiate joint purchases of anti-retrov
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambian health authorities have rejected plans to create a specialized clinic to deal with HIV -AIDS, a disease which carries a terrible social stigma in the southern African country. The country s National HIV-AIDS Council had proposed the clinic in an attempt to care for the estimated 200 Zambians
BEIJING (Reuters) - A government AIDS control team has visited a village in the central province of Henan struck by mass infections of HIV from unregulated blood banks, the People s Daily said on Wednesday. The group, led by Vice Minister of Health Yin Dakui, visited clinics and homes of AIDS patients and people infect
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has attracted a storm of controversy for questioning the link between HIV and AIDS , said on Monday violence, not AIDS, was the biggest killer in the country. You know what the largest single cause of death in South Africa is? The largest single cause of de
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Thousands of Ethiopians, including many children orphaned by AIDS , took to the streets of Addis Ababa on Sunday to appeal to their government to import cheap drugs to combat the AIDS epidemic sweeping the country. Roughly three million Ethiopians from a population of 60 million are thought to b
IBADAN, Nigeria (Reuters) - President Olusegun Obasanjo called on Nigeria s military commanders on Saturday to consider giving free condoms to their troops to curb the spread of AIDS in the armed forces. You must not allow AIDS to ravage our armed forces, Obasanjo told top ranking officers from Nigeria s army, navy and
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has launched a drive to curb the spread of the HIV virus through tainted blood transfusions amid warnings that an AIDS epidemic is reaching dangerous levels, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. The government will spend $12 million annually on the program, which follows reports
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has launched a drive to curb the spread of HIV through tainted blood transfusions amid warnings that an AIDS epidemic is reaching dangerous levels, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. The government will spend 100 million yuan ($12 million) annually on the programme, which foll
LONDON (Reuters) - Loss of self, more than unbearable pain or prolonged suffering, is why many people suffering from life-threatening illnesses consider euthanasia and assisted suicide, researchers said on Friday. In a study that offers new insights into why people desire to end their lives scientists at the National I
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An HIV-positive man who admitted and bragged in 1997 about his sexual exploits with dozens of women and girls that exposed them to the virus that causes AIDS , was denied parole on Thursday, officials said. Nushawn Williams, who also used the name Shyteek Johnson and 16 other aliases, has been serv
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton and Grammy award-winning singer and producer Kenneth Babyface Edmonds announced on Tuesday they would lead a new initiative to fight AIDS in Africa and globally by raising awareness and money for the battle against the epidemic. Clinton, who on Monday moved into his ne
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Patients baffled by their laboratory test results may find relief in a new, noncommercial Web site aimed at taking the mystery out of those indecipherable results. Lab Tests Online (http://www.labtestsonline.org), a site sponsored by six clinical laboratory groups, gives consumers news and informati
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Nigeria , where nearly 3 million people are infected with HIV , will soon begin treating 15,000 of them with sophisticated antiviral drugs in the largest such program in Africa, a UN official said on Monday. It is the government s intention on September 1 to begin a process of antiretroviral
LOS ANGELES, July 31 (Reuters) - A joint venture of Applied Biosystems Group and Celera Genomics Group said on Tuesday an application was filed with regulators for its gene sequencing system to detect resistance to HIV drugs. Both Celera, based in Rockville, Maryland, and Applied Biosystems, based in Foster City, Calif
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Catholic bishops from southern Africa on Monday condemned the use of condoms to fight the AIDS pandemic gripping the continent, saying it was immoral and dangerous. The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference wrapped up a seven-day meeting by denouncing the use of condoms, which they said
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Monday he hoped next month s UN conference on race, which the United States has threatened to boycott, will heal old wounds and that nations will find common ground to fight racism. The United States has threatened to boycott the racism conference set for D
CHICAGO, July 30 (Reuters) - Patients baffled by their laboratory test results may find relief in a new, noncommercial Web site aimed at taking the mystery out of those indecipherable results. Lab Tests Online (http://www.labtestsonline.org), a site sponsored by six clinical laboratory groups, gives consumers news and
CHICAGO (Reuters) - AIDS physician Jerry Cade says his patients are different from the subjects in the research studies. Cade s patients are women. Women have been excluded from clinical trials in the past because the majority of AIDS patients have been men. But women now make up more than half of the more than 36 mill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative physicians on Tuesday called for the resignation of a key health official they say has misled the public on the effectiveness of condoms in protecting against many sexually transmitted diseases. At a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, they also demanded the Food and Drug Admin
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft said on Monday that he would halt efforts by immigration officials to deport an HIV -infected 4-year-old Thai boy who was brought to the United States as a pawn of smugglers. Ashcroft said at a Los Angeles press conference he would grant Phanupong Khaisri -- the boy n
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Vogue it ain t. But Mainline Lady, a new Dutch glossy magazine for female drug addicts, is perhaps the ultimate in heroin chic. Stuffed with tips on fashion, sex, beauty and health--the stock-in-trade of women s journals the world over--the new magazine bears a passing resemblance to its more stai
CHICAGO, July 23 (Reuters) - Baxter International Inc. on Monday said it has recalled one lot of a product that hospitals use to treat burn victims and patients in shock after a test found a rare form of HIV in the plasma used to make the product. This is being recalled for quality reasons, not safety reasons, said Tan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will retain the Advisory Council on HIV /AIDS created by his predecessor along with several members appointed by then-President Bill Clinton, the White House said on Friday. Otherwise, the council would have gone out of existence this week. Members of the administration s
GENOA (Reuters) - The United States has boosted its contribution to a new global health fund set up to help fight HIV /AIDS, a U.S. administration official said on Saturday. Today I can announce that the U.S. is contributing an additional $100 million, for a total contribution in (fiscal year) 2001 of $300 million to t
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Condoms effectively prevent HIV transmission but data is lacking on whether they work to block most sexually transmitted diseases, according to a report released on Friday by federal health officials. The report, a review of existing medical studies, concluded there is insufficient evidence to ju
ROME (Reuters) - Africa s hopes of receiving substantive support from the world s richest nations appeared scant as the G8 summit began on Friday, with the door shut on debt relief and funding for a health fund so far paltry. But African leaders, meeting in Rome before going to Genoa to present their plans for revitali
GENOA (Reuters) - Italy , hosting a summit of world leaders in the Italian port of Genoa, said Friday a global fund to fight AIDS had reached $1.3 billion and could rise to $2 billion by the end of the year. Group of Eight leaders were expected to announce the creation of an international AIDS fund with U.N. Secretary-
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new report by the National Institutes of Health concluded that condoms are effective in preventing pregnancy and HIV -infection, but may not prevent the spread of most sexually transmitted diseases, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The report said there was insufficient evidence to deter
JOHANNESBURG, July 19 (Reuters) - Activists and charity groups launched a blistering attack on U.S. drugs giant Pfizer on Thursday, urging it to lower the price of life-saving drugs in poor countries. UK based charity Oxfam said in a report Pfizer was using its position as the industry s most powerful lobbyist to encou
TOKYO (Reuters) - A global fund to tackle diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis will be unveiled on Friday at a meeting of Group of Eight (G8) leaders, with contributions already nearing $1 billion, Japanese officials said on Wednesday. The fund was launched last month by United Nations Secretary-General
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada said on Wednesday it would give about C$150 million (US$98 million) to a new United Nations global fund designed to help fight HIV and AIDS as well as tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries. International Co-operation Minister Maria Minna said the contribution would be over and above
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A family broke a major taboo in Kenya on Tuesday by decorating a death announcement for a deceased relative with two red ribbons to show he died of AIDS . Fighting back tears, Paul Omukuba s sister said it was time Kenyans washed away the stigma preventing people confronting the reality of a disease
NAIROBI (Reuters) - African leaders have finally woken up to a catastrophic AIDS epidemic, but unless they act soon the disease will take an apocalyptic toll, a top UN AIDS envoy said on Monday. Stephen Lewis, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan s special AIDS envoy to Africa, said governments struggling to throw off years
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The South African High Court has ordered a man to pay his wife nearly one million rand in damages for infecting her with HIV , a newspaper reported on Sunday. The Sunday Times said acting judge Naren Pandya had awarded a Durban housewife 958,689 rand (US$116,400) for pain and suffering, in the
NAIROBI Jul 12 (Reuters) - President Daniel arap Moi has urged Kenyans to abstain from sex for at least two years to try to curb the spread of HIV , newspapers reported on Thursday. Moi was speaking after the government announced plans on Wednesday to import 300 million condoms to fight AIDS , a move which has already
LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) - HIV patients have endorsed a revolutionary new drug, despite the need for twice-daily injections, the two companies behind the product said on Wednesday. T-20, being developed by Swiss-based Roche Holding AG and U.S. biotech company Trimeris Inc (NasdaqNM:TRMS , is the first of a new class o
NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - Biotechnology company Virologic Inc. said it improved its Aids drug-resistance technology, an advance that could substantially increase its share of the resistance-testing market. South San Francisco-based Virologic s PhenoSense HIV technology can detect resistance to drugs in patients who
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The reappearance of worrisome levels of the AIDS virus in infected patients bloodstreams does not mean the drug therapy they are using has failed, researchers said on Tuesday. The importance of the finding that HIV levels can rise modestly for a time and then subside again and are not a sign of a th
HARARE (Reuters) - The city council in Zimbabwe s capital Harare is calling on residents to consider double burials to save space in a capital whose graveyards are filling fast due to AIDS. Harare city curator of graves Eladinos Zimbwa told the Sunday Mail newspaper that although Zimbabwe s black majority was opposed t
NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Immune Response Corp. were plunging over 50 percent on Friday after saying its partner, Pfizer Inc., was discontinuing development of experimental anti-HIV drug Remune. Near midday, Immune Response s stock was down $2.44, or 53.4 percent, at $2.14. In the past year, the shares
NEW YORK, July 5 (Reuters) - ViroLogic Inc said on Thursday a study suggests its PhenoSense HIV drug-resistance test might help predict which drugs might be most successful for individual patients infected with the virus that causes AIDS, spurring a rally in company shares. Shares of the South San Francisco, California
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan used the 225th birthday of the United States on Wednesday to equate the global fight against AIDS with the struggle for liberties enshrined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Annan, who received the Philadelphia Liberty Medal during a Fourth of July cerem
LONDON (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical companies, still smarting from a public outcry over AIDS drugs, have agreed to slash the price of five potent anti-tuberculosis medicines in poor countries, a leading medical charity said on Wednesday. Medecins Sans Frontieres, which helped broker a deal between industry and the
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Rose s four-year-old son spends his days watching his bed-ridden mother fade as AIDS takes her a step closer to death with every hour. The story will soon end in their Nairobi shack as it does thousands of times a day across Africa. Rose will become another digit in Kenya s AIDS toll and the boy wil
LUSAKA (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will discuss regional conflicts and AIDS with African leaders at their annual summit in Lusaka next week, Zambian Foreign Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Annan, who is scheduled to arrive in Zambia on July 8, will be joined by the heads of the U.N. chil
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has demanded the death penalty for people who knowingly infect others with HIV/AIDS, to deter men from passing the disease to vulnerable younger women, newspapers reported on Sunday. We have to make laws that restrict those who deliberately infect others because youn
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa said Friday it had succeeded in getting the world community to recognize the crucial role played by poverty in the devastating spread of AIDS across Africa. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said this week s unprecedented United Nations summit on AIDS had acknowledged the n
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia said on Friday it was negotiating with Australian-based drug companies to give developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region much cheaper access to AIDS medication. A spokesman for Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said the negotiations could lead to the annual cost of treating HIV an
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Friday that a special account had been set up to receive individual contributions to the global fund against AIDS championed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan . The money will be held in the special account, established by the U.N. Foundation, until the fund is operat
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday said it approved a $155 million lending program to help tackle HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean, the region hardest hit by the epidemic outside of Africa. The bank said in a statement that as part of the broad package, it approved projects for the
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A major UN AIDS conference on Wednesday approved a battle plan committing nations to fight the killer disease but deleted explicit references to homosexuals, prostitutes and drug users as particularly vulnerable groups. After wrangling for weeks over whether to highlight the groups, the 189-m
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - AIDS could kill as many as 7 million South Africans by the end of the decade if the disease is not tackled with proper treatment, the country s leading medical research agency said on Thursday. The latest warning from the state-funded Medical Research Council (MRC) comes as South Africa remains
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose views on AIDS have drawn widespread criticism, visited a Merck research lab on Wednesday and offered encouraging words on AIDS treatment. But he turned aside a direct question about whether he believes the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV causes AIDS
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Andrew Natsios, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has apologized for remarks he made about Africans and AIDS drugs that critics denounced as racist, an aide said on Tuesday. Natsios, a former aid worker in Africa, said earlier this month in an interview that the
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s International Development Secretary Clare Short was quoted on Wednesday as saying the UN s fledgling global health fund to fight AIDS was over-hyped and unworkable. Short said in an interview with Britain s Guardian newspaper that the fund, conceived by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, was
NYIKA, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - While the world s political elite meets in New York this week to plan the war against the AIDS epidemic, the people of Nyika village in Zimbabwe will be burying more of their dead. Nyika epitomizes the total devastation and human misery brought on by HIV -AIDS affecting a staggering 25 milli
DARWIN, Australia (Reuters) - Australia s Northern Territory called on Tuesday for the United Nations to screen its workers in East Timor for HIV, saying it had found 10 cases of the AIDS-causing virus among foreigners visiting from East Timor. Northern Territory Chief Minister Denis Burke said one Australian woman in
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s leading AIDS activist group said on Tuesday it was preparing to take President Thabo Mbeki s government to court for denying HIV-positive pregnant women drugs that cut the risk of transmitting the disease to their newborns. The South African Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said t
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Activists and charity groups were apprehensive on Tuesday that the first major U.N. conference on AIDS would leave poor governments with few resources but encourage discriminatory prevention programs. With 36 million people infected with AIDS or HIV, the virus that causes it, health experts a
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of a key House of Representatives panel agreed on Tuesday to a sharp increase in the White House s proposed spending to fight AIDS around the globe, setting up a possible battle over the U.S. commitment to halt the spread of the disease. The agreement by leaders of the International R
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Drug makers said on Monday they had done their part to fight AIDS in poor countries by lowering prices but that many governments were not taking advantage of the offer. I think it s a public failure, said Harvey Bale, director general of International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Tuesday vowed to help promote economic growth and democracy in Africa after South African President Thabo Mbeki asked the United States to help Africa turn the corner and support its efforts to deal with violence, poverty and diseases like AIDS. You know the challenges we f
UNITED NATIONS, June 26 (Reuters) - A new group dedicated to prodding companies to help fight AIDS said on Tuesday it hoped to enlist 200 firms to battle the killer disease, using the argument that the crisis is hurting them financially. Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the group
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Spurred by horrific scenes at home, African leaders appealed on Tuesday for help in combating AIDS, saying 36 million people faced death without sophisticated drugs. Crying is not enough, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa told the U.N. General Assembly on the second day of a major AIDS confe
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sweden announced on Tuesday a $60 million contribution to a global health fund against AIDS, bringing total pledges to a disappointing $590.2 million. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has championed the fund, estimates that $7 billion to $10 billion a year in extra spending is needed to
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - In a country where 6 million South Africans could die from AIDS before their 35th birthday, a controversial campaign is teaching teen-agers how to be naughty but nice. Using pamphlets, newspaper advertisements, billboards, television and radio dramas and sporting events, loveLife
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Armed with statistics and horrific scenes at home, developing nations appealed for help in combating AIDS, saying millions faced death because they could not afford sophisticated drugs. In Malawi , 30 percent of school teachers are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and in
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - In an impassioned speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary of State Colin Powell promised on Monday the United States would provide more money for a global AIDS fund as well as research for a cure. He did not say how much more the Bush administration would contribute but said the initia
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Winning the battle against AIDS requires empowering young African women and girls to protect themselves from the deadly disease, government officials said on Monday. AIDS infection rates are rising rapidly among young women and girls in many African countries. In Mozambique , H
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - In an impassioned speech to the UN General Assembly, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that the United States would provide more money for a global AIDS fund. He did not say how much more the Bush administration would contribute but said the initial $200 million US contribution was
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More than half a billion dollars has been pledged to a global fund championed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to battle AIDS in poor countries, UN officials said on Sunday. Annan has proposed an anti-AIDS war chest for poor countries, estimating $7 billion to $10 billion a year in addition
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Health and UN officials said on Friday they have evidence the latest AIDS treatments can work in impoverished villages, contradicting statements by large drug companies that even free anti-retroviral drugs would not help where medical support is lacking. Anti-retroviral therapy for poor count
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Declaring AIDS had wiped out a decade of progress in some areas, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called on the world to speak frankly about the disease and its victims facing a death sentence. We cannot deal with AIDS by making moral judgements or refusing to face unpleasant facts -- a
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Declaring AIDS had wiped out a decade of progress in some areas, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called for funds to combat the killer disease and told governments to stop stigmatizing its victims. AIDS can no longer do its deadly work in the dark. The world has started to wake up, An
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Two decades after the first AIDS case was reported, the United Nations on Monday opens a high-level conference to combat the disease killing 5 million adults a year and creating a generation of orphans. The appalling figures are not in dispute for the 3,000 government leaders, advocacy groups
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki leaves on Monday for the United States to promote an African recovery plan, but officials say he will skip a U.N. summit on the AIDS pandemic ravaging sub-Saharan Africa. Mbeki will hold talks with President Bush during an official visit from J
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - On the eve of a major U.N. AIDS conference, Canada protested against a group of Islamic nations seeking to keep a U.S.-based gay rights group from participating on a U.N.-sponsored panel next week. Susan Markham, spokeswoman for the U.N. General Assembly president, said on Saturday she expect
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hundreds of activists, shouting medication for every nation, called on Saturday for billions of dollars in debt relief and funding to pay for drug treatment for the world s millions of poor AIDS patients. Religious, human rights and AIDS groups marched through city streets on a rainy afternoon to s
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Only days before a major U.N. AIDS conference, Islamic nations and the Vatican are still trying to block language on homosexuals, prostitutes and drugs users in a plan of action 180 nations must approve. Sue Markham, spokeswoman for the U.N. General Assembly, said on Friday envoys would meet
ROME (Reuters) - Eradicating hunger could play a key role in slowing the spread of AIDS, the UN World Food Programme said on Friday. The link between hunger and AIDS is frequently overlooked and must be addressed immediately if the international community is to truly come to grips with this crisis, Namanga Ngongi, the
GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Labor Organization (IL0), which brings together governments, unions and employers, Friday announced it had drawn up a new code to protect the job rights of AIDS sufferers. The code, the first such effort to spell out a policy for dealing with the killer disease at the workplace, wil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Friday it had approved $855 million in new loans for Mexico , aimed at reforming the nation s banking sector and improving health services for the poor. The Washington-based lender said it had approved a $505 million loan for the banking sector, aimed at improving banks ab
JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI (Reuters) - Africa will press next week s United Nations AIDS summit for urgent funds to fight a pandemic striking more than 25 million people in the world s poorest continent. The unprecedented U.N. three-day meeting kicks off in New York Monday and is expected to back a multi-billion dollar plan
LONDON (Reuters) - A new blood test to identify people recently infected with tuberculosis could help contain the highly contagious disease, scientists said Friday. Researchers at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford said the test is more convenient and provides quicker results and f
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treating HIV-infected people and preventing future infections in the developing world will cost $9.2 billion annually, U.N. officials said on Thursday in a detailed assessment of the price of mounting an effective campaign against the global AIDS pandemic. In a report released ahead of a U.N. sum
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s AIDS crisis has left growing numbers of traumatized orphans close to starvation as they struggle to survive on their own, a study headed by former president Nelson Mandela said on Thursday. The Nelson Mandela Children s Fund, led by South Africa s first democratic leader, reveale
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Once thought to be a deadly carcinogen, selenium is now seen as a new wonder mineral that lists cancer prevention, AIDS suppression, and anti-aging among its numerous benefits to humans and animals. Selenium has been recognized as an essential micro-nutrient for over 40 years, but only since the 19
GENEVA, June 20 (Reuters) - A senior official of the United Nations AIDS body on Wednesday urged multinational companies to do their bit in the battle against the killer disease. Speaking as Coca-Cola offered its distribution and marketing expertise to fight AIDS in Africa, associate director of UNAIDS
LONDON (Reuters) - The basic building block of life is carbon. Or is it? If a living organism gets a disease, the answer is organic. Isn t it? The Oxford dictionary says life is the condition that distinguishes active animals and plants from inorganic, or non-carbon, matter. But medical researchers differ. Life is not
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Rape in Africa s refugee camps is fuelling the spread of AIDS and threatens to send infection rates soaring in regions already hard hit by war, an official of the United Nations AIDS body said. Damien Rwegera, UNAIDS adviser for conflict zones in West and Central Africa, told Reuters better coordina
LONDON (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Tuesday that the world faced a major human disaster unless it took serious steps to tackle the spread of AIDS. Annan, speaking a week before a UN AIDS conference, said he hoped donor countries would commit the billions of dollars a year needed to
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A week before a major UN AIDS conference, delegates are still embroiled on what to say about sex--among prostitutes, homosexuals and outside of marriage in general, according to a frank document on combating the killer disease. The negotiations, says Iranian Ambassador Bagher Asadi, should no
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - American singer and U.N. goodwill ambassador Harry Belafonte Tuesday defended South African President Thabo Mbeki for creating a broader debate on the AIDS epidemic. Mbeki has been criticized round the world for questioning the causal link between HIV and the AIDS epidemic threat
UNITED NATIONS, June 19 (Reuters) - Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is back at the world body to tell businessmen they should take care of their employees afflicted with AIDS. An early champion of international action to combat the killer disease, Holbrooke said on Tuesday he had ac
BASEL, Switzerland , June 19 (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG and Trimeris Inc have extended their partnership to develop and market HIV fusion inhibitors to cover a new generation of the drugs, Roche said on Tuesday. The three-year accord extends a 1999 agreement to share the costs of developing and bringing to market dru
SOWETO, South Africa (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki led a march on Saturday to salute the South African children who sparked a bloody revolt 25 years ago that signalled the beginning of the end of white rule. But the march appeared to have less to do with politics than with making a statement against HIV/AIDS, which
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A week before a major U.N. AIDS conference, delegates are still embroiled on what to say about sex -- among prostitutes, homosexuals and outside of marriage in general, according to a frank document on combating the killer disease. The negotiations, says Iranian Ambassador Bagher Asadi, shoul
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Urging the world to wake up to the devastating dimensions of Africa s AIDS epidemic, World Bank President James Wolfensohn on Thursday called on donor nations to convert half of a planned $1 billion in zero-interest loans into outright grants to fight the disease. This is not some fringe issue happ
GENEVA (Reuters) - The lives of tens of thousands of AIDS suffers in Africa could be immediately prolonged by quick international backing for a multi-billion-dollar fund to fight the scourge, a top UN official said on Friday. The $7-10 billion fund, proposed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will be a foc
NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Shares of Immune Response Corp. surged on Friday after a firm that has licensed its Remune anti-HIV drug reported positive clinical data among HIV-infected patients in Thailand who were treated with the agent as a sole therapy. The Immune Response rally comes just two weeks after company s
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government said Thursday it has taken action against dozens of companies that promised to cure AIDS and a host of other ailments with natural remedies and electric devices sold over the Internet. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it had filed complaints against six companies that c
PRETORIA, June 14 (Reuters) - U.S. drug giant Pfizer could start giving away its anti-fungal drug Diflucan to HIV-infected patients in Botswana as early as September, the company said on Thursday. Pfizer announced last week plans to expand a free drug programme, currently operating only in
TARRYTOWN, N.Y., June 14 (Reuters) - Bayer Diagnostics, a unit of Bayer Corp. on Thursday said it had licensed from Roche Diagnostics GmbH and U.S. diagnostics company Dade Behring the rights to develop, manufacture and market a test to detect exposure to a type of HIV infection. Bayer Corp. is a unit of German drugs a
CALCUTTA, India (Reuters) - India s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh will send health activists to barber shops to spread awareness about AIDS among the hair-cutting fraternity, a government official said on Tuesday. The official told Reuters that barbers are at high risk for the disease as they have a greater r
GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki was heckled by a handful of AIDS activists Wednesday as he opened a new health facility named after his father at Glasgow s Caledonian University. You have got blood on your hands, the 10 protesters shouted as Mbeki, on the second day of his state visit
NAIROBI (Reuters) - AIDS activists in Kenya claimed victory in the war for cheap medicines on Tuesday as an orphanage took possession of the country s first consignment of generic AIDS drugs. Brazil donated the medicines, copies of much more expensive drugs made by global pharmaceuticals firms, as Kenya s parliament pr
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan parliament on Tuesday passed a controversial bill opposed by the global pharmaceutical industry that will allow the east African country to import and manufacture cheap medicines. Lawmakers voted unanimously to approve the Industrial Properties Bill 2001, effectively loosening the pharmac
ATLANTA (Reuters) - New cases of tuberculosis, once a leading killer in the United States , declined to an all-time low last year due to improved screening and treatment of those infected with the lung disease, federal health experts said on Tuesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 16,377 new c
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As it invades the body, the virus that causes AIDS unleashes a domino effect of destruction at the molecular level within immune system cells, ultimately leading to cellular suicide, scientists said on Tuesday. Researchers at the University of California at San Diego used cutting-edge technology
LONDON (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki flew into Britain on Tuesday for a state visit that will be a judicious mixture of diplomacy and business designed to demonstrate the two countries deep commitment to each other. A smiling Mbeki arrived with his wife Zanelli at the RAF Northolt airfield west of Lon
NAIROBI (Reuters) - AIDS activists in Kenya claimed victory in the war for cheap medicines on Tuesday as an orphanage took possession of the country s first consignment of generic AIDS drugs. Brazil donated the medicines, copies of much more expensive drugs made by global pharmaceuticals firms, as Kenya s parliament pr
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s parliament on Tuesday passed a controversial bill opposed by the global pharmaceutical industry that would allow the east African country to import and manufacture cheap medicines. MPs voted to accept the Industrial Properties Bill 2001 unanimously, a move that effectively loosens the pharma
LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Monday it was extending its offer of cheap AIDS drugs to a total of 63 countries, following pressure from activists and charity groups. The medicines will be offered at the cost of production to governments, aid agencies and churches in all least developed countries (LDCs)
KAMPALA, June 11 (Reuters) - U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc, under fire for the high cost of its AIDS drugs, announced plans on Monday to help Uganda combat the epidemic ravaging the country. The New York-based company said it would build a modern AIDS treatment and training centre, allowing the 1.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Thousands of South Africans paid tribute to 12-year-old AIDS activist Nkosi Johnson in an emotional funeral service Saturday shunned by President Thabo Mbeki and his senior ministers. Nkosi, who was born with HIV and died a week ago, reached iconic status. Up to 5,000 people attended the servic
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Black leaders urged the Bush administration on Friday to spend an additional $190 million, or 54 percent more than currently budgeted, to fight AIDS among blacks, who account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the United States . In the 1400s the black plague killed a lot of people, but
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Representatives of some of the world s biggest drug firms met African health ministers in South Africa on Friday to try to boost the fight against the AIDS epidemic that is gripping the continent. The meeting, brokered by the head of the United Nations AIDS division
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - African health ministers wrapped up an unprecedented meeting with seven of the most powerful drug firms Friday, saying anti-AIDS drugs were still too expensive for their governments facing a devastating AIDS epidemic. Ministers from 11 southern African states, many of which have the highest rat
NEW YORK, June 8 (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said on Friday it may seek approval in 2003 for a successor to DuPont Co. s anti-HIV treatment Sustiva , if its planned $7.8 billion acquisition of DuPont s pharmaceuticals business is approved by U.S. regulators. Bristol-Myers officials told analysts in a confe
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - India , Ethiopia , Kenya , Nigeria and South Africa each have at least 2 million adults suffering from AIDS or infected with the HIV virus, according to a new UN statistical analysis released on Thursday.
DURBAN (Reuters) - The chief U.N. AIDS expert Peter Piot gave credit Thursday to African states that are now openly discussing how to cope with the epidemic that has gripped the continent. For me, what I was most impressed with ... is the fact that people who a few years ago would not have wanted to debate AIDS will no
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With a fight brewing over U.S. funding to fight AIDS in Africa, Democratic lawmakers on Thursday said the Bush administration needed to boost its commitment to battling the disease around the globe. House Democrats, while applauding the administration s recent $200 million contribution to a globa
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Hospitals in South Africa s most AIDS-ravaged province, KwaZulu-Natal, are being overwhelmed by a growing number of AIDS patients, the country s leading medical journal reported in its latest issue. The South African Medical Journal (SAMJ) found urban and rural clinics in the province stretched
INANDA, South Africa (Reuters) - In a darkened room filled with the pungent aroma of a smoldering sacred plant, a sangoma, a traditional African doctor, nurses a sick man back to health with ancient herbal remedies. This sangoma is a petite young white woman with a limited Zulu vocabulary, but her patients do not doubt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Republican lawmaker on Wednesday proposed increasing the amount of funds budgeted by the White House to fight AIDS , saying the world was on the verge of a modern-day plague. Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, introduced legislation boostin
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Mourners gathered in Johannesburg on Wednesday for a memorial service to mark the brief life of Nkosi Johnson, the 12-year-old boy who became an icon in South Africa s fight against HIV /AIDS . Johnson was born with HIV and died last Friday after the disease finally broke his frail body. His de
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.S. pharmaceutical drug giant Pfizer Inc. announced on Wednesday it would expand distribution of its antifungal drug, Diflucan, free of charge to HIV/AIDS patients in 50 of the world s least developed countries. The drug, generically known as Fluconazole, is now being distributed at no c
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - The United Nations marked the 20th anniversary of the first reported cases of AIDS with a warning Tuesday that the epidemic, having claimed 22 million lives, was just in its early stages. AIDS has become the most devastating epidemic in human history. On a global scale we are only at the beginning
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thousands of AIDS patients are flocking to a clinic in central Thailand that claims to have found a miracle cure for the deadly AIDS virus. Last week 4,000 people, some with oxygen masks and in wheelchairs, flooded a gymnasium in Bangkok to get a free week s supply of V-1 Immunitor, which its crea
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty years after the world learned of the existence of AIDS , Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson on Tuesday pledged a new level of commitment in fighting it, but the top government expert on the disease said no one can say when a vaccine will be ready. It has been 20 years an
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa moved on Monday to secure affordable drugs to tackle its AIDS epidemic following a landmark legal victory over pharmaceutical giants wanting to stop the import of low cost medicines. The Health Ministry published 70 pages of draft legislation that would allow it to sh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Margaret Heckler, President Ronald Reagan s health and human services secretary, vowed in April 1984 that a vaccine for AIDS would be ready to be tested in people within two years, few could have guessed how wrong she would be. With an estimated 22 million people dead around the world, inclu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the business community on Friday to run AIDS prevention and treatment programs for workers or watch the killer disease wreak havoc on world economic growth. Declaring HIV/AIDS an unparalleled nightmare, Annan told a US Chamber of Commerce breakfast that the p
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nkosi Johnson, the 12-year-old South African boy who became an icon in the fight against the AIDS epidemic, lost his battle against the disease Friday. I m sad but it s almost a relief that my little boy is not suffering any more. He has run a race that very few adults have run, said Nkosi s wh
CARLSBAD, Calif. (Reuters) - Immune Response Corp. said on Friday a treatment it is developing to combat the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, did not meet the targets of a mid-stage clinical trial in Spain . The news sent shares of Immune Response plummeting $2.94, or more than 60 percent, to $1.94 in m
LONDON (Reuters) - British health officials warned on Friday that post-AIDS sexual caution was giving way to complacency as new HIV diagnoses hit a record level. Although British levels are still moderate by Western European standards, the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) said sexual behavior was becoming more i
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Young gay and bisexual men, especially in the black community, are becoming infected with HIV at rates like these groups had when the AIDS epidemic peaked in the mid-1980s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. In a study released to mark the 20th anniversary of the discov
LONDON (Reuters) - British actress Emma Thompson plans to take a year off work to travel through Africa with her family to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. The two-time Oscar winner will be going to Africa on behalf of the charity Action Aid, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday. We have always wanted to do some volunt
CAIRO (Reuters) - Africa has fallen behind the rest of the world in child welfare over the past decade due to a deadly combination of poverty, debt, AIDS and war, the head of the United Nations children s agency said on Monday. There have been too many promises, not enough commitment, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Be
ROME (Reuters) - HIV/AIDS is devastating food production and consumption in Africa and undermining farm incomes, a senior agricultural economist said on Tuesday. In countries with a significant AIDS problem, the impact of AIDS is devastating on food production and consumption, Aidan O Driscoll, chairman of the United N
More than 100 countries have spent the past six days in marathon debates on a declaration that sets among its goals spending up to $10 billion a year by 2005 to combat the virus, which has devastated African nations and is rapidly spreading through Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. But too many parts of the state
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell came under fire Sunday from Kenyan AIDS activists angry at what they called the U.S. government s inadequate response to the fight against the disease. Powell, in Kenya on a four-nation tour of Africa, pledged to keep the search for an AIDS cure high on Washing
KAMPALA (Reuters) - The United States has pledged Uganda $50 million over five years to support its AIDS program, which Washington sees as one of Africa s most successful, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday. Uganda will receive $20 million for extending its prevention and treatment program into new parts of
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc , the world s top supplier of HIV-AIDS drugs, announced on Thursday that its experimental HIV vaccine was able to prevent the development of AIDS in rhesus monkeys exposed to a simian-human immunodeficiency virus. Results from the preclinical trial were presente
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in South Africa on Thursday and immediately held talks with President Thabo Mbeki on the fight against AIDS, regional conflicts and U.S. policy on Africa. Emerging from talks with Mbeki, Powell said the president fully understood the gravity of the AIDS probl
NAIROBI (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the world s top supplier of HIV -AIDS drugs, said on Thursday it intended to slash further the price of its antiretroviral AIDS drug cocktails in Kenya . The move comes as the east African country s parliament prepares to debate a controversial bill to allow the import of cheap
LONDON (Reuters) - HIV -positive mothers in developing countries who breast-feed may be endangering their own lives as well as those of their babies, a team of international scientists said Friday. The new research by Kenyan and American doctors, which has met with some skepticism because it contradicts previous studie
BAMAKO, Mali (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Mali Wednesday at the start of a four-country African tour likely to be dominated by talk of AIDS and conflict. Powell s tour, which began in West Africa and will take him to South Africa , Kenya and
BAMAKO, Mali (Reuters) - Colin Powell, the first African American Secretary of State to visit Africa, said Wednesday he felt an emotional twinge arriving in the continent which his ancestors left aboard slave ships. There is an emotional connection I always feel when I m in Africa, he told reporters on his plane from
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell arrives in Africa on Wednesday at the start of a four-country tour which challenges the conventional wisdom that the Bush administration is likely to neglect the continent. Powell, an African American through his Jamaican immigrant parents, has given Africa precede
LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - Campaigners lobbied top management at GlaxoSmithKline Plc on Monday, demanding the drug giant do more to increase access to life-saving medicines for AIDS and other diseases in Africa. Activists from UK charity Oxfam, dressed in white laboratory coats, handed out special pill boxes to shareho
KIEV (Reuters) - Thousands of religious activists paraded through Kiev on Sunday, urging bystanders to turn to God and fight AIDS in the biggest demonstration yet seen in the Ukrainian capital. Upwards of 15,000 people from churches and religious organizations across Ukraine marched, cheered and sang their way through
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Needle-exchange programs, a controversial HIV prevention approach, are growing in number and effectiveness, a federal study showed on Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 131 of the programs existed in 1998 in the United States , up from 68 in 1994-95. The 110 programs
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission will not participate in a proposed global health fund if it is aimed exclusively at combating AIDS, because diseases such as malaria are bigger killers in Africa, a top official said on Wednesday. Speaking at a United Nations conference on the world s poorest countries, Euro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The US government on Tuesday unveiled a first-of-its-kind guide intended to help doctors better understand the unique problems faced by women infected with the virus that causes AIDS . The manual details how the incurable viral disease that ravages the body s immune system affects women different
BEIJING (Reuters) - Young people in East Asia and the Pacific are woefully unprepared to deal with HIV/AIDS, which is expected to spead dramatically in the region, the United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday. A UNICEF poll of youths aged 9 to 17 in 17 Asia-Pacific countries or regions found an alarming i
CAIRO, May 13 (Reuters) - An Egyptian pharmaceuticals company said on Sunday it would soon start producing two low-cost generic drugs for treating AIDS and leukaemia, to rival higher-priced proprietary brands in the Middle East and Africa. In recent months the multinational drug industry has come under attack for tryin
NEW YORK, May 11 (Reuters) - The former president of New Technologies & Concepts has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for issuing false press releases that claimed the company had developed a cure for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, prosecutors said on Friday. Alfred Flores, 50, pleaded guilty la
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, flanked by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan , announced on Friday the United States would contribute $200 million to a global AIDS fund. We must all show leadership and all share responsibility. For our part I m today committing the United
KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - Jamaica s Health Ministry said Thursday it had no immediate plan to issue condoms to prison inmates to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS -- an issue that provoked deadly riots four years ago. Acting Chief Medical Officer Deanna Ashley said the ministry and the prisons service were developing a
ROME (Reuters) - The United Nations world food body said on Thursday that deaths caused by HIV/AIDS in the 10 most affected African countries will reduce the labor force by as much as 26% by 2020. The virus is having a major impact on nutrition, food security, agricultural production and rural societies in many countri
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House intends to contribute $200 million to a global AIDS fund proposed by U.N. Secretary-General Annan, who appealed on Wednesday to the Bush administration to join a worldwide battle against the disease. U.S. sources closely involved in discussions said the United States wou
BOMBAY (Reuters) - Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd, which sparked cuts in global AIDS drug prices in February, plans to make an AIDS cocktail pill that could cause prices to fall even further, the company chairman told Reuters on Tuesday. We are applying for Indian government permissions to launch three AIDS drugs--
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will make the first contribution to his proposed global fund to combat AIDS, donating a $100,000 prize he just won for promoting peace, a spokesman said on Thursday. Annan is to receive the cash prize as part of the awarding of the Philadelphia Liberty Medal du
LONDON (Reuters) - Medical experts called on Friday for more efforts to encourage safe sex after new research showed HIV drug resistance is increasing in Britain. An estimated 25-27 percent of people in Britain infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS last year were resistant to one or more anti-AIDS drugs. The p
BUJUMBURA, May 1 (Reuters) - Burundi s government has struck a deal with Western pharmaceutical companies to ensure access to cheap AIDS drugs, becoming the seventh African country to join the U.N.-sponsored scheme, officials said on Tuesday. Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world and among the most affecte
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Baker s yeast may not be just for making bread anymore, if new animal research pans out. Colorado researchers report that an experimental vaccine developed from baker s yeast activated infection-fighting killer T cells in mice. The preliminary success of the yeast vaccine has researchers hop
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has taken the first steps to accessing cheaper, generic AIDS drugs by signing a declaration of intent with India to foster cooperation on health issues. The declaration, which was signed on Monday, follows the decision last month by global pharmaceutical manufacturers to withdraw a
ABUJA (Reuters) - African leaders declared a state of emergency over AIDS on Friday and vowed to make the fight against the disease their highest priority. Concluding the African AIDS summit in Abuja, 15 heads of state and senior government officials from 43 African nations agreed to create legislation and internationa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Momentum is building for the world s wealthy nations to kick in money toward a war chest to fight AIDS and other infectious diseases in the poorest countries, a senior World bank official said on Monday. Chris Lovelace, the World Bank s director of health, nutrition and population, told Reuters t
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Monday for private U.S. foundations to put their financial might behind a new global fund designed to orchestrate a new coordinated attack on the AIDS pandemic. In today s world, there are no health sanctuaries, no separation between foreign and dome
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A review of HIV drug advertising found that many promotions are misleading because they do not make clear that the medicines cannot cure infection or reduce viral transmission, US regulators said on Friday. The Food and Drug Administration said it had changed its position and now considers it a v
ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) - African leaders declared a state of emergency over AIDS on Friday and vowed to make the fight against the disease their highest priority. Concluding the African AIDS summit in Abuja, 15 heads of state and senior government officials from 43 African nations agreed to create legislation and int
ABUJA (Reuters) - African leaders ended the continent s first AIDS summit on Friday by declaring a state of emergency and vowing to make the fight against the disease their highest development priority. In a declaration approved at the end of the two-day summit, the 15 heads of state and representatives from 43 countri
WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - A review of HIV drug advertising found that many promotions are misleading because they do not make clear that the medicines cannot cure infection or reduce viral transmission, U.S. regulators said on Friday. The Food and Drug Administration said it had changed its position and now cons
WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - A review of HIV drug advertising found that many promotions are misleading because they do not make clear that the medicines cannot cure infection or reduce viral transmission, U.S. regulators said on Friday. The Food and Drug Administration said it had changed its position and now cons
ABUJA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed on Thursday a global super-fund to halt the spread of AIDS as Africa rallied political support to combat its worst scourge. Annan unveiled his strategy against AIDS and other infectious diseases at a special African summit in Nigeria and won qualifie
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany said on Friday that it backed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan s call for an intensified campaign to raise funds for the fight against AIDS. You can count on full support from the German government, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in a statement. Amid the devastating impact of the HIV
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Little about the Evandro Chagas Hospital housed in a sagging castle or the crumbling brick walls of the Far-Manguinhos drug laboratory suggest that Brazil is on the cutting edge in the fight against AIDS. But inside the shabby buildings, doctors, scientists and government officials ha
ABUJA (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton joked on Thursday he was attending the African AIDS summit along with Ghana s ex-president Jerry Rawlings as part of the political has-beens delegation. But if private citizen Clinton is a has-been, no one in Nigeria knows it. If Clinton rode in my car, it would cha
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - Most of the debt held by poor countries cannot be repaid, a public policy research group said on Thursday, only days after international lenders said they could not afford to completely cancel these debts. Of the $422 billion worth of debt held by 47 of the most impoverished nations in
LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers on Wednesday contradicted a theory that the HIV virus was introduced to humans through a contaminated polio vaccine used in Africa half a century ago. Scientists working in Britain, France , Sweden , the United States and Germany
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NasdaqNM:HEPH said on Tuesday that studies in old mice show that its experimental immune regulating hormone boosted antibody response when given together with a hepatitis vaccine, sending the company s shares sharply higher. The San Diego company s stock was up
UNITED NATIONS, April 23 (Reuters) - Tuberculosis cases are expected to double in Africa over the next 10 years, driven by the rapid spread of AIDS, the United Nations said on Monday. The number of TB cases is growing at a rate of 10 percent a year in Africa and will reach 3.3 million a year by 2005, compared with fewe
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Immune Response Corp. (NasdaqNM:IMNR announced Monday that a subset of data from a 1996- 1999 pivotal-stage trial that failed to meet its primary goal nevertheless suggest its experimental AIDS vaccine, Remune, lowered levels of the virus in HIV -positive patients. The news sent the company
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Asia risks an AIDS epidemic of African proportions unless it prevents spread of the disease while transmission rates are still low, delegates to a United Nations conference said Monday. I think it s important that we not repeat Africa s mistake, and prevent spread of the disease in the early stages,
QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) - Leaders of 34 countries in the Americas called on Sunday for creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas by the end of 2005 and vowed to work for democracy and human rights. In the final Declaration of Quebec City after a three-day summit, they said democracy was fundamental to all their objec
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria hosts an African AIDS summit this week, but efforts to stem the epidemic are being undermined by the growing number of home-grown cures, experts say. The United Nations says AIDS is Africa s number one killer and the U.N.-sponsored summit, in Abuja from April 25-27, is expected to find ways to
LONDON (Reuters) - Cheap drugs will go a long way toward relieving the suffering and diminishing the death toll from AIDS in poor nations, but a two-pronged attack including prevention is needed to defeat the epidemic, a UN official told Reuters. The collapse of the court case by 39 of the world s biggest pharmaceutica
LONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland : GSK.L), the world s largest supplier of HIV-AIDS drugs, said on Thursday an out-of-court settlement with South Africa over cheap imports had delivered a victory to both sides.
LONDON (Reuters) - The collapse of the South African court case over importing cheap AIDS drugs could spark changes in international trade laws that will improve access to medicines in poor countries, aid groups predicted on Thursday. Thirty-nine of the world s biggest drug companies dropped their controversial legal c
PRETORIA (Reuters) - The world s biggest drug makers on Thursday abandoned a bid to stop South Africa from importing cheap copies of their AIDS drugs and acknowledged the right of poor countries to strike the best deals they can. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PMA) and 39 international dr
PRETORIA (Reuters) - AIDS activists rejoiced Thursday after the world s richest drug makers appeared to wilt under public pressure and withdrew from their legal battle to stop South Africa importing generic AIDS drugs. The decision by 39 drug firms to drop the landmark court case was hailed as a major victory for the w
PRETORIA (Reuters) - The world s richest drug companies were poised Wednesday to finally withdraw from a landmark South African court case over patented AIDS drugs after suffering a public relations disaster. The case was to resume Thursday amid growing expectations that 39 companies had decided their challenge of a So
PRETORIA (Reuters) - A court Wednesday postponed a case brought by 39 international pharmaceutical companies to stop South Africa from importing cheap copies of their patented AIDS drugs until 10 a.m. Thursday, as most of the firms withdrew their case. As discussions are still going on, the case is adjourned until 10 a
PRETORIA, April 18 (Reuters) - A court case in Pretoria pitting the world s biggest drug firms against the South African government over the right to import generic versions of patented AIDS drugs is a matter of life and death for Nonthantla Maseko. She is just one of the estimated 4.7 million South Africans who are li
LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - A former senior lobbyist for British pharmaceuticals giant SmithKline Beecham is to join the charity Oxfam to campaign for cheaper AIDS drugs, he told Reuters on Tuesday. David Earnshaw, who worked on access to medicines in the developing world for two years, said he was frustrated by the d
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - The world s most powerful drug firms came under a deluge of criticism from AIDS activists Tuesday who denounced the industry for putting profits ahead of the lives of the 25 million Africans who live with HIV-AIDS. The attack came ahead of a court case in the South African capital
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African lawyers head back to court this week to press their case that the world s most powerful drug firms are immorally keeping poor countries from cheap drugs they need to combat AIDS. In the court action resuming on Wednesday, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Afric
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia has authorized the import of drugs to fight a devastating AIDS epidemic for the first time since the disease was discovered in the country in 1986, the Ministry of Health said on Monday. The ministry called on firms to import affordable medicines to help 2.6 million people suffering fro
INGWAVUMA, South Africa , April 16 (Reuters) - AIDS has stolen her parents and her future from 17-year-old Sithandiwe Nyawo. She is in a desperate struggle to care for her three younger siblings with no help from the South African government. The burden of caring for her family weighs heavily on Nyawo. Our future
JOHANNESBURG, April 15 (Reuters) - Former President Nelson Mandela on Sunday castigated the 39 major pharmaceutical companies that have taken the South African government to court to prevent the import or manufacture of cheap AIDS drugs. But he added in an hour-long Easter interview with the South African Broadcasting
LONDON (Reuters) - As the South African government and drug firms prepare to resume a legal battle over access to anti-AIDS drugs, researchers said Friday the African epidemic was not caused by a more virulent strain of the HIV virus. With 25.3 million sufferers, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of cases of th
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have identified a protein that permits HIV , the virus that cause AIDS, to evade the immune system. The protein, called Nef, protects HIV-infected cells and at the same time destroys other healthy cells in the immune system, assuring that the virus will thrive. This reveals a real, unfortu
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A leading South African AIDS advocacy group filed court papers against the world s most powerful drug firms on Wednesday, charging them with failing to act in the face of the country s AIDS crisis. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) lodged its 800-page affidavit in advance of the resumption of
OSLO (Reuters) - The director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday to make further cuts in the prices of drugs sold in poor countries to combat AIDS and other diseases. A number of drug companies are contributing and have reduced prices fairly considerably, Gro Harlem Brundtl
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have identified a protein that permits the HIV virus that causes AIDS to evade the immune system. The protein, called Nef, protects HIV-infected cells and at the same time destroys other healthy cells in the immune system, assuring that the virus will thrive. This reveals a real, unfortuna
JOHANNESBURG, April 11 (Reuters) - A leading South African AIDS advocacy group filed court papers against the world s most powerful drug firms on Wednesday, charging them with failing to act in the face of the country s AIDS crisis. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) lodged its 800-page affidavit ahead of the resumpti
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - AIDS activists on Wednesday threatened to go on hunger strike in an attempt to force drug firms to drop their legal action against the South African government for attempting to secure cheaper medicines. Some of the world s most powerful drug firms, including giants GlaxoSmithKline ,
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore man who donated HIV-infected blood has been jailed for 15 months for lying on a screening questionnaire about unprotected sex with a prostitute. Neo Swee Chye, a 30-year-old electrician, told District Judge Siva Shanmugam on Tuesday he was in a hurry to fill out the donor form at a mo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Research aimed at finding a cure for diseases like cancer, AIDS and senile dementia would get a 13.5% boost under the fiscal 2002 budget proposal released by President George W. Bush on Monday. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which conducts and funds medical research and the study of hum
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese prosecutors appealed on Tuesday a lower court ruling that cleared a leading AIDS expert of negligence in a case linked to a scandal that exposed thousands to the HIV virus through tainted blood products. Japanese media reported that the appeal had been made to the Tokyo High Court over a ruli
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Monday named a gay man to head the White House AIDS office, which is being revamped to increase efforts at fighting the disease overseas. The White House said Bush named Scott Evertz, Wisconsin president of the gay and lesbian organization Log Cabin Republicans, to head the Whit
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. said on Monday its experimental drug PRO 140 reduced levels of HIV to undetectable levels in mice that received transplanted human immune cells and were then infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Shares of the Tarrytown, N.Y.-based firm were up $1.99 to $13.49, or
OSLO (Reuters) - Representatives of governments, drug companies and lobby groups met in Norway on Monday to discuss ways to provide the world s poorest people with low-cost medicines to treat AIDS and other crippling diseases. The talks, jointly sponsored by the World Heath Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organi
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s GlaxoSmithKline Plc said Monday that Mali had become the sixth African country to strike a deal with Western pharmaceutical companies to ensure access to cheap AIDS drugs. The West African country will receive heavily discounted anti-HIV medicines under the United Nations-sponsored initiati
TOKYO, April 9 (Reuters) - Kureha Chemical Industry Co Ltd and Japan s second-biggest drug maker Sankyo Co Ltd have agreed to launch joint research and development to commercialise Kureha s anti-HIV drug, the two companies said on Monday. The drug, CXCR4 Blocker, unites with receptors on the surface of immune cells to
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada plans to make it easier to possess and cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock said on Friday. Rock laid out proposed regulations would allow marijuana to be used by those suffering from terminal illnesses and chronic conditions such as severe arthritis, c
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa said on Friday that key Western drugs which could be used to fight the country s AIDS epidemic were still too costly. Its concern over the price of anti-retroviral drugs came ahead of the resumption of a landmark court case on April 18, when the most powerful drug firms will attemp
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The founder of a company that recently began selling what it touted as a breakthrough AIDS medicine has been arrested for allegedly making false claims about the product and defrauding the FDA , federal prosecutors said on Thursday. M. Keith Ives was arrested by the FBI in Oklahoma on Wednesday on
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s AIDS policy was mired in confusion on Thursday, a day after a report ordered by President Thabo Mbeki failed to reach consensus on the causes of AIDS and how to combat the deadly disease. The gulf between the 33 scientists and experts on the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel was s
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (Reuters) - Hepatitis C, a silent killer that attacks the liver, is rampant among the almost two million inmates of U.S. prisons and jails but authorities are making only half-hearted efforts to combat it, medical and prison experts say. The prevalence of this disease is believed to be 30 to 40 perc
AMSTERDAM, April 5 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan won agreement from six major drug companies on Thursday to keep cutting prices of AIDS treatments for the world s poorest nations. The companies have agreed to continue and accelerate reducing prices substantially, with a special emphasis on the least dev
LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Cameroon on Wednesday became the fifth African country to strike a deal with major pharmaceutical companies to ensure cheap access to AIDS drugs. GlaxoSmithKline , the world s largest supplier of HIV/AIDS medicines, said the West African country had reached agreement with five leading drug f
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A controversial panel appointed by South African President Thabo Mbeki to look into the causes of AIDS has accepted the premise that the plague ravaging the country is caused by HIV, at least for now. Pending the outcome of further research the debates of the panel have not provided grounds for
JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Reuters) - The world s biggest drug firms have attacked South Africa for failing to take up offers of cheap AIDS drugs to combat the country s health crisis. Accusations that Pretoria was not interested in securing discounted anti-AIDS drugs despite an AIDS epidemic were levelled in an affidavit
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has rebuked European Union criticism of its controversial AIDS policy, saying that Europe should instead learn from South Africa s success in combating an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Tuesday released a letter sent to
AMSTERDAM, April 3 (Reuters) - U.S. drug maker Merck and Co. is using Dutch biotechnology firm Crucell s PER.C6 technology in its HIV vaccine programme, Crucell said on Tuesday. Merck is conducting early clinical trials using novel technology it hopes will lead to the development of a vaccine that can prevent HIV (huma
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An experimental AIDS vaccine forged from the virus that causes the common cold blocked the disease from developing into its full-blown stage in laboratory monkeys, although it did not prevent the actual infection, a top scientist at Merck & Co. Inc. said on Monday. The findings point to t
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , March 30 (Reuters) - Brazil said on Friday it would make a new bid to persuade Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG to follow the example of U.S. firm Merck and cut the price of its AIDS drugs in Brazil. If Roche failed to do so, the country would ignore the patent on the drug Nelfinavir and make
LONDON (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc said on Friday its HIV/AIDS drug Kaletra had won marketing approval from the European Medicines Evaluation Agency. Kaletra is a second-generation protease inhibitor, a class of medicines that inhibit the protease enzyme which the HIV virus depends upon to replicate itsel
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Targeted Genetics Corp. on Friday said an animal trial of its experimental vaccine against the monkey form of the HIV virus prompted a strong response from T-cells, the immune system cells that kill foreign invaders. Targeted Genetics shares were up $1-1/16, or nearly 35 percent, at $4-1/8 in mi
SAO PAULO, March 29 (Reuters) - U.S. drug maker Merck and Co. has agreed to slash the prices of two AIDS drugs in Brazil , bowing to pressure from the government, which was poised to break the drugs patents, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. After weeks of negotiations, Merck agreed to drop the price of
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese newspapers reacted with rage to the acquittal on Wednesday of an AIDS expert in a case linked to the exposure of thousands to HIV, while local media said prosecutors appeared ready to appeal the verdict. The Tokyo District Court found Takeshi Abe, 84, once vice-president of Teikyo University
TOKYO (Reuters) - In a decision that outraged AIDS activists, a Japanese court on Wednesday found an expert in the disease not guilty of negligence in a case linked to a scandal that exposed thousands to HIV through tainted blood products. The ruling, extremely rare in a country where guilty verdicts are handed down in
NEW YORK, March 27 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc. is planning to sell its two AIDS drugs and its HIV diagnostic test at no profit in sub-Saharan Africa, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Tuesday. The move is the latest response to the growing public outcry over international AIDS-drug pric
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - U.S. drug maker Merck and Co Inc. has threatened to take Brazil s state-owned pharmaceutical firm to court for allegedly violating the patent on an AIDS drug, Brazilian officials said on Monday. Merck says Brazil s Far-Manguinhos laboratory violated its patent on Stocrin by importing a generi
GENEVA (Reuters) - Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has donated $10 million through his charitable foundation to a World Health Organization-based program to develop new tests to diagnose tuberculosis, WHO said on Friday. TB kills more people than any other infectious disease for which there is a known cure, according to
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has more people living with HIV -AIDS than any other country in the world, the United Nations said on Thursday. The bleak assessment came after Pretoria earlier this week released data that showed 4.7 million South Africans, or one in nine of the population, were living with the de
LONDON (Reuters) - Leaders of the rich industrial world will study ways to help developing countries access AIDS drugs and other life-saving medicines at their July summit in Genoa, Italy , a British official said on Wednesday. Pressure is growing for action, particularly in Africa where a high-profile court case broug
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - Activists demanded on Tuesday that two companies improve access to a revolutionary new AIDS drug, T-20, which could save the lives of thousands of people who fail to respond to conventional therapy. T-20 is the first of a new class of anti-HIV drugs called fusion inhibitors, which work by p
NEW DELHI, (Reuters) - India sealed a deal with a global AIDS research group on Monday to develop an AIDS vaccine for the country in a bid to check the disease, which has grown to alarming levels over the past decade. The New York-based International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has teamed up with the Health Ministry
LONDON (Reuters) - The UN s World Health Organization launched a new drug facility Tuesday to improve access to life-saving tuberculosis treatments in developing countries over the next 5 years. Although a TB cure has been available for more than 50 years, more people are dying from it than ever before and it is now th
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican acknowledged Tuesday a damning report that some priests and missionaries were forcing nuns to have sex with them, and were in some cases committing rape and forcing the victims to have abortions. Some nuns were forced to take the contraceptive pill, the report cited in the Rome dail
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa s government has rejected a U.S. company s offer of one million free AIDS test kits to help combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has devastated the country, a local newspaper reported Sunday. The Sunday Times newspaper said the million-kit donation offer from U.S. drug f
SAN FRANCISCO, March 15 (Reuters) - San Francisco may become the first city in the nation to ban sexy advertising for HIV drugs -- with officials and activists saying images depicting AIDS patients as handsome, healthy and strong may be encouraging unsafe sexual practices. Tom Ammiano, the president of the San Francisc
BOSTON, March 14 (Reuters) - The average annual cost of treating a person with the AIDS virus in the United States has declined by nearly 10 percent since 1996, but the savings come from lower hospital costs, not drug price cuts, researchers said in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine. The research put the a
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , March 14 (Reuters) - Brazil, one of the pioneering countries in free AIDS treatment, will begin trials of AIDS vaccines on 40 volunteers in April as part of a global program, researchers said on Wednesday. Researchers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro aim to have the preliminary resul
BOSTON -- HIV-positive women develop symptoms of AIDS when less of the virus is present in their bloodstream than men, according to a new study, a finding that could lead to changes in treatment guidelines for women with the virus. Current guidelines, which do not take gender into account and which specify therapy when
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb raised the stakes in a scramble to cut AIDS drug prices in Africa on Wednesday by announcing it would sell two drugs for a combined $1 a day, a price it said was below cost. The move comes one week after rival Merck and Co unveiled its own round of new price cuts, and is further
CHICAGO, March 13 — Drug treatment has quadrupled to four years the median survival time for Americans after an AIDS diagnosis, researchers said today. A study of the 394,705 Americans found to have AIDS from 1984 to 1997, and reported to the surveillance system of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atla
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa resisted calls on Tuesday to declare AIDS a national emergency, a move that would allow it to import generic medicines regardless of objections from drug firms claiming abuse of patent rights. Cabinet has never considered the issue of utilising emergency measures in relation to pro
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov drew a catastrophic picture Tuesday of rocketing drugs use in Russia and warned the trend put the country s future in jeopardy. Drug addiction was spreading fastest among young people and brought deadly diseases such as AIDS in its wake, he said. Drugs-related crim
HANOI (Reuters) - Muggers in Vietnam s southern Ho Chi Minh City have been threatening to jab people with what they say are HIV-infected hypodermic needles to persuade them to part with money and jewelry, state-run media reported on Tuesday. The Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper said incidents had been reported in passenger b
LONDON (Reuters) - The International Red Cross said on Monday humanitarian needs should prevail over commercial concerns to ensure life-saving drugs are available in developing countries. The global relief organisation s stand raises the pressure on 39 drug companies battling the South African government over its right
BOSTON, March 12 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline s chief executive on Monday likened an Indian generic drug maker to a pirate and said its offer to supply humanitarian groups was a desperate effort to save its own business. They re pirates. That s about what they are .... They ve never done a day of research in their lives
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The use of a weakened strain of live HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- in mass vaccination campaigns may actually increase death rates from the disease in many countries, researchers said on Monday, describing a medical Catch-22 situation. A research team headed by a University of California a
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The government of Ivory Coast said on Saturday it had struck a deal with leading pharmaceutical companies to slash the price of HIV/AIDS treatment. Assana Sangare, junior minister for the fight against AIDS, said Merck Glaxo SmithKline and Bristol Myers Squibb had agreed to cut the price of anti-ret
NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Muslim community leaders in Mauritania are taking part in a state-sponsored seminar to raise their own awareness of the problem of AIDS so they can in turn educate their communities. The gathering in the capital Nouakchott of around 20 Imams and heads of Muslim schools takes place amidst rising c
KHAYELITSHA, South Africa (Reuters) - Ntombozuko Khwaza was devastated when she found she had HIV in 1998, but anti-retroviral drugs and the support of her friends have helped her open a new chapter in her life. Before HIV I had no job and did nothing for my community. Now I am more open to other people and I am in com
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - AIDS drugs donated by U.S. drug giant Pfizer Inc. arrived in South Africa Thursday as the government and pharmaceutical industry faced off over the right of the world s poor to cheap drugs. The 95,000 bottles of Pfizer s anti-AIDS drug Diflucan are to be distributed to public hosp
LONDON (Reuters) - Family planning experts accused President George W. Bush on Thursday of adopting a fascist approach and creating a double standard by blocking U.S. funding for international groups that support abortion. At the launch of a new report on sexual and reproductive health which shows the risk of dying dur
UNITED NATIONS, March 8 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates called on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday to explore new ways his foundation could help the United Nations to battle AIDS. Gates, the world s richest person, and his wife Melinda met Annan for about 50 minutes for initial talks on how
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers reported on Thursday that an AIDS vaccine kept monkeys healthy for months after infection with an HIV-like virus, and scientists plan to begin testing early next year whether the same approach works with people. Scientists called the results encouraging but cautioned that they did not
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil , March 7 (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Merck and Co Inc. said on Wednesday that it is not yet extending to Brazil the deep discounts on two AIDS drugs that it announced earlier for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Merck said it would offer the drugs at no profit to developing countries, fueling h
GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana s diamond mining giant Debswana said on Wednesday it would pay for antiretroviral AIDS drugs for its workforce. The move represented one of the biggest corporate AIDS funding programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, which is at the epicentre of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. To extend employees producti
JOHANNESBURG, March 7 (Reuters) - An angry face-off over patents between the world s biggest drug firms and the South African government has turned attention back to the desperate plight of the millions of Africans with AIDS. Thirty-nine of the largest pharmaceutical firms began a court challenge this week against legi
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Merck and Co Inc. said on Wednesday it was slashing the price of two AIDS drugs in developing countries and would make no profit on their sale. The move, effective immediately, comes as the pharmaceutical industry is embroiled in a fierce legal battle over access to cheap drugs with th
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenya formally launched trials Tuesday of an AIDS vaccine developed from research on a group of prostitutes in a Nairobi slum. Scientists said it would take eight years before the vaccine could be declared a success but said they were convinced that the development represented Africa s best c
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s health minister said on Tuesday he would introduce legislation to allow the country to import cheaper generic AIDS drugs, slamming multinational pharmaceutical companies. Sam Ongeri said he would use a World Trade Organization clause which allows countries to engage in parallel importation
PRETORIA, South Africa (Reuters) - A court action brought by the world s biggest pharmaceutical companies to stop South Africa importing cheaper AIDS drugs was postponed Tuesday to allow testimony on the misery caused by the killer disease. The delay until April 18 was ordered to enable the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
PRETORIA (Reuters) - The global drug industry took South Africa s government to court on Monday in a landmark challenge condemned by several thousand AIDS activists parading through Pretoria with posters saying Lives before profits. The hearing at the Pretoria High Court is seen as a test of the ability of the richest
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal securities regulators on Monday suspended trading in Ives Health Co. Inc. (IVEH.OB) through March 16, questioning the accuracy of claims the firm has made about an HIV treatment. The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that it issued the suspension because of questions
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The global drug industry goes to battle in a South African court Monday to defend billion-dollar patent rights against a government demanding cheaper medicines to fight a runaway AIDS plague. The action filed by 39 of the world s leading firms led by Britain s GlaxoSmithKline is seen as a l
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Sixty-eight mushers and their dogs began the annual 1,100-mile trek to Nome on Saturday as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race began with a ceremonial run from downtown Anchorage. Three-time champion Jeff King of Denali, Alaska, was the first out of the start chute, in accordance with a sched
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese researchers said on Thursday they had found a gene in rats that seemed to produce a compound that defends against sexually transmitted diseases. It has the potential for powerful effects against various microbes, including the AIDS virus and those causing other sexually transmitted diseas
JOHANNESBURG, March 1 (Reuters) - The world s most powerful drug firms go head-to-head with the South African government next week in a landmark case that could decide the developing world s access to affordable medicines, including AIDS drugs. The drug industry goes to the Pretoria High Court on Monday in a bid to str
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two unlikely sources of medical good -- the viruses that cause Ebola and AIDS -- have been drafted into an attempt to find a treatment for cystic fibrosis, researchers said on Thursday. The two viruses have been gutted and stitched together to make an agent meant to carry gene therapy into the lu
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African teenagers appear to be practicing safer sex, resulting in a slowdown of HIV infection rates within the critical age group, the country s top health manager said on Thursday. Signs of change in sexual attitudes would be welcome news for South Africa where 4.2 million people -- or o
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A small U.S. firm said on Wednesday it was creating a $250 million fund to buy AIDS drugs and distribute them free in Africa where price and infrastructure are huge barriers to keeping patients healthy. The company, Phyto-Riker, said it has the backing of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the governme
GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb 27 (Reuters) - Swiss drug giant Roche Holdings Ltd. won unanimous support from U.S. advisers on Tuesday for a new oral drug to treat vision problems in AIDS patients. A Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) advisory panel voted to back valganciclovir for treatment of the sight-threatening viral in
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Brazil , the country with Latin America s highest AIDS infection rate, urged the U.N. General Assembly on Monday to recognize the right of its 189 member nations to manufacture copies of patented AIDS drugs. The General Assembly, at its upcoming special session on AIDS to be held in New York
LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc, under fire for the high cost of its AIDS drugs in Africa, pledged on Monday to supply medicines at deep discounts to a new global fund proposed by the UK government. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown unveiled plans for an international purchase fund for med
BOMBAY, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Indian generic drug maker Cipla Ltd said on Monday it would soon start talks with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to supply cheap generic versions of AIDS drugs to the world s poor. Cipla startled the global drugs industry earlier this month with an offer to supply AIDS drugs for under $1
BEIJING (Reuters) - China had 22,517 known HIV carriers at the end of last year, most of them drug users, and the real number could be many times higher, state television reported on Monday. It quoted Health Ministry experts as saying China could have more than 600,000 carriers. The United Nations has said China will h
LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish AIDS researchers said on Friday prolonged use of anti-AIDS cocktails, and not a single drug, probably caused patients to develop unusual fat deposits on the upper back. Lipodystrophy is a distressing side effect of the anti-AIDS cocktail. It causes so-called buffalo humps on the upper back an
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it aimed to test a novel AIDS vaccine on humans later this year, after studies on monkeys showed it offered protection lasting more than a year. Jean Stephenne, head of vaccine research at the Anglo-American drugs group, told an investor meeting that clinical tria
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In a modest storefront in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles, a former porn movie star and drug addict operates a medical clinic with a unique mission: to serve performers in the adult film industry. Sharon Mitchell, who shot heroin and X-rated sex films for more than 20 years, runs th
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California company that aims to develop vaccines by shuffling genes said on Tuesday it was working to create an AIDS vaccine. Maxygen Inc., based in Redwood City, California, said it was being helped in the effort by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a nonprofit group pressing f
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Drug companies and governments must do more to bring down the cost of AIDS therapies so that patients in poor nations can gain access to treatment, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. While effective drugs against AIDS and related infections are available and softening the diseas
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 21 (Reuters) - South Africa has approved the supply in tablet form of Pfizer s anti-AIDS drug Diflucan, paving the way for its free distribution in the public health sector, Pfizer and health authorities said on Wednesday. The approval follows the signing in early December of a landmark deal between S
LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Wednesday it was taking steps to increase access to discounted HIV/AIDS drugs in poor countries by supplying medicines to a range of non-profit-making bodies. Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Garnier told a conference call that the world s biggest drugs company by sales
NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Six AIDS activists were arrested on Tuesday during a demonstration at a GlaxoSmithKline Plc office in New York over access to medicines in poor countries, protesters said. About 30 protesters threw empty pill bottles, chanted and waved signs saying Glaxo s Greed Kills in the lobby of a Man
NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Drug maker Gilead Sciences Inc. said on Tuesday that late-stage trials of its anti-HIV treatment tenofovir met their primary objective of lowering the presence of the virus. Analysts said the data from tenofovir are positive and could lead to a Food and Drug Administration New Drug Applicat
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African children tend to start having sex before their teens and they must be persuaded to postpone the experience or risk seeing the rampant AIDS epidemic devastate the country, campaigners said Tuesday. The answer to the HIV/AIDS epidemic lies with young South Africans. We have to delay th
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drug maker Gilead Sciences Inc. said on Tuesday that late-stage trials of its anti-HIV treatment tenofovir met their primary objective of lowering the presence of the virus. Analysts said the data from tenofovir are positive and could lead to a Food and Drug Administration New Drug Application by m
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India vastly underestimates its HIV-infected population and the number could double if the spread of the disease is not checked immediately, a French humanitarian activist said on Friday. Official figures were deceptive because they were based on testing in urban areas and did not include more vul
ABUJA (Reuters) - The Nigerian parliament on Thursday ordered clinical trials of vaccines local scientists said they had developed for the HIV virus which gives rise to AIDS. The directive followed a legal battle between local scientist Jeremiah Abalaka and Nigeria s Health Ministry over a ban on a vaccine Abalaka deve
TORONTO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - For many, Viva Glam lipstick is a fashion statement with its former transvestite spokesmodel RuPaul and its brilliantly odd hues, but for millions infected with HIV and AIDS around the world, the lipstick is a lifeline. All the money from sales of Viva Glam lipsticks in more than 30 countrie
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - The HIV and AIDS infection rate in Cameroon has increased more than 20-fold over the past decade and would most likely rise further, the World Bank said on Thursday. The situation of HIV/AIDS is extremely worrying. The current rate of infection is 11 percent, which is very high, and we think it will
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - People infected with HIV who are taking powerful new anti-viral drugs are four times more likely to contract other sexually transmitted diseases than those not on the drugs, a sign the new treatments may be encouraging unsafe sex, a municipal study has found. The study--carried out by the San
HONG KONG (Reuters) - AIDS workers in Hong Kong marked Valentine s Day on Wednesday by distributing eye-catching and flavoured condoms in the hope of lifting the taboo on discussions of safe sex. One of the dangers is that because it is embarrassing and unmentionable, people make false assumptions which can increase th
BOSTON (Reuters) - The AIDS cocktail is a useful treatment even for people harboring a form of the human immune deficiency virus that shows resistance to the drugs, researchers report in Thursday s New England Journal of Medicine. In many patients, the cocktail, a combination of at least three drugs, seems to eliminate
WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - AIDS doctors are worried by news that mutant, drug-resistant strains of HIV are spreading through the United States and Europe, but companies that test for such strains are poised to profit from the development. The AIDS virus evolves so rapidly that it can quickly develop resistance in a
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Major South African mining firms have started to test miners anonymously for AIDS in an attempt to come to terms with a disease that threatens to devastate their workforce. The testing of miners saliva is expected to show that roughly a quarter of the country s 500,000 miners are living with th
SOFIA (Reuters) - A Libyan court on Saturday postponed for the ninth time the trial of six Bulgarian health workers charged with deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus, Bulgarian state radio said. The medics trial formally opened on February 7, 2000. The five nurses and a doctor, detained
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - President Thabo Mbeki, who has been dogged by controversy, on Friday urged South Africans to shake off the legacy of 300 years of racial oppression, crime and violence, in his third state of the nation address. We call on all our people across the color line to dedicate this year to building unity
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A surprising 14 percent of new U.S. cases of HIV infection are already resistant to drugs that treat the virus, doctors said on Wednesday -- meaning everyone newly diagnosed with HIV needs to find out which drugs are doomed to fail from the outset. And at least 10 percent of people newly infected
BOMBAY/LONDON (Reuters) - Indian generic drugmaker Cipla Ltd. said Wednesday it would supply a triple-cocktail of AIDS drugs to the world s poor at less than $1 a day, significantly undercutting multinational companies. The Indian group, which makes cheap copies of drugs that are patent-protected in other countries, is
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers trying out a unique gene therapy approach to AIDS said on Tuesday it just might work -- and might offer an alternative to a lifetime of taking complicated drug cocktails for the infection. They have not made any HIV-infected patients better, but claimed a victory in getting their pati
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New drugs that stop the AIDS web virus from getting into the cells it attacks may soon offer an extra line of defense to long-term patients, researchers say. The new generation of drugs may help attack mutated versions of the virus that have learned how to evade current drugs, a development known
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday he viewed AIDS as a national security problem, adding that we all need to do more to fight the disease that is killing millions of people in Africa. Former President Clinton s administration first termed the spread of AIDS a threat to national securi
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
LONDON (Reuters) - British drugs group GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday it had received approval from the European Commission to market Trizivir , a drug to treat HIV. GlaxoSmithKline said the EC has approved Trizivir to be marketed in all 15 member states of the European Union.
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