Last Wednesday, July 22, Brazil announced that it would produce a generic version of Roche Laboratories protease inhibitor drug nelfinavir (marketed by Roche as Viracept ). Brazilian Health Minister Jose Serra said he had started the process of declaring AIDS a national emergency and issuing a compu
Larry Kramer, the irascible playwright and activist who founded ACT UP, is in need of a liver transplant. Larry s liver has been rapidly failing for the past year due to hepatitis B and HIV-related complications. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has agreed to perform Kramer s transplant. And because Kramer i
Getting the best AIDS treatments money can buy to nations without money to buy them may be the only way to eradicate the global plague, according to new findings released July 23 by Notre Dame University researchers. Until now, the best arguments for providing costly AIDS drugs to impoverished African and Asian nations
Under One Roof, the nonprofit retail store in the Castro that raises funds to assist people living with HIV/AIDS, will provide free hearing screenings and other resources for people with HIV/AIDS-related hearing loss starting this Sunday, August 5 and continuing on consecutive Sundays through August 19. The National In
The following is an occasional column compiled by the AIDS Legal Referral Panel on issues of concern to people living with AIDS. Dear ALRP: I have been living in the same apartment for the past 10 years. There are three other units in the building and I know they are all paying much higher rent than I am. Now my landlo
The history of the HIV epidemic in San Francisco has been well documented: the initial fear and confusion among the city s residents; the contentious debates over blood banks screening donors and as to whether or not to close the city s bathhouses; the stepping up of the gay community to develop services (i.e., Shanti)
Safer sex workshops for gay men may be counterproductive and lead to more unsafe sex, according to a new study published in a recent edition of the British Medical Journal. The survey of 343 gay men in London found that 31 percent of men who attended a daylong safer sex workshop contracted a sexually transmitted diseas
Earlier this month, Canadian health officials announced that patients in that country will soon be allowed to legally use medical marijuana. Beginning on July 30, patients will be issued photo identification cards that allow them to legally possess cannabis. The new rule makes Canada the first country with federal
Do some lubes offer more protection against HIV than others? Preliminary work by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston suggests that might be the case. The study is published in the July 20 edition of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. A team led by Dr. Samuel Baron previously had s
Guess what? Condoms work. They help reduce HIV transmission. And gonorrhea. That s the latest from the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This stunning insight comes in a report that has burst into controversy because of the politics around its creation and publication. A
The conservative reaction to a report on condoms issued by the National Institutes of Health last week was predictable, given the country s shift to the right under President Bush. The report stated that condoms can greatly reduce transmission of HIV and gonorrhea. Scientific evidence is less clear, the report went on
More than two years after a $5 million HIV prevention program through DuPont Pharmaceuticals and the city of San Francisco was announced, some of the money has finally come through and is being put to use, city and company representatives announced last Thursday, July 12. Although not a cent of the funding had material
Perhaps it s time for a little CHAT? People on HIV medications who use alcohol and/or recreational drugs are being recruited for an ongoing study designed to help them stick to their regimens. You may have seen recruiting ads at bus shelters in the Castro, with a green butterfly held in a palm. Called CHAT, for Challen
Families USA is a nonprofit foundation that studies drug companies and the price of pharmaceutical drugs. The group issued a report last week demonstrating that the lion s share of drug company profits are being spent on advertising and promotion, not on research and development of new drugs. The report also listed the
A survey of sex and drug use among men who attend circuit parties and a study of Pap tests and human papillomavirus rates in women who have sex with women were among the highlights of the special June 2001 theme issue of the American Journal of Public Health focusing on GLBT health care. Circuit parties The Circuit Par
Last week the U.S. said that it would withdraw its case against a Brazilian law allowing the production of inexpensive generic versions of patented drugs for AIDS and other diseases. The June 25 announcement came on the first day of a three-day United Nations General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS that took place
The American Medical Association House of Delegates failed to endorse a proposal supporting the use of medical marijuana at its conference last month. The new policy - minus support for medical cannabis - was adopted at the group s annual policy meeting in Chicago. The proposal supporting the compassionate use of medic
U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, on Thursday, June 28, issued a long-awaited report on sexual health, calling for a mature, thoughtful, and respectful national discussion about sexuality. The Surgeon General s Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior, which has been in preparation for
The United Nations General Assembly s special session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) last week was historic for two reasons, said Secretary-General Kofi Annan: First, the level of attendance shows that the world is at long last waking up to the gravity of the HIV/AIDS crisis. And second, the Declaration [of Commitment on HIV/AID
There s a new man working on behalf of youth with HIV. Bay Area Young Positives has announced the hiring of activist Douglas Hudson as the organization s executive director, a move that many believe will help to ensure the nonprofit s financial stability and community presence. He brings a solid and diverse background
Okay, we just know you ll get this one. Jazmine, Re-fried, Long Grain, Puff, and Rice-a-Roni, The San Francisco Treat are: A) varieties of rice B) ambassadors of HIV prevention, otherwise known as the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center s Rice Girls. See, you are pretty damn sharp. But here s a few things you
Got your walking shoes? Even if you don t, registration is open for the 15th AIDS Walk San Francisco this month. Participants will gather on Sunday, July 15 at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park for a 10K walk (that s 6.2 miles for the metrically challenged) to support the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and 38 other AIDS
Soon most HIV-positive readers likely will be seeing the latest issue of Poz magazine in their mail (even though they didn t subscribe). In the latest, and perhaps last issue of Poz, the editors went out of their way, devoting six full pages to defending their HIV drug ads. While I hear the article is pretty laughable,
In what one delegate called a fight about the soul of the U.N., the United Nations General Assembly has allowed an HIV advocate from a major gay rights organization to address the body s special session on HIV/AIDS. Karyn Kaplan s three-minute speech on Tuesday, June 26, came after the full General Assembly reversed a
Money that is essential to rental subsidies for people with AIDS was not allocated by Mayor Willie Brown in the city budget, according to local advocates and officials, resulting in the very real danger that 55 units of housing for PWAs could soon be lost. The funding was requested by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Maybe I m going to make it after all. I have survived 11 years of HIV and never beyond my wildest dreams did I think I would reach the recent 20th anniversary of AIDS, let alone 10th or 15th. Even though I have tried most of the available HIV drugs, my virus has become resistant to them, so they are ineffective in stop
An atmosphere of apprehension and behind-the-scenes turmoil permeated the opening of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS. The three-day session, June 25-27, is known by the unfortunate acronym of UNGASS. Its purpose is to focus world attention on the epidemic, craft structures to administer
There was hardly time to contemplate the passage of the 20th anniversary of AIDS this June before being hit with a bombshell from the present: news from the CDC that young black gay and bisexual men were being infected each year at rates five times higher than white gay men. Coming on the heels of earlier studies showi
Horror, frustration, profound sadness, but not pride, not this year ... that s what I m feeling. Twenty years into the AIDS epidemic and the rates of new HIV infections are skyrocketing among gay men. I look around and I know at least three people who have become HIV-positive in the last year. They span generations: on
Duane J. Cramer works a lot in silver tones. One of the most striking photographs by Cramer, a grand marshal in this Sunday s San Francisco Pride Parade, shows U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), at the Capitol in 1998. You can see the concern in her face, said Cramer. Some of my images are for sale, but
What if the lubricant you use for sex could completely protect you from HIV infection? That dream of gay men and prevention advocates took a step closer toward reality with a research workshop on rectal microbicides June 7-8 in Baltimore, Maryland. It drew together researchers with the global HIV Prevention Trials Netw
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have found that HIV-infected homeless and marginally housed people who have trouble sticking to their antiviral regimens may temporarily delay the onset of full blown AIDS if they manage to take at least half of their anti-HIV medications. The UCSF study, publi
But the Black Coalition on AIDS is using an eye-catching poster of African American women in choir robes to help get out the message about what s been reported as soaring HIV rates in the black community. Recently there has been some media attention on rising rates of HIV infection among men of color, particularly Afri
Last week, the David J. Gladstone Institute (affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco), published a paper in Nature Medicine indicating drug-resistant HIV is less harmful to the immune system and the thymus than untreated virus. Though the drugs don t eradicate the virus, they re effective in treatin
In a May 31 telephone conference call with reporters, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention talked how explosive HIV incidence rates among gay and bisexual young men, particularly among African American men who have sex with men (MSM) are alarming and of critical public health importance. Mainst
On June 1, young South African AIDS activist Nkosi Johnson died; he was 12 years old. Nkosi developed AIDS-related brain damage last December, and died in his sleep last Friday morning. Nkosi, who contracted HIV perinatally, became well-known both in South Africa and throughout the world for speaking openly about his i
With the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall strangely hushed, top officials and AIDS survivors marked the 20th anniversary of the epidemic on Tuesday, June 5, surrounded by memories of the dead. Their messages were pointed or poignant, but two symbols of grief and hope blanketed them: the flags at half-mast outside Cit
He survived the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, but Chad Wyatt says he d rather repeat that experience over the hell he has endured for the past seven months at the Siskiyou County Jail in Yreka, California. Wyatt, 34, was serving time awaiting trial on 16 felony counts related to having sex with a minor and
In this 20th year of the epidemic we know as AIDS, one of the most important accomplishments of activists was to make HIV treatments available as soon as they became known, despite their availability. Activist pressure forced the Food and Drug Administration to streamline the bureaucratic drug approval process and prov
It began with just a small article, a cluster of gay men in Los Angeles dead or dying of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia ( PCP ), an unusual lung infection. The date was June 5, 1981, the journal was Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, an obscure publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention read prim
Homer Hobi collects AIDS medicines to send to Latin America and Africa. He s got AIDS himself. In January he returned to San Francisco after a 19-hour flight from South America. His new landlord greeted him with the news that he was going to get an Ellis Act eviction from his Noe Valley apartment. The state Ellis Act a
It started as a mention in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued on June 5, 1981 - gay men in Los Angeles were being treated for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a rare lung infection. Since then, the gay community in particular has expended enormous amounts of mon
If we spin out the metaphors of our life in what we do, Dr. Mitchell Katz is on a personal HIV/AIDS bike marathon, pedaling a road between hope and despair. Arriving at his Civic Center office on his bicycle, the director of San Francisco s Department of Public Health allowed that the ride to work downhill from Twin Pe
Medicines, apartments, and lovers have all come and gone in Raymond Montez s history with AIDS, but his personal experience with the disease has remained pretty constant: except for a brief life-threatening infection in the 1990s, he has been relatively healthy, he says, since he first tested positive in 1986. For the
When events marking the 20th year of the AIDS epidemic take center stage this week, there will be die-ins and memorials, services and commemorations. But other than a declared recommitment to ending the epidemic, there will be very little focus on the lives of the people who have lived for years without contracting HIV
Ever since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the media has played a crucial role. Since TV and the mainstream press have always boiled AIDS down to minimal coverage and sound bites, we see what amounts to an AIDS reporting roller coaster ride. One year AIDS is cured or treatable, the next year it is back to doom and
It started out as gay cancer, and became GRID before it was given the name AIDS, and what a killer it is. We are angry that so many lives have been cut short by this disease. There s not a week that goes by that we don t have something AIDS-related in the paper, and we are angry that 20 years later, we still have to co
The search for a vaccine against HIV got a huge boost when former President Bill Clinton committed to developing one by 2007 in a speech at Morgan State University in 1997. Few doubt the need. An estimated 15,000 new infections a day occur throughout the world, most in nations too poor to afford therapy. Prevention is
Hundreds of people marched Sunday evening, May 20, in the annual AIDS Candlelight Vigil, an event that serves both as a memorial for those lost to AIDS and a reminder that the epidemic is far from over. This year s vigil held special significance, given that on June 5, 2001, it will have been 20 years since the first c
In the city of Nairobi, there is an organization called Survive AIDS Kenya . This organization was started after one of the founding members visited San Francisco and attended the Pride Parade. Much like its sister organization here and similar activist groups, members of Survive AIDS Kenya are questioning the policies
The U.S. Supreme Court threw compassion and the pleas of patients to the wind when it ruled by the letter of the law and against the medical use of marijuana. In its 8-0 unanimous decision issued Monday, May 14, the court found that for the purposes of the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana has no currently accepted
People exposed to HIV through sex or IV drug use will seek preventative PEP treatment within three days if given the opportunity, a new study from the University of California, San Francisco finds. They ll also stick with the medication regimen despite side effects, a crucial factor in treating HIV disease. Our study d
The future of medical marijuana suddenly grew more cloudy Monday, May 14, as proponents sought to interpret the U.S. Supreme Court s unanimous decision disallowing a medical defense for seriously ill patients who use the drug for health reasons. At a press conference on Monday following the 8-0 Supreme Court decision a
Feeling a void? For those who are yearning to connect with people on a level other than disco, Inner Circle, a new nonprofit dedicated to spirituality and people affected by HIV, invites you to its first open house on Sunday, May 20, from 2-5 p.m. The open house will be held at the home of Dr. Jason Tokumoto, an HIV/AI
Fcuk the fcuk sign. If you want some powerful messages, try the San Francisco AIDS Foundation s Assumptions campaign s visual advertising. Ranging from bus shelter advertisements to a billboard that ran above the Cafe Flore in the Castro earlier this year that depicted a naked man having, well, a really good time, the
History often swings full circle, and with AIDS there is no exception. Facing a rise in HIV infections and a younger population that has not watched their friends die rapidly, community members will remember the dead and fight complacency at the annual AIDS Candlelight Vigil, initiated in 1983 in San Francisco and New
More than 24,000 HIV-positive people in California who depend on the AIDS Drug Assistance Program may lose crucial drugs that help prolong their lives, if the governor s revised budget goes through. Project Inform and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation warned this week that Governor Gray Davis s failure to include new s
Finding a new doctor after living with HIV for 12 years has been a difficult and frustrating experience. After a move to Chicago, I was in need of a new primary care physician as well as other specialty doctors that I could trust to provide as good or better care than I had in the 10 years I lived in San Francisco. Nee
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported for the first time that typhoid fever can be transmitted sexually. The announcement was made at a sexually transmitted disease conference in Atlanta. CDC officials urged all people with typhoid to avoid sexual contact until they are successfully treate
The Small Business Administration and the Positive Resource Center have announced a How to Start Your Own Small Business seminar for people who have been out of the workforce due to HIV-related disability and who are now interested in returning to work. The workshop will take place this Tuesday, May 15, from 10 a.m. to
Though scaled down from the original idea of draping a huge red ribbon around City Hall, several AIDS service organizations and city officials are planning a Remembrance and Recommitment ceremony next month to mark the 20th year of the AIDS epidemic are asking interested community members to participate. Beginning Sund
Beginning later this year, people who test HIV-positive in California may find out they re also part of an exercise in public health policy. At issue: how secure your identity is once the mandatory reporting of new HIV cases takes effect. Fresh regulations currently under review would ratchet up personal data collectio
Dr. Gene Gowdey has spent the last few weeks firing his staff and packing up supplies. Community Dental Care, which has operated out of the Castro and Mission for the past three years and provided free dental work to people with HIV/AIDS as performed by top-rate dentists, will effectively have to close its doors at the
As an HIV treatment activist with an eye out for new developments, I read quite a bit of information in sources as diverse as scientific journals and newspapers on various Internet Web sites. The AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGiS, www.aegis.org) provides an invaluable service that has enabled me to monito
Sounds of wild animals and a safari camp atmosphere will permeate the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park this Friday, May 4, as a high-ticket auction takes place to benefit the grove. Part of a major two-day event, the gala kickoff will include silent and live auctions, a catered dinner, and an African sa
AIDS activists are celebrating a long-awaited win. Facing heavy public pressure, especially from Bay Area AIDS activists, the Food and Drug Administration has told HIV drug manufacturers to pull their overly upbeat advertisements. The FDA called the ads misleading, noting that they ignored the many painful side effects
Western medicine has relied upon plants as the basis for much of its work, taking extracts and making synthetic versions of what is found in nature, Dr. John Morgan, a pharmacologist at the CUNY medical school, explained to those attending the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws annual convention in
AIDS activists and human rights campaigners exploded with joy when it was announced on Thursday, April 19, that 39 multinational pharmaceutical companies had unconditionally dropped their lawsuit against the South African government, which wanted to provide cheaper versions of brand name AIDS drugs for its 4.7 million
The 2001 AIDS Hero Awards will be presented to several people and a leather group tonight (Thursday, April 26), at the Chat Cafe, 498 Sanchez at 18th Street in San Francisco. The annual awards are being presented by the San Francisco AIDS Candlelight Vigil. Doors open at 6 p.m.; the program starts at 7 and includes the
California s Department of Health Services is soliciting public comment and will hold a hearing in Sacramento next month on proposed regulations for the reporting of persons with HIV infection using a non-name code. The new regulations call for reporting of HIV cases to the state. Currently only AIDS cases are required
While the controversy over the potential ban of ads depicting PWAs as Crixivan-gulping rock climbers and AIDS cocktail-swilling hunks on kayaks rages on, in some cases, people with AIDS are actually doing such things, but not as shills for pharmaceutical companies. If you re a person with AIDS, and you want to give tho
Many PWAs get Poz magazine in their mail. They don t pay for it. Yet it just keeps coming every month - for free. Who pays for it you may wonder? You do, every time you buy HIV medicines or pay your health insurance premiums. Poz magazine is mailed to our homes free of charge, because drug companies pay to have their a
This weekend, April 20-22, an estimated 10,000 demonstrators are expected to converge on Quebec City, Canada to protest the Summit of the Americas meeting that will bring together the heads of 34 Western Hemisphere nations with the exception of Cuba . Topping the agenda will be discussion of the Free Trade Area of
Science and research around HIV are evolving and there is always room to learn more about finding medical information on the Internet. A free class this Wednesday, April 25, in San Francisco, will focus on improving Internet search skills relative to HIV information and interested people are encouraged to sign up. The
Deaths from AIDS in San Francisco rose but reported cases of the disease dropped this quarter compared with January to March 2000, the Department of Public Health s quarterly report shows. In its quarterly AIDS surveillance report covering January-March 2001, DPH noted 81 deaths in the past three months, compared with
Sexy sells. Does it also kill? Against increasing controversy over upbeat outdoor advertising for HIV/AIDS drugs on city property, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano is turning up the heat on pharmaceutical companies to tone down their ads. One way to get their attention: a possible ban on such ad
South African President Thabo Mbeki s controversial AIDS panel has just released its interim report which shows that mainstream scientists and dissidents are firmly divided on the cause of AIDS. Or, as one analyst put it - with a large dose of sarcasm - they cannot agree between condoms and Chinese cucumbers as to the
The Bush administration has chosen an openly gay man, Scott H. Evertz, to lead the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). The announcement came on Monday, April 9, along with other details of how the administration s AIDS activities will be structured. Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans
On Thursday, April 5, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan met with the chief executives of six major pharmaceutical companies to discuss AIDS drug price reductions for developing countries. In return for an agreement that the UN would not take part in efforts to limit drug patent protections, Annan received ass
The Bush administration plans no increase in AIDS funding in the budget it presented to Congress on Monday, April 9. AIDS advocates see this as part of a larger political struggle that includes tax cuts. They believe that Congress will increase funding for AIDS and other health issues beyond what the administration has
Like a night fog blotting out the street lamps, California s energy crisis is clouding the future for a number of San Francisco charities serving people with disabling AIDS or related illnesses. Lurking within is the specter of red ink, growing despite efforts to conserve. PG&E s announcement last Friday, April 6,
Two recent studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine have conclusively shown that HIV drugs, despite their exorbitant price and unavailability, are cost effective compared to the expensive medical care required for people with AIDS. The studies are the largest ever performed to prove that use of antivira
The battle over accessible AIDS drugs continues to simmer in the weeks leading up to the resumption of the lawsuit by 39 pharmaceutical manufacturers against South Africa . At issue is a South African law that allows that country to locally manufacture or import cheap generic AIDS drugs in contravention of global and n
Cuban President Fidel Castro and South African President Thabo Mbeki have signed an agreement to cooperate in the manufacture of low-cost AIDS drugs while ignoring multinational drug companies patents. We are very interested in the question of affordable drugs and medicines, Mbeki said after his meeting with Castro in
The issue before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 28 ostensibly was medical marijuana, but things are seldom so simple with the Court. U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative also grappled with underlying principles concerning the roles of the national and state governments in the federated structure of governance,
Bay Area Reporter - Bay Area Reporter - April 6, 2001
Cynthia Laird
Three members of the AIDS dissident group ACT UP/San Francisco were sentenced Tuesday, April 3, in connection with their convictions last month stemming from a disruption at an AIDS treatment forum sponsored by Project Inform last year. Todd Swindell and David Pasquarelli, who were found guilty of misdemeanor charges o
As any smoker knows, the rugged Marlboro Man was based on an obvious fiction, for no heavy smoker could lasso several stampeding herds without losing his breath. Years later, cigarette advertisements have been banned from many venues, and an anti-smoking campaign has more realistically depicted the legendary cowboy wit
It was with sadness and excitement that community activists, elected officials, volunteers, and others affected by HIV/AIDS gathered at a South of Market loading dock last Friday, March 30 to say good-bye to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which for 14 years has called San Francisco home. The quilt, which is actually a collec
South African President Thabo Mbeki s panel of scientists on HIV/AIDS may recommend a series of immediately doable epidemiological studies be undertaken to prove or disprove once and for all that HIV causes AIDS. The panel was mandated last April by Mbeki s cabinet; 33 mainstream and dissident scientists were invited t
From the street corners of Turk and Eddy to glitzy gay Web sites, the Stop AIDS Project has moved online … without forgetting its roots. The organization s mission to provide up-to-date information on HIV, AIDS, and sexually transmitted diseases has expanded dramatically with its new project to reach out and inform peo
On Wednesday March 28, as the Bay Area Reporter went to press, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the U.S. Department of Justice s case against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative (OCBC). At issue is whether patients who can demonstrate medical necessity may obtain and use medical marijuana. The possession and us
What is the best way to mark 20 years of the AIDS epidemic? Some would say by making a symbolic gesture. Others would opt to extend services to people left out of the system. And still others would rather forgo the fanfare entirely, noting that people with AIDS deserve to be recognized and cared for even when it s not
Who knows what the city of San Francisco will do to mark the 20th year of the AIDS epidemic this June? Will there be a giant red ribbon placed around City Hall? Probably not, as AIDS activists seem to have quashed the lavish display that, according to minutes from two planning meetings involving AIDS organization repre
On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published what would be the first report on the AIDS epidemic, based on Los Angeles cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia. I won t even bother to describe the mess of emotions I feel as we approach this dreadful anniversary. No doubt eve
Three members of the AIDS denialist group ACT UP/San Francisco were found guilty last week on misdemeanor charges stemming from an incident last April when the men stormed a Project Inform seminar and threw hard pills at attendees. Sentencing for ACT UP/SF members David Pasquarelli, Todd Swindell, and Michael Bellefoun
Last Wednesday, March 14, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced that it would allow other companies to produce cheaper generic versions of its nucleoside analog drug d4T ( stavudine , marketed as
Breakthroughs in medicine are few and far between. If drug discoveries were more common there would be no need to do research because there would be no disease. But, over the continuum of time with a few breakthroughs, there has been relatively good progress in AIDS. Still, we are faced with uncertainty with the availa
The practices of major pharmaceutical firms in Africa took a few more hits on Monday, March 12. The Red Cross, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and the South African ambassador to the U.S. weighed into the fray. In London the International Red Cross released a blistering statement. The current system of allocating resources
On Tuesday, March 6, voters in West Hollywood rejected a ballot measure that would have required bars and other businesses to make free condoms available to their clientele; the vote failed by a 3-2 margin. Measure A would have required businesses that make more than half of their revenue from the sale of alcohol for o
Physicians need to be more aggressive in asking patients about their sexual health in the wake of outbreaks of syphilis among certain groups of gay and bisexual men in California, local health experts and activists say. While syphilis might seem minor to people who are HIV-positive or have AIDS, the disease poses a thr
Activists learned this week that San Francisco Department of Public Health officials now have preliminary data to demonstrate that common HIV drug treatment print advertisements may cause people to have unsafe sex, further spreading the disease. DPH surveyed some 262 patients at city clinics that treat sexually transmi
Riding on the success of their recent Stop Medical Apartheid demonstration at Berkeley s Bayer Corporation, local activists have set their sights on Bristol-Myers Squibb . BMS is one of the major players in the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association s lawsuit against Nelson Mandela and the South African government. A
The news this week that health officials believe ads for HIV medications may cause an increase in unsafe sexual practices did not particularly surprise us. We know that living with HIV isn t a glamorous existence, nor is it easy to do, even with medication. Side effects can be debilitating, as many readers know. When
The Americans with Disabilities Act does not allow employees to sue state governments for damages, said the U.S. Supreme Court on February 21. However, the decision does not affect the ability to sue for corrective action. The immediate practical impact is limited but some observers fear that it points toward further r
Peripheral neuropathy is a dying back of nerve fibers, particularly in the extremities of feet, legs, and hands. Often it is associated with diabetes. Autopsies have shown that it is present in virtually all those with advanced HIV disease, though only about 30 percent will report the sensory pins and needles feeling a
Last week the Bush administration announced that it would retain a policy that helps make affordable anti-HIV medications available to poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa. On February 20, the U.S. Trade Representative s office said that President George W. Bush would uphold an executive order put in place last year by
If a computer system obtained the first and last letter of your name, your sex, date of birth, and ZIP code, would this be enough information to identify you? Most likely yes, says a concerned group of activists that is worried about a new form issued through the California Department of Health s Office of AIDS. Worker
Members of the Bay Area queer community will participate in civil disobedience as part of global actions in solidarity with South African PWAs this Monday, March 5. That is the day that oral arguments begin in Pretoria High Court regarding a lawsuit (known as the PhaRMa case) by 42 pharmaceutical companies against Nels
For several years now, AIDS researchers have suspected that HIV virus which has become multi-drug resistant is less likely to cause harm to the immune system. They also wondered if patients might not be better off taking drugs that work only weakly against the virus, rather than stopping treatments altogether when vira
Some African countries are trying out new measures to cope with the AIDS disaster on the continent. The Ivory Coast has appointed a minister charged with the fight against HIV/AIDS, while in South Africa , two universities will offer a first-ever postgraduate diploma program in HIV/AIDS for managers.
The Bush administration did a quick little Texas two-step around the issue of AIDS. Press reports first had the office of AIDS czar being abolished, but a few hours later the White House press office clarified its position and said that was not the case. In a front page article on February 7, USA Today screamed that Bu
The great debate raging within the practice of HIV medicine is over what one should hope to accomplish by interrupting highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The particular goal will shape the duration of an interruption and the measure used to decide when to restart therapy. Supporters of alternative approaches
Newspaper headlines scream of increasingly risky sexual behavior among gay men and very high rates of HIV infection among young gay black men. They are based upon studies funded or conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reading those reports, one gets the impression that HIV is again exploding acr
By definition, to be gay is to be white within the mindset of many African Americans, according to one academic scholar. So what happens for black gay men, not only do you deal with the stigma of sexual orientation, you deal with the betrayal of race, said Phill Wilson, director of the African American AIDS Policy and
February 16 is a homecoming of sorts for the Housing Rights Committee, which will launch a neighborhood office in the Tenderloin tomorrow and operate the facility every Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. The Housing Rights Committee - which offers tenant counseling on topics from evictions and rent increases to repair problems, l
In the state of California, corporations can and do frequently make important decisions behind closed doors. But that doesn t mean everyone is going to like it when they re shut out - particularly the long-term employees, volunteers, and contributors of nonprofit corporations - the ones that helped to create and sustai
Countering the perceptions about having AIDS is one effect of Barbi Schreiber s photography show. Emphasizing the strength of PWAs is another reason to attend One Life for Another: The Survivor s Story, a collection of Schreiber s photographic portraits produced from 1987 to 1990. The Survivor s Story is on display at
University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine Dr. Paul Volberding has been appointed chief of medicine at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, according to a UCSF announcement Tuesday, January 23. Volberding also assumed the post of vice chair of the UCSF Department of Medicine. He will le
In a January 18 memo addressed to all HIV prevention providers in San Francisco, DPH said it would no longer purchase and does not recommend the use of condoms or lubricants containing N-9. Studies have indicated that N-9 is not an effective tool in preventing the transmission of HIV, the letter said. In addition there
Imagine thriving in an established gay community one day and then suddenly being targeted with homophobic, AIDS-phobic accusations the next. In the last two decades of the AIDS epidemic, a lot has improved, yet so very little has changed, a Northern California man recently learned. Chad Wyatt, known as Chad Seibold
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.