YANGON, Myanmar - A growing humanitarian emergency has sparked fears that thousands could die of disease and malnutrition in Myanmar, whose repressive military regime has drawn international condemnation and punishing U.S. trade sanctions. Myanmar faces one of Asia s worst AIDS epidemics and suffers 60% of all malaria
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe - When they named their daughter Progress, the parents showed a touching faith in the future. But six years later, she has lost them both to AIDS. With no one willing to care for her, Progress Sibanda lives in a nursing home filled with terminally ill AIDS patients in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe s second-larg
KILLARNEY, Zimbabwe – Six months after the government tore down her house, Sifelani Lunga lies sweating in a dirt-floored shack on the same desolate stretch of mud. Just coming back has made her a fugitive. Like thousands of people dumped in rural areas after the government razed squatter shacks and street stalls, she
Rong-Gong Lin II and Juliet Chung, Times Staff Writers
A recent surge in false positive results produced by a much-heralded oral HIV test has caused at least six testing sites in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York to shelve the test and prompted an inquiry by federal health agencies. In the last month, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, San Francisco s largest HIV tes
Taking a T. That s what HIV-negative gay men call the growing practice of downing the AIDS drug tenofovir and, with fingers crossed, hoping it protects them from the virus during unprotected sex. It s being sold in packets along with Viagra and Ecstasy in gay dance clubs - and even prescribed by physicians, say doctor
For nearly 20 years, M. Andrew Robinson-Gaither, pastor of a small South Los Angeles church, has preached a volatile mix of politics, social protest and Christianity. He has practiced it too. If there was a controversy in South Los Angeles, particularly one involving the police, Robinson-Gaither and Faith United Method
The L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center said Thursday that it has abandoned the use of a rapid oral HIV test introduced last year, saying that it produces too many false positive results. The announcement came a month after a major testing center in San Francisco, the UCSF AIDS Health Project, made the same decision. The Los A
Rong-Gong Lin II and Daniel Costello, Times Staff Writers
In an age when many search for sex on the Internet, Los Angeles County health officials on Wednesday unveiled a controversial tool to fight the spread of HIV and other diseases: a website that helps send anonymous e-mail warning people that they might be infected. Through the website, inSPOTLA.org, users can send a fre
An oral HIV test that uses a swab to quickly detect the virus that causes AIDS provided false positive readings for about a quarter of the people it showed to be infected, the San Francisco Department of Public Health said Friday. Subsequent blood tests showed that 47 people who tested positive using OraQuick Advance H
Daniel Costello and Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writers
A prominent HIV skeptic whose daughter died earlier this year took her case to national television Thursday night, maintaining that a toxicologist she commissioned to review the death attributed it to antibiotic poisoning rather than AIDS. Three-year-old Eliza Jane Scovill died in May from what the Los Angeles County c
Kay Warren was haunted by the skeletal images of the men and women with AIDS in Africa after reading a magazine article in 2003. The pictures were so horrible I couldn t look at them, Warren said. I actually covered my face with my hands and read the words through my fingers. She went to Africa a few months later to se
A million children have been orphaned, and 40% of childhood deaths are HIV-related. Some students drop out to care for ill relatives. SOWETO, South Africa - A primary school principal in Soweto has many roles: social worker, grief and sexual abuse counselor and charity worker organizing food parcels and secondhand clot
TODAY MARKS THE NEW MOON, the first window on an Advent calendar and the birthday of Woody Allen. More important, Dec. 1 is also World AIDS Day. Founded by the World Health Organization in 1988, World AIDS Day is meant to draw attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It s not a holiday - and if it were, there would be preci
First Southland county to comply with state law intended to shield medical marijuana users from arrest. But Supreme Court ruling could put them at risk. Riverside County will begin issuing photo identification cards to local medical marijuana users today, the first Southern California county to comply with a state law
Dear Presidents Bush and Mbeki: I AM WRITING to you because you lead, respectively, the country spending the most on combating HIV/AIDS and the country with the highest burden of HIV/AIDS disease. Each of you is in the final years of your term in office, and it is time to ensure your legacy. Your predecessors, Presiden
HOLLYWOOD - The movie industry is rife with projects that languished for years before being made. The Oscar-winning hits The Lord of the Rings and Chicago each took more than a decade to get greenlighted. So did Forrest Gump. But for pure drama, it s hard to beat the tortuous journey of Rent, the musical adaptation tha
Once a routine procedure for newborn boys, circumcision is falling rapidly out of favor in the United States - even as growing evidence suggests that the surgery may reduce the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. In recent years, many doctors and medical groups, including the influential Americ
Aggressive treatment and prevention programs have reduced HIV infection rates in Kenya , Zimbabwe and the Caribbean, but the numbers continue to grow in the rest of the world, with more than 40 million people now living with the virus, according to a United Nations report. Globally, 4.9 million people became infect
Hollywood is rife with movie projects that languished for years before being made. The Oscar-winning hits The Lord of the Rings and Chicago each took more than a decade to get greenlighted. So did Forrest Gump. But for pure drama, it s hard to beat the tortuous journey of Rent, the musical adaptation that opens in thea
But African Americans are still more likely than whites to contract the virus, a report says. The rate of newly diagnosed HIV infections among African Americans has dropped an average of 5% a year for three years, but blacks are still 8.4 times as likely as whites to contract the lethal virus, said a report from the Ce
KINGSTON, Jamaica - A call by Deputy Education Minister Donald Rhodd to discuss the possible repeal of Victorian-era laws criminalizing homosexuality has provoked predictable outrage among conservative Jamaicans. But gays here see the chance for debate as a glimmer of hope that they may one day be able to move out from
Los Angeles Police Department officials took steps this week to ease concerns that police had been trying to intimidate clients of a needle exchange program in Hollywood. We recognize that we need to continue to evolve, and we re certainly sensitive to this problem, Assistant Chief George Gascon told the Police Commiss
Johanna Neuman and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON - Against a background of pressure from social conservatives, the Food and Drug Administration is recommending a new series of labels for condoms, warning that they greatly reduce, but do not eliminate the risk of some sexually transmitted diseases. Though little noticed by the general public, the issue of c
Men engaged in risky homosexual activity are fueling a sharp increase in the incidence of syphilis and a smaller but worrisome rise in gonorrhea resistant to common antibiotics, federal researchers said Tuesday. The increases are seen at a time when sexually transmitted disease rates among historically important risk g
Neurologists who study AIDS have watched, waited and worried for nearly a decade about the long-term effect of HIV on the brain. They ve known that the drug cocktails that so effectively extend lives don t protect the brain very well from the virus. Now they ve gotten their first actual look at the destruction HIV caus
Rong-Gong Lin II and Daniel Costello, Times Staff Writers
On a recent chilly evening, four drug addicts chatted on a Hollywood sidewalk, dirty syringes in hand, waiting to collect new needles. Then the police arrived. The addicts froze as, within minutes, seven officers marched into the needle exchange and seven others faced the addicts down from across Sycamore Avenue. Pe
KAMPALA, Uganda -- It s Saturday night at Makerere University and the abstinence party is in full swing around the campus swimming pool. More than a thousand young men and women sway to the reggae sounds of local musicians and singers. Some dance. A few flirt. But the sexual tension ends there. At night s end, hundreds
--Villaraigosa promises to shift $50 million from other agencies to offer services and housing for people living on the streets in skid row. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pledged Tuesday to spend $50 million on a new effort to find long-term solutions for the city s chronically homeless. The money, which would
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Children have been overlooked in the global fight against AIDS, officials with the United Nations warned today as they released a report saying that less than 5% of HIV-positive children have access to lifepreserving drugs. An estimated 15 million children worldwide have lost at least one p
BANGKOK, Thailand - Branding Myanmar s military regime a threat to the peace, a global coalition of human rights advocates is urging the United Nations to intervene in the Southeast Asian nation to restore democracy, deliver humanitarian aid and win the release of political prisoners. Led by retired Anglican Archbi
UC San Francisco has raised $1.6 billion in seven years, the largest amount reaped by any fundraising campaign in the campus history, officials announced Thursday. The money will aid stem cell, cancer and HIV/AIDS research and relieve crowding on the campus. Nearly $300 million will go toward the construction of a 43-a
Rock stars have been inserting themselves into political arenas increasingly in recent years. Now it appears politicians are turning the tables by using concerts as a backdrop for their fundraisers -- and at least one rock band isn t happy about it. U2 has posted a statement on its website distancing the group from the
There is no such thing as skid row disease. But if there were, Lonnie Whitaker, 49, would have it bad. He hobbles into the office of Dr. Dennis Bleakley, lowers himself onto a chair and goes through the long list of what ails him. He has seizures, tested positive for TB, had hepatitis that might have been from a used n
The young team members who gathered Sunday morning before the annual AIDS Walk did not wear matching T-shirts bearing logos of corporations such as Hilton, Starbucks or DreamWorks SKG. They did not have Hollywood connections or the backing of a public relations campaign. But in recent years these boys and girls - stude
WASHINGTON - On the agenda for discussion: alternatives to drilling for oil, AIDS prevention in South Africa , improving access to health insurance for children. But this meeting was a bit different from most on Capitol Hill, because many of the activists in the room pushing for major public policy changes were not yet
Caltech President David Baltimore, an outspoken Nobel laureate who led the once-insular university to become more diverse, more engaged in national affairs and more practical about the world around it, announced Monday he will step down in June after an eight-year tenure. The 67-year-old biologist expects to stay at Ca
Many in the African American community are alarmingly silent about the threat HIV poses to black women. That was the message from black HIV experts and activists at an AIDS forum Saturday at King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine & Science in Willowbrook. Nearly seven in 10 women newly diagnosed with AIDS are bla
Christine Maggiore and Robin Scovill, the HIV skeptics whose 3-year-old daughter died of AIDS after they decided against having her tested for the virus, apparently will retain custody of their 8-year-old son, Charlie. After reviewing recent test results from three labs showing that the boy is HIV-negative, the Los Ang
A Costa Mesa woman doing mission work in an AIDS-ravaged camp takes family photos -- cherished mementos for impoverished people. In the framed photograph, a woman with a beehive hairdo and sea-foam green dress wraps her fleshy arms around a smiling toddler. That s my mom and me, said Laura Adams, pointing to the 5-by-7
Citing Santa Ana s high teenage pregnancy rate, some parents and others in Orange County s largest school district are questioning a proposed health curriculum that pushes abstinence and barely mentions birth control. The Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Trustees will meet tonight to consider adopting a healt
Charles Ornstein and Daniel Costello, Times Staff Writers
Christine Maggiore was in prime form, engaging and articulate, when she explained to a Phoenix radio host in late March why she didn t believe HIV caused AIDS. The HIV-positive mother of two laid out matter-of-factly why, even while pregnant, she hadn t taken HIV medications, and why she had never tested her children f
More than half of American teens age 15 to 19 have engaged in oral sex, increasing to nearly 70 percent for those who are 18 and 19, according to the largest federal study of the nation s sexual practices. The study also found that 11 percent of women age 18 to 44 reported having at least one homosexual experience in t
UNITED NATIONS - An annual U.N. report on development released Wednesday shows that living standards in parts of the former Soviet Union and in sub-Saharan Africa have been declining steadily even as conditions elsewhere in the world have largely improved. Norway tops the index, which seeks to assess nations economic
The Frisbee-sized maitake mushroom was once a rare find in the mountains of northern Japan . Its name means dancing mushroom, but it s also been dubbed hen of the woods for the feathery appearance of its overlapping caps. Today, the mushroom is cultivated throughout Europe and North America for its purported medicinal
A new comparison of genetic blueprints shows that just a handful of mutations account for the vast differences between the species. Answering a key part of the age-old question of what makes us human, scientists on Wednesday unveiled a genetic comparison of people and chimps, revealing that changes to a mere sliver of
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an emergency moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries Tuesday, angering local advocates and medicinal users of the drug. The interim zoning ordinance bans medical pot establishments for 45 days while the board determines how such establishments would be
Elena Medo envisions one day selling pasteurized human milk to children with cancer, heart conditions or AIDS. But for now, Medo s company, Prolacta Bioscience Inc., is focused on providing human milk to the tiniest infants born prematurely in the U.S. each year. Next month, Prolacta plans to begin processing milk dona
In Greek mythology, the pomegranate symbolized death and fertility; in ancient Chinese culture, it was a symbol of immortality. One of the earliest cultivated fruits, the pomegranate is also called a gift from God in the Bible and the Koran. The pomegranate tree s fruits, seeds, bark and flowers have been used medicina
The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday demanded an investigation into claims by gay inmates at a Los Angeles County jail that sheriff s deputies subjected them last month to insults and a humiliating strip search in front of other prisoners. In a letter to sheriff s officials, the ACLU said inmates reported that
Ruth Roemer, a pioneer in public health law who led efforts to regulate tobacco use and expand women s reproductive rights, died Monday after a short illness at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in West Los Angeles. She was 89. Called a modern icon of public health by colleagues, Roemer was a longtime UCLA professor who
A divided county Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday to spend $500,000 to fund five needle-exchange programs in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases among illegal drug users. The vote comes five years after supervisors approved a plan to certify needle-exchange progra
A 19-year-old boxer without a clean HIV test - who was later found to have the virus that leads to AIDS - was allowed to fight last month even though state rules should have kept him out of the ring, according to officials and others familiar with the situation. The HIV-positive boxer, Tommy Perez, of Las Vegas, was kn
Ammara Durrani and Wendy Thermos, Times Staff Writers
It s not easy to find the clinic, tucked away in a separate building off the main lobby of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, through winding corridors and up the elevator one floor. There lies the troubled hospital s newest addition and perhaps its brightest hope: a long-awaited health center for women. W
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Two years after approving a major plan to combat HIV/AIDS, the government is still sending mixed messages about anti-retroviral drugs. A lawsuit to be heard in Cape Town soon promises to bring to a head the continuing controversy over those drugs, a life-and-death matter for the more than 6
It was heralded as a way for California to closely track the spread of HIV without compromising patient privacy or civil rights. Rather than reporting infected patients by name, public health agencies would identify them by codes. Despite its lofty intentions, however, California s 3-year-old reporting system for the h
A doctor who operated clinics in Orange and Los Angeles counties was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on charges of deliberately underdosing his AIDS patients and billing insurance companies for the full amount of the expensive medications. Dr. G. Steven Kooshian, 54, was accused of administering half or quar
California has long been at the center of the medical marijuana debate. In June, the state drew attention after a U.S. Supreme Court decision denied two California women protection against federal prosecution for using medicinal cannabis. Fallout from the court case has been widespread. Some dispensaries shut down grow
WASHINGTON - A government website created to help parents counsel their teenagers about risky health behaviors provides inaccurate and misleading information about condoms, sexual orientation and other issues, a Democratic congressman charged Wednesday. The site, http://www.4parents.gov, promotes sexual abstinence unti
Forty years after the Watts riots exposed the dismal social conditions afflicting many African American communities, blacks continue to trail other ethnic groups in housing, healthcare and criminal justice, a report issued Wednesday concludes. Blacks in Los Angeles County are twice as likely as other groups to be victi
I just pray that God ends my life ... before more symptoms show. I don t want to create problems for my family. Before his HIV-positive diagnosis in 2001, the Egyptian engineer who spoke these words thought that AIDS was a faraway disease that afflicted only foreigners. He had no idea that the global AIDS pandemic had
WASHINGTON - Although she was partially paralyzed in a car crash 22 years ago, suffers from lung disease and has only a meager income, 64-year-old Margaret Dowling is able to live independently in her own home, thanks to a motorized wheelchair and nine prescription drugs that she takes every day. But now, Dowling fears
GLENEAGLES, Scotland - Leaders of the world s richest nations toasted their own beneficence. Africa advocates praised the leaders commitment to provide more aid. Live 8 impresarios Bono and Bob Geldof proclaimed it a remarkable moment in history. Yet to African-born economist George Ayittey, the hearty endorsements of
WASHINGTON - For more than a decade, gay rights advocates have grumbled about a federal policy that forbids blood donation by men who have had sex with men. They say that the policy, originally intended to keep HIV-positive blood from entering the nation s blood supply, implies gay men are inherently ill and that it pr
A Beverly Hills physician has surrendered his license to practice medicine after the Medical Board of California accused him of negligence, incompetence, unprofessional conduct and failing to keep required records in the treatment of three patients. The board said Michael J. Scolaro unnecessarily infused one patient wi
SAURI, Kenya - Dwarfed by the lush, 12-foot cornstalks sprouting around her hut, Yunia Akinyi Adhola can scarcely believe her good fortune. Never has the maize grown so high here, she said, a guarantee that this year her family won t go hungry. Her luck changed a year ago when strangers descended upon this poverty-stri
LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair took a seat beside Irish rock star Bob Geldof on Thursday to answer young people s questions about poverty in Africa and climate change in advance of a Group of 8 summit next week. Sitting in front of flat-screen monitors flashing colorful graphics, Blair and Geldof fielded qu
The number is twice that of 18 months ago, but officials say they will fall short of goal to help 3 million in developing world by year s end. Nearly a million people in developing countries are receiving drug treatment for HIV and AIDS, more than double the number 18 months ago, but global health officials acknowledge
In a room in a Seattle office building, behind what seems like enough safeguards to protect the occupants of a nuclear submarine, anopheles mosquitoes dine on Special K and the occasional malaria-infected mouse. Researcher Stefan Kappe of the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute is harvesting parasites from their sali
WASHINGTON - The Medicaid health insurance program for low-income and disabled people is overpaying for prescription drugs by hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars a year, according to three inspector general reports to be released today. Government pricing formulas intended to keep prescription costs in che
WASHINGTON - In an uncommon display of political unity, leaders of the U.S. evangelical movement joined with moderate and liberal religious groups Monday to urge President Bush to boost development aid to Africa. Evangelical leaders said they hoped their participation would increase pressure on the president to announc
The U.N. s World Health Organization approved a resolution last month that, if adopted, would require the manufacturers of powdered baby formula to issue warnings that their products might contain pathogenic microorganisms such as salmonella bacteria. That sounds scary - and it s meant to be. It is as though, after the
NEW YORK - Babalwa Mbono wined, dined and traipsed around Manhattan as if she were accustomed to the kinds of places she went: a party in a millionaire s postmodern loft, the gleaming corporate headquarters of Johnson & Johnson , the well-appointed apartment she stayed in during her trip. In truth, she had never se
At a boisterous rally on the south lawn of City Hall, former state Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson declared his candidacy Tuesday for the Los Angeles City Council seat being vacated by Martin Ludlow. Wesson told reporters after the rally that if he won - the primary is Nov. 8 - he would serve the remainder of Ludlow s ter
Opposition party sees government order to demolish illegal shacks as political punishment. MBARE, Zimbabwe - The air was filled with dust and fear as riot police with guns forced Farisai Gatawa s husband to tear down the couple s one-room shack on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. That night they slept on cardboard
LIVE OAK, Calif. - Nine months after her belly began to swell, Martha Sierra arrived at that moment of deliverance every pregnant woman craves and fears. But as she writhed in pain at a Riverside hospital, laboring to push her baby into the world, Sierra faced a challenge not covered in the childbirth books: Her wrists
YANGON, Myanmar - She is known simply as The Lady. She lives in isolation in her old family home on a quiet lake in the northern part of the city. Armed guards make sure she doesn t leave. Her only known visitor is the doctor who checks on her monthly. She is said to spend her time meditating and reading. The world
Nearly one in three gay and bisexual men who tested positive for HIV at a major Los Angeles clinic last year acknowledged using crystal methamphetamine, an illegal drug that increases sexual risk taking, according to a new study. That s almost triple the rate of methamphetamine use in HIV-positive men in 2001, official
WASHINGTON - Several influential black pastors who were recently courted by Bush administration officials as potential partners in crafting African relief policies are now questioning the White House commitment to the continent. The criticism came in a letter delivered Tuesday to the White House from five of the nation
Los Angeles County joined a growing list of California counties and cities on Tuesday that have embraced a controversial effort to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and other serious infections by legalizing over-the-counter sales of syringes. The Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to allow pharmacies that register with the
The number of Americans living with HIV or AIDS has passed the 1-million mark for the first time, reflecting an increasing success in prolonging survival with treatments and a continuing failure in controlling the spread of new infections, government researchers said Monday. Three-quarters of those infected are males a
After some initial resistance, the Bush administration signed on late last week to a British proposal for debt forgiveness for some of the world s poorest nations, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. The U.S. and the other leading industrial nations that make up the Group of 8 agreed to wipe out $40 billion in debt (at a cos
President Bush last week brazenly brushed aside British Prime Minister Tony Blair s call for a doubling of aid to Africa. Blair and other European leaders have taken on the task of fighting extreme poverty - and Bush watches from the sidelines. To justify its dereliction, the Bush administration perpetuates a mythology
I ve been working on and with HIV/AIDS since 1982, and the only thing that keeps me going is hope. The sheer crush of the epidemic, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, can be overwhelming. It was easier to be hopeful in the early days of the epidemic. We were sure then that we could conquer HIV. The gay community made be
LONDON - Building on an accord between Britain and the United States , finance ministers of the world s wealthiest nations agreed Saturday to wipe out $40 billion in debt owed by 18 of the world s poorest countries as part of a major assault on global poverty. The decision by the Group of 8, the world s leading industr
WASHINGTON - Despite fears that private health insurers may shy away from participating in Medicare s new prescription drug program, the federal government has received bids from enough companies to assure Medicare s 42 million beneficiaries of a wide range of choices when the program starts up next year, industry and
Angered by subsidies to U.S. cotton growers, Brazilian lawmakers said Thursday that they were considering suspending the intellectual property rights of American products in their country if the U.S. government did not explain how it intended to change subsidy programs by July 1. The deadline was set earlier this year
County auditors say Charles Henry showed poor judgment when he sought donations for Villaraigosa s campaign from contractors. Los Angeles County s former AIDS program director violated state law and created the appearance or concern of bias when he asked county employees and contractors to give money to Antonio Villara
On July 2, Irish rocker Bob Geldof is going to try to do something British Prime Minister Tony Blair couldn t: Get President Bush to do more about poverty and unnecessary death in Africa. We wish him well, but he probably doesn t stand a chance. Blair came to Washington on Tuesday to call in some chits from Bush, likel
Toothless. Skeletal. Homeless. Rock-cocaine addict. HIV positive. That s how Richard Hamilton describes himself seven years ago when he finally hit bottom and sought help from the Minority AIDS Project in Los Angeles. Hamilton, who works as a program coordinator for MAP, is now billboard handsome with a brilliant smile
WASHINGTON - President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged Tuesday to continue working together to combat food shortages and disease in Africa, even as they failed to agree on how to carry out what Blair called a real and common desire to help that troubled continent. Although the two leaders said the
SACRAMENTO - Californians who use medical marijuana remained defiant Monday in the face of a Supreme Court decision that allows the federal government to prosecute patients who use the drug with a doctor s recommendation. The decision caused ripples across the state, the first in the nation to approve medical marijuana
LONDON - When Prime Minister Tony Blair meets with President Bush today, he might feel justified in posing this question: What does faithful support through two difficult wars earn a loyal ally who is looking for help for the world s neediest continent? Britain is seeking a consensus among the leading industrial nation
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger s name is nowhere to be found in Assembly Bill 616. But there is little question that the measure, which bans smoking in the enclosed courtyards of state buildings, has one venue in mind: the patio outside Schwarzenegger s Capitol office where he loves to puff on cigars. Even tho
The announcement from New York health officials in early February was chilling: A single patient had progressed from HIV infection to AIDS in months rather than years, and his strain of the HIV virus seemed impervious to normally effective medicines. The patient, a gay man in his 40s, had unprotected anal intercourse w
More than two dozen prominent African American pastors met last week with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to talk about how black churches could use federal grants to fight the spread of HIV in Africa and help that continent s tens of millions of AIDS orphans. The need is enormous. So is the irony. African American
BEIJING - Two years after coming to power, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have staked out a two-pronged strategy for political control: projecting a kinder, gentler image while cracking down on those disseminating unauthorized information. The news this week that a prominent
WASHINGTON - The government s fast-track system for making new medications quickly available to treat the deadliest illnesses has become a route for companies to market drugs without fully proving their effectiveness or safety - either before or after they go on the market, according to a congressional report to be rel
Amid questions about the way Los Angeles County doles out grants to combat AIDS, a divided Board of Supervisors approved a nearly $200,000 contract Tuesday with a private nonprofit agency without accepting competing bids. The 3-2 vote comes at a tumultuous time for the county Office of AIDS Programs and Policy, which r
Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON - Escalating its courtship of a politically powerful constituency, the Bush administration is teaming up with some of the nation s best-known and most influential black clergy to craft a new role for U.S. churches in Africa. The effort was launched last week, when more than two dozen leading African American
Health officials said Monday that the embattled head of Los Angeles County s AIDS program will no longer run the office, which doles out $82.5 million a year in government funding to community prevention and treatment programs. Department of Health Services officials declined to explain the removal of Charles L. Chuck
NEW YORK - He had been to Manhattan only once before, as a child, and when Craig Miller returned years later as a man in his 20s, the California AIDS activist embarked on what he thought would be a simple mission. Fresh on the heels of the first AIDS Walk in Los Angeles, a 1985 fundraiser he organized that collected $6
Potent drug treatments have so improved the prognoses of HIV patients that today, deaths from AIDS have plummeted since their mid-1990s peak, and the progression of HIV to AIDS has slowed dramatically. Still, as many as 950,000 Americans are infected with HIV, with an estimated 40,000 new infections each year. And beca
SEATTLE - Betty Hiatt s morning wake-up call comes with the purr and persistent kneading of the cat atop her bedspread. Under predawn gray, Hiatt blinks awake. It is 6 a.m., and Kato, an opinionated Siamese who Hiatt swears can tell time, wants to be fed. Reaching for a cane, the frail grandmother pads with uncertain s
As executive director of one of Los Angeles oldest AIDS service organizations, Terry Goddard II is well-acquainted with the changing face of a killer disease. Today, with more than 40,000 HIV-positive people living in L.A. County, including many women, children and people of color, Aid for AIDS continues at age 20 to s
KISUMU, Kenya - At 17, Onesmus Kano started having sex with his high school girlfriend. The Catholic teenager ignored church warnings about premarital sex because he thought the priest was an old man who wasn t married and couldn t understand what it was like to be a teenager. But he followed the church s policy agains
Alvin Novick, a physician and Yale University biologist who was an expert on bats and who later led efforts to understand and shape the response to the AIDS epidemic, has died. He was 79. Novick, who had prostate cancer, died April 10 in New Haven, Conn. Novick taught at Yale until shortly before his death and was an e
Marla Dickerson and Evelyn Iritani, Times Staff Writers
GUATEMALA CITY - Carmina Garcia rises before the sun each morning, taking pleasure in the first yellow rays of dawn. But it s the pink and white tablets that keep her going. Found to be HIV-positive shortly before her husband died of AIDS-related complications last fall, an ailing Garcia was convinced of her own death
Add red tea, or rooibos tea, to the expanding spectrum of antioxidant teas. The name, pronounced roy-boss, means red bush in Afrikaans. Rooibos tea is made by drying and fermenting the green leaves of the native South African shrub Aspalathus linearis, which redden during the process. The tea — fruity, caffeine free, m
LAGOS, Nigeria - A fierce competition for souls is on in Lagos. In this sprawling capital that seems glued together out of scraps of rusted iron, plywood and torn posters, the immortal combat is being waged on faded billboards so closely planted along the highway that it s difficult to make them out as they flash by: D
Featherweight Leocadio Manon of the Dominican Republic , who was scheduled to fight on Saturday night s Marco Antonio Barrera-Mzonke Fana card at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, was forced to withdraw when he twice tested positive for HIV, said Richard Schaefer, head of Golden Boy Promotions, which staged the event.
In Australia and New Zealand , the term tea tree refers to a number of fast-growing evergreens once used by native Pacific Islanders and early European explorers - including Captain Cook - to make tea and other drinks. Tea tree oil, made from the shrubs leaves, has a sweet, nutmeg scent that has made it a popular ingr
He was the first patient I cared for in medical school. At first glance, he looked pretty good. He sat on the covers of his hospital bed in a button-down shirt that was tucked neatly into creased khakis. His shoes gleamed from polish. But I quickly saw that the fastidious clothes were a disguise. His skin looked like o
When a rapid HIV test came on the market two years ago, prevention experts quickly predicted that it would become an important weapon in the fight against AIDS. The 20-minute test would encourage more people to find out their status and get treatment, reducing their chances of spreading the disease, health officials sa
Social conservatives in Congress, backed by the Catholic Church and the Christian right, are on a new foray to dictate sexual mores to the rest of the world, at the expense of public health. This time it s an oath being foisted on U.S. groups working to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. They will soon be asked to comply wi
Charlotte Kempner Beyers, an educational filmmaker whose first effort, AIDS in Your School, was used in elementary and high schools to educate children about the disease, has died. She was 73. Beyers died March 10 at her home in Palo Alto of complications from lymphoma. A native of New York, Beyers moved with her famil
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration needs an independent office that would monitor the safety of drugs it approves and warn the public of emerging risks, a senior Senate Republican said Thursday. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said he was drafting legislation to create such an
Over-the-counter sales of syringes is approved, as is ordinance making it harder to evict people from rent-control apartments. After a night of electioneering, a bleary-eyed Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved an ordinance that prevents landlords from evicting rent-control tenants after major renovations and
Probe targets AIDS agency s chief, a fundraiser for mayoral candidate Villaraigosa. Backers say he did the work on his own time. The head of a Los Angeles County government agency that doles out millions of dollars to community groups solicited campaign contributions from at least one of those groups while working for
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Denise Gellene, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON - A multiple sclerosis drug pulled off the market after a patient died was approved by the Food and Drug Administration even though a prominent neurobiologist and a top medical journal had questioned the drug s safety. When the FDA gave the drug, Tysabri, so-called fast-track approval in November, there was
The average life span of Americans is 77.6 years, statistics show, and men are gaining on women. Americans are living longer than ever before - for an average of 77.6 years - and the life expectancy of men is drawing closer to that of women, according to government statistics released Monday. Death rates from condition
The issue may dominate a U.N. conference on women s equality, to organizers dismay. UNITED NATIONS - Ten years after a landmark U.N. women s conference in Beijing, thousands of delegates convened here Monday to review the world s progress toward equality for women. But the meeting was plunged into controversy when the
Bono, the U2 rock star, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and he is a credible candidate. But we have a better idea on how best to recognize his effective lobbying on behalf of African development - Bono should be named the next president of the World Bank. Don t be fooled by the wraparound sunglasses and t
In 1974, with his 30th birthday approaching, Bill Rosendahl embarked on a tour of the world. Over the next 18 months, he visited 39 counties on four continents, sometimes traveling on foot. He says he was kicked out of Zimbabwe after he was accused of being a spy. His trip around the world, Rosendahl said, was a format
When a rapid HIV test came on the market two years ago, prevention experts quickly predicted that it would become an important weapon in the fight against AIDS. The 20-minute test would encourage more people to find out their status and get treatment, reducing their chances of spreading the disease, health officials sa
Flanked by nurses in sturdy clogs and white coats, mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa pledged from the steps of City Hall on Wednesday to find a way to lower the cost of prescription drugs and to ensure that newborns have health insurance. The city councilman and former state Assembly speaker also picked up the end
On Friday, New York City health officials issued this chilling announcement: A man is infected with a form of the AIDS virus that is not only resistant to three of the four classes of anti-HIV drugs, it is apparently so virulent that it causes full-blown AIDS in a matter of weeks rather than the usual decade or more. I
Thomas H. Maugh II and Sharon Bernstein, Times Staff Writers
As New York City public health officials Tuesday attempted to track down the sexual contacts of a man with what has been termed a super-strain of HIV, other AIDS experts questioned why such an uproar has emerged over a single case. New York officials had announced Friday that they had identified a newly infected indivi
WASHINGTON - President Bush, after a lengthy search, on Monday nominated acting Commissioner Lester M. Crawford to head the Food and Drug Administration, despite drug safety problems on Crawford s watch that have undermined the agency s reputation and credibility. The appointment of an FDA commissioner had been ke
Former president and his wife are admired by many in their adopted Coachella Valley home. When the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert was sinking into debt a few years ago, the City Council debated whether to approve a financial donation for it. During the meeting, the mayor asked for public comments, and a tall, graying
NEW YORK - Doctors have discovered a man with a previously unseen strain of HIV that is resistant to three of the four types of antiviral drugs that combat the disease, and progresses from infection to full-blown AIDS in two or three months, the New York City health department said. We have not seen a case like this be
All adult Americans should be screened for HIV infections in an effort to prolong lives and reduce new infections, two groups of researchers urged today. Everyone should be screened at least once, and the vast majority should be retested every three to five years in the same manner that physicians screen patients for c
FORTALEZA, Brazil - On the outside, the Villa Veneto is just another of the nondescript high-rise hotels catering to the foreign visitors who flock to this beachside resort town. But take a look inside, and something unusual becomes apparent. A large number of the hotel s clientele, it seems, fit a particular profile:
Pentagon and domestic security would see gains under the blueprint. Of 150 programs tagged to end, 48 are at the Education Department. WASHINGTON - President Bush requested large increases in federal funding for defense, domestic security and foreign aid in an otherwise tight budget submitted Monday. Reflecting his emp
Was that a slightly conciliatory tone in President Bush s State of the Union comments on stem cell research? The president seemed (maybe) to be (possibly) opening the door to broader federal funding of medical research based on fertilized human eggs. Only one day earlier, a senior Vatican official who is the pope s hou
Every once in a while, something so awful happens in Africa that the rest of the world momentarily takes note of the continent. Twenty years ago, a devastating famine prompted Michael Jackson and friends to stage a nationally televised benefit concert that raised millions. More recently came the horrors in
-- Faced with AIDS crisis, some theologians justify the use of prophylactics to save lives. ROME - A recent furor over what appeared to be rebellious Spanish bishops approving the use of condoms - and the stern Vatican response that forced a quick retreat - highlighted a quiet but intense debate within the Roman Cathol
Business and political leaders at the Alpine get-together pledge aid to needy nations amid concerns on U.S. deficit, Iran s nuclear program. DAVOS, Switzerland - If talk produces action, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum that concluded Sunday could herald progress on issues such as fighting misery in the d
As techniques, tools and attitudes change, transfusion-free surgery goes mainstream. Steve and Jane Hewitt searched far and wide for a surgeon who could straighten their teenage daughter s severely curving spine which had hunched her over at a 105-degree angle. The extremely long and difficult surgery involves exposing
Only 40 years ago, within the memory of millions of Americans, birth control could not be legally sold in some states, even to married couples. If President Bush and his allies in Congress are successful, the future could look much like that past. For some Bush supporters, religious beliefs about when life begins or ab
Efforts to treat more people are on schedule, health officials say, but more money is needed. The United Nations AIDS program treated about 700,000 people in developing countries last year, putting the agency on course to achieve its goal of treating 3 million people by the end of this year, federal and global agencies
The avian flu is known to have killed 32 humans last year - hardly enough to trigger global concern, it seems. But viruses have a habit of mutating in ever more harmful ways, and there are signs that avian flu could be on the verge of turning into a much greater threat, capable of killing millions of people around the
-- Microsoft s Bill Gates and his wife make it their business to give in a big way to programs for global health, education and more. The work is breaking records and saving lives. SEATTLE - John D. Rockefeller once brooded that giving away money intelligently was more difficult than making it. Bill Gates, who has surp
Peter Wallsten and Richard Simon, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON - Race became a significant factor in the debate over Social Security on Tuesday as President Bush told African American leaders that the government retirement program shortchanged blacks, whose relatively shorter lifespan meant that they paid more in payroll taxes than they eventually received in benefits.
The bushy, lavender-flowered hyssop has a long history of use in medicine. It s mentioned many times in the Bible as a cleansing agent; Hippocrates used it to treat bronchitis; the Cheyenne prescribed it for colds and weakness; and modern herbalists recommend it for a litany of conditions. Other Native Americans - incl
MANZINI, Swaziland - That warm September morning, the whole world seemed to be singing her name. She wore her favorite thing, the new denim miniskirt, and when she stood in front of the mirror, she had the delightful feeling of knowing that she looked beautiful. As Portia walked along the street, she saw the beaming sm
* The fatality rate fell in 2002, the American Cancer Society says. But heart disease s toll went down further, making it no longer the top killer. Cancer is now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 85, surpassing deaths from heart disease for the first time, researchers said Wednesday. The death r
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - From his fifth-floor office in the National Congress building, Jose Celin Discua has seen the enemy, and it is us. The veteran congressman has been watching what he regards as a surging tide of immorality sweeping the United States and other parts of the Western
An Orange County herbal supplement company has agreed to pay $3.58 million in fines to settle a case involving allegations that it misled consumers by promoting one of its products as a cure for cancer, AIDS and other diseases, authorities announced Tuesday. Body Wise International, founded in 1989 in Tustin, admitted
Lisa Richardson and Lee Romney, Times Staff Writers
For seven years methamphetamine helped Ron Conner believe he was the talented, sexy, bold man he had always dreamed of being. The 37-year-old graphic artist would have sacrificed everything to hold onto that glamorous vision of himself - and, ultimately, he nearly did. I lost my house, two cars, my checking and savings
UNITED NATIONS - The world could end extreme poverty within a decade if wealthy nations fulfilled their pledges to increase development aid, Columbia University economist Jeffrey D. Sachs said Monday as he presented a plan to the United Nations for achieving that goal. But if those countries governments don t come thro
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday that he had nominated outgoing U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman to head the United Nations Children s Fund, and expected the organization s board to confirm her today. Veneman, a California Republican, will take the place of Carol Bellamy, who will end
Evelyn Iritani, Marla Dickerson and Tyler Marshall
Alice Foulo Ntoi s job as a seamstress pays enough to support her husband, her four children, her mother and her two nieces. It also protects her from AIDS. Nurses at the factory where Ntoi works give her free condoms and medical counseling. The factory owner, Shinning Century Ltd., sells her vitamins at a discount.
Tyler Marshall, Evelyn Iritani and Marla Dickerson, Times Staff Writers
* Consumers gain when textile quotas end and jobs move to China and India . Poor countries lose out. As a poor nation struggling to compete in an increasingly globalized economy, Cambodia has little to offer factory owner Leon Hsu. Electricity is erratic. Traffic along the road to the port of Sihano
Americans have gotten caught up in the emotional swell of what one charity s director called a bidding war to see who can promise the most aid to tsunami victims. The charity official was talking about governments, but private donations have gone the same way. Doctors Without Borders courageously spoke the truth when i
KINGSTON, Jamaica - When gay rights activist Brian Williamson was stabbed to death in June and jubilant crowds danced around his mutilated body, police said he was a robbery victim. When Jamaican reggae dancehall musicians were bumped from U.S. and British concert appearances last year over lyrics encouraging the killi
* Two patients of a South Carolina doctor die after hydrogen peroxide injections. Critics call the treatment risky and without proven benefit. WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. - When Katherine Bibeau s body arrived at the morgue, she was covered in large, deep purplish-black bruises. But she had not been beaten, Coroner Gary Watts
Toy company executive works to raise money for small, grass-roots efforts to fill the day-to-day needs of those who live with the disease. Joe Cristina is HIV-positive. He has lost two partners to AIDS. Instead of derailing the Mattel executive s life, the disease turned him into a crusader. In a little more than a dec
* The Superhero Book The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes Edited by Gina Misiroglu with David A. Roach Visible Ink: 726 pp., $29.95 paper * 500 Comic Book Villains Mike Con I am not worried about torpedoing my older son s IQ because I ve given him my old comic books. As Gina Misiroglu s T
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