 January 31, 2006
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Wanted: Indian Hipsters With HIV
January 31, 2006—There’s a talent search underway in India for young,
HIV positive musicians interested in forming a pop band and
singing about HIV.
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Know Your Reyataz
January 31, 2006—Under a new label change, anyone taking Reyataz (atazanavir) and Videx EC (ddI) in the same combo is urged to dose separately: Reyataz should be taken with food two hours before or one hour after Videx EC.
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January 30, 2006
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NJ Governor Needles Lawmakers On Clean Syringes
January 30, 2006—New Jersey’s new governor is on a mission to bring his
state into line with the rest of the country on needle exchange—and if
lawmakers won’t help him, Governor John Corzine warned last week, he may
resort to executive powers.
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Quit Smoking—With Your Cell Phone
January 30, 2006—HIV positive smokers getting counseling over their cell phones are 3.6 times more likely to quit than those in traditional quitting programs, according to a January study in AIDS.
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January 27, 2006
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Jailhouse Health Care Bombs in NYC
January 27, 2006—The Tennessee-based Prison Health Services failed to
meet basic standards for treating HIV positive inmates in New York City
last year, the New York Times reports.
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January 26, 2006
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Bono’s Plan For AIDS Relief: Charge It
January 26, 2006—U2 frontman and AIDS fundraiser Bono unveiled a new brand today called Red, under which a range of companies from American Express to The Gap will forward proceeds to Global Fund programs in Africa.
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20 Million Condoms For Rwanda
January 26, 2006—The Rwandan government has launched the central African country’s first national condom campaign, with an emphasis on teaching people how to use them and countering religious and cultural resistance.
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January 25, 2006
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China’s HIV Count Drops—Officially
January 25, 2006—A Chinese survey held in conjunction with the World Health Organization and UNAIDS turned up far fewer people with AIDS and HIV than the government had previously estimated—just 650,000 total.
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Doctors Call For Ban on Pharma Gifts
January 25, 2006—Ten influential doctors called today in The Journal of the American Medical Association for a ban on the gifts, free drug samples and classes that pharma companies regularly dole out to practicing physicians.
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January 24, 2006
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BBC Drops Tanzania Project Under U.S. Pressure
January 24, 2006—The BBC has abandoned a U.S.-funded HIV project in
Tanzania because of a Bush administration requirement that the British
network sign a pledge opposing prostitution.
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Study: PI Side Effects Vary By Race
January 24, 2006—Non-Latino blacks taking protease inhibitors (PIs) are
less likely to develop lipid problems than other ethnic groups,
according to
a study in next week's PLoS medicine that was reported on by United Press International.
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Once-a-Day Maraviroc Trial Shuts Down
January 24, 2006—Pfizer announced today that maraviroc, its candidate in the new entry inhibitor (EI) class of HIV meds, has hit a minor snag in clinical trials.
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January 23, 2006
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Cali Senate Approves Names-Based Reporting
January 23, 2006—The California State Senate unanimously passed a bill
to track people with HIV by name instead of alphanumeric code—in line
with a federal government threat to withhold funding from states that
don't.
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New NAPWA Director: Frank Oldham
January 23, 2006—Frank Oldham, Jr., an HIV positive African-American
New Yorker with a long history in urban AIDS, was selected tonight to
head the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA), among the nation’s
oldest and most respected HIV groups.
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January 20, 2006
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AIDS Czar May Direct U.S. Foreign Aid
January 20, 2006—Randall Tobias, the former pharmaceutical executive in charge of the Bush Administration’s global AIDS efforts, may be headed for nomination to a newly created position directing all foreign assistance.
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Illinois Considers Testing Newborns
January 20, 2006—The state of Illinois may join just two other states in requiring that hospitals test newborn babies for HIV—with or without the mom’s consent.
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January 19, 2006
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Once-a-Day Beats Popular Med Combo
January 19, 2006—Viread (tenofovir),
Emtriva (emtricitabine) and Sustiva (efavirenz) taken once a day outperformed the
traditional first-line combo of Sustiva and Combivir (AZT plus 3TC) in a study published in the January 19 issue of the New
England Journal of Medicine.
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Israel Won't Let Palestinian Travel For Treatment
January 19, 2006—A Palestinian hemophiliac with AIDS is being denied
permission to leave Gaza to continue treatment in Tel Aviv,
despite written entreaties from the chairman of the Israeli Medical
Association and six AIDS experts.
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January 18, 2006
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Can Yogurt Prevent HIV?
January 18, 2006—A bacteria present in human stomachs and yogurt may neutralize the HIV virus when genetically modified, according to a study published today in Nature.
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Supremes Support Assisted Suicide
January 18, 2006—The Supreme Court upheld an Oregon law yesterday permitting doctor-assisted suicide for patients with less than six months to live.
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January 17, 2006
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Roche’s Med Offer Under Fire
January 17, 2006— A Swiss group is criticizing Roche’s offer last week
to help developing countries manufacture the HIV med saquinivir,
calling it a public relations move.
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January 13, 2006
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Roche To Pass On Med-Making Skills
January 13, 2006—Pharma company Roche announced plans yesterday to offer drug manufacturers in Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries the know-how to produce saquinivir (branded Invirase in the U.S.), in a very rare instance of a drug company passing on such skills.
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Chinese Police Beat HIV Protestors
January 13, 2006—Police in Beijing bludgeoned two HIV positive women yesterday with electric batons in a conflict stemming from their infection, along with 23 others, by unscreened blood transfusions.
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January 12, 2006
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Microbicide Approval In Sight
January 12, 2006—The FDA granted fast-track status to a microbicide called VivaGel this week, possibly cutting its approval time by up to half and making it likely to be the first microbicide to reach drugstore shelves—maybe as early as 2008.
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Clinton Brokers Deal on Cheap Meds and Testing
January 12, 2006—Former President Clinton’s foundation has brokered a deal reducing the cost of rapid HIV tests produced by companies in India and China by 50% and the cost of AIDS meds efavirenz (Sustiva) and abacavir (Ziagen) made by companies in South Africa and India by approximately 30%.
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January 11, 2006
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Los Angeles Cracks Down On Bathhouses
January 11, 2006—The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed regulations yesterday requiring bathhouses and sex clubs to offer on-site HIV testing and counseling, free condoms and safe sex info.
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SMART Drug Holiday Study Halts No-Treatment Arm
January 11, 2006—POZ has learned that the three-year-old treatment
interruptions study known as Strategies for Management of
Antiretroviral Therapy (SMART) has discontinued its “no treatment” arm
because participants in that group showed a higher incidence of
AIDS-related events than those on meds.
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January 10, 2006
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3-in-1 HIV Cocktail Tests Well
January 10, 2006—Pharma companies Gilead Sciences and Bristol-Myers
Squibb announced yesterday that tests of the first-ever, three-in-one
anti-HIV pill showed it was as effective as taking the drugs
separately.
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HIV Positive Thais Protest Free Trade Pact
January 10, 2006—HIV positive Thais joined thousands of protesters
marching in the northern city of Chiang Mai yesterday against a
proposed U.S.-Thai free trade pact that could limit the country’s
access to affordable, generic drugs.
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January 09, 2006
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Diabetes Kills More New Yorkers Than AIDS
January 9, 2006—Diabetes cases in New York have surged 140 percent in
the last decade, pushing it past AIDS and stroke to become the city’s
fourth-leading cause of death, reports the New York Times.
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Al-Qaeda Recruiting Suicide Bombers With HIV?
January 9, 2006—The
sensationalist UK tabloid Sunday Mirror reported yesterday that Al-Qaeda operatives are recruiting suicide bombers with
diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and dengue fever.
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Who Is JT Leroy?
January 9, 2006—Few were surprised to learn this week that the reclusive HIV positive mystery writer JT Leroy—a 25-year-old ex-prostitute and drug addict, according to the lore surrounding his popular books—is, in fact, a hoax.
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January 06, 2006
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More News From Nigeria: A Positive Prison Break
January 6, 2006—HIV positive prisoners will be given priority in a new national program to release half of Nigeria’s inmate population in order to improve conditions in overcrowded prisons.
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January 05, 2006
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Nigerian Pastors Claim Prayer Can Cure HIV
January 5, 2006—Some Nigerian pastors are claiming to cure HIV through prayer—and requiring that the faithful decline both treatment and HIV testing, according to a commentary in the British Guardian newspaper.
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Daughters of Positive Parents Get Pregnant Sooner
January 5, 2006—In New York City, daughters of HIV positive parents are up to 6 times more likely to become pregnant before the age of 18 than other young women, says a new study in the latest American Journal of Health Behavior.
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January 04, 2006
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Teens Don't Know Much About STDs
January 4, 2006—Most teen girls don’t learn the basics about sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs) until they are diagnosed with one,
according to a study that will be published in the January edition of
the Journal of Adolescent Health.
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Swaziland’s New Circumcision Craze
January 4, 2006—Swazi men are flouting their country’s anti-circumcision traditions in response to findings in neighboring South Africa last summer that circumcision can reduce HIV infection by about 60 percent.
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January 03, 2006
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France Taxes Air Travel for AIDS
January 3, 2006—Everyone boarding an airplane in France after July 1 will fork over an extra $47 to help fund global HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis programs around the world, under a new tax approved late last month by the French Parliament.
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Poet Tory Dent Dies at 47
January 3, 2006—Tory Dent, who wrote three volumes of poetry about the 17 years she lived with HIV, died of AIDS on December 30 at age 47.
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