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A rare strain of H.I.V. that is highly resistant to virtually all anti-retroviral drugs and appears to lead to the rapid onset of AIDS was detected in a New York City man last week, city health officials announced on Friday. It was the first time a strain of H.I.V. had been found that both showed resistance to multiple drugs and led to AIDS so quickly, the officials said. While the extent of the disease's spread is unknown, officials called a news conference to say that the situation is alarming. "We consider this a major potential problem," said Dr. Thomas R....

Another Question Speaking of media bias, here’s a question you won’t hear in our big papers or on network TV: Does Yasser Arafat have AIDS? We know he has a blood disease that is depressing his immune system. We know that he has suddenly dropped considerable weight – possibly as much as 1/3 of all his body weight. We know that he is suffering intermittent mental dysfunction. What does this sound like? Former Romanian intelligence chief Ion Pacepa tells in his very interesting memoirs that the Ceaucescu regime taped Arafat’s orgies with his body guards. If true, Arafat would a...

In 1998, syphilis rates were so low the Centers for Disease Control announced a plan to completely eliminate the disease. The agency began an all-out prevention campaign, stepping up syphilis surveillance in New York City and the few counties across the country where it still existed. By 2000, the sexually transmitted infection was at its lowest point since 1941. Soon, the country's top doctors predicted, the dread illness that afflicted Henry VIII, Ivan the Terrible, and even a pope would be nothing more than an unpleasant memory, gone the way of smallpox and other eradicated diseases. But just six years...

[...] Deborah Grant and her boyfriend, Larry Frazier, both 45, represent an emerging face of HIV and AIDS in America. They are African-American, poor, heterosexual, and they live in the rural South. In a striking parallel to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, HIV is sweeping through black communities in the South, where stigma, inadequate medical care and poverty hamper efforts to educate and prevent its spread. [much later in the article ...] Despite declines in HIV among men who have sex with men, such men still account for an estimated 42 percent of all new HIV infections, according to the...

<p>THE public health experts - and their amen corner in the media - owe Helen Gurley Brown an apology. The legendary Cosmopolitan editor was vilified in 1993 when she published a piece called "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS." But she was right.</p>

Two student legislators at Western Oregon University have launched a drive to ban Red Cross blood drives on campus, claiming the donor screening process discriminates against gays. The two students are particularly upset about a donor question that reads: "Are you a male who has had sex with another male since 1977, even once?" The federal Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the Red Cross screening process, will not accept a donation from someone who answers 'yes' to the question, in order to help eliminate potentially HIV-tainted blood. "By continuing to allow the Red Cross on our campus, the university...

AIDS awareness educators reach out to secretive gay Arab community The Associated Press 3/16/2004, 2:43 a.m. ET FERNDALE, Mich. (AP) — They may have arranged the Arabian Nights party, complete with loud Arabic dance music and flickering lights, but Chris Ayoub and David Ponsart came to the Ferndale bar mainly to spread a message of safe-sex. From Our Advertisers The audience to which the two health educators spoke about HIV and AIDS prevention was one of the Detroit area's most secretive — gay Arab-Americans. It is also a group state health officials fear may be one of Michigan's most at-risk...

'Crystal Meth' Use Boosts STD Rates Among Gay Men Thu Mar 11, 11:47 PM ET By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, March 11 (HealthDayNews) -- Crystal methamphetamine -- or "speed" -- seems to be a driving factor behind higher rates of sexually transmitted disease among gay and bisexual men. In one study from San Francisco, gay men who visited a health clinic were twice as likely to be infected with the AIDS virus if they had recently used the illegal drug. And they were nearly five times as likely to be diagnosed with syphilis. Armed with the new statistics, federal...

PHILADELPHIA, March 10 — The expanding recreational use of crystal methamphetamine and Viagra is apparently fueling increases in syphilis, H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases among gay and bisexual men in the United States, according to new studies reported here on Wednesday. At a meeting on preventing sexually transmitted diseases, Dr. Samuel J. Mitchell of the San Francisco Health Department said a study had found that 17.4 percent of 1,263 gay men who had gone to the city's sexually transmitted disease clinic had used crystal in the four weeks before their visit. Crystal users were more than twice as likely...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Internet has played a significant role in the latest increase in cases of syphilis among gay men by introducing partners more likely to practice high-risk sex, according to a study released on Wednesday. About 22 percent of homosexual men diagnosed with early stage syphilis reported meeting one or more of their sexual partners through the Internet around the time they were infected, said the study by the Los Angeles Health Department. Researchers at a national conference in Philadelphia on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases also said they found gays who used the Web to meet...

Glenn Beck this morning listed off the dollars spent on various medical research project and how AIDS dwarfed everything else. Does anyone have a link to a list of thise numbers?

(CNSNews.com) - A crystal methamphetamine "epidemic" is sweeping New York City's homosexual community, activists said, prompting a growing number of users to engage in risky sex. As a result, the virus that causes AIDS is spreading, activists warned. Leaders of a group called HIV Forum have formed a new "working group" to create public service announcements warning about "the devastating impact of crystal meth use in NYC's gay community." The goal, organizers said, is to "tell the truth about crystal and keep this top of mind among gay men." "We believe in creating dialogues with and between gay men about...

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Statement Regarding the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief 2/23/04 1:21:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Health Reporter Contact: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 202-690-6343 WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following is a statement by HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson regarding the President's emergency plan for AIDS relief: "The release of this money is a landmark achievement that builds on our nation's historic efforts to fight global AIDS by delivering the hope of modern medicine to those who need it most around the world. "This investment complements the...

The rate of syphilis infection has soared 800 percent in the past two years, prompting Toronto health officials to call for education and prevention funding. Nearly 280 Torontonians tested positive for syphilis in 2003, up nearly 45 percent from 195 in 2002, the Toronto Sun said Monday, quoting a report to be presented next week to Toronto's health board. Those numbers are up from just 30 cases a year from 1997-2001. Nearly three-quarters of the cases were among men who have gay, unprotected sex, the report said. The city tried to fight the rise last spring with a month-long poster...

A Checklist to Assess Your School's Risk for Encouraging HOMOSEXUALITY For concerned students, parents and communities The activities and policies below may sound nice, but in reality protect and promote homosexuality and sexual promiscuity, putting students directly in harm's way instead of cautioning them about risky behavior. Is your school jumping on this foolish bandwagon? 1.__ A "safe schools" non-harassment program Assumption: Claims that students involved in homosexuality need to be protected because they are at higher risk for harassment and violence. Problems: Protects dangerous behavior and silences those who believe homosexuality is wrong. Assumes that some students are naturally...

New data based on the results of massive condom distribution in Africa indicates that condoms have done little if anything to slow the spread of AIDs, according to Austin Ruse of the Culture of Life Foundation. In fact, they may even contribute to the spread of HIV because they give people a false sense of security. "20 years into the pandemic there is no evidence that more condoms leads to less AIDS," stated Dr. Edward C. Green of Harvard’s' Center for Population and Development Studies. Green continued to say that "we are not seeing what we expected: that higher levels...

CULTURE & COSMOS January 13, 2004 Volume 1, Number 23 New Research Shows Dangers of Condoms in HIV Prevention Availability of condoms statistically increase promiscuity and risk of contracting HIV according to medical experts who presented their findings on the "ABC" approach to the HIV/Pandemic in Washington, DC last week. The presentations, hosted by the Medical Institute for Sexual Health, were critical of the insistence by some NGO's and policy makers that the "C" (condom) approach will stem the tide of the pandemic. "20 years into the pandemic there is no evidence that more condoms leads to less AIDS," stated...

In his bestseller "And the Band Played On," Randy Shilts, the tireless San Francisco journalist and chronicler of the AIDS epidemic, claimed to have identified one of the first cases of the disease in the United States. Sometime in 1980, he wrote, "Patient Zero," a promiscuous, gay French-Canadian flight attendant, had exhibited baffling purplish skin blotches now recognizable as one of the clear signs of full-blown AIDS. A year later, the Centers for Disease Control identified the first known cases of AIDS. The AIDS epidemic in the U.S. is coming up on the quarter-century mark. In that time, some 500,000...

Africa isn’t dying of Aids The headline figures are horrible: almost 30 million Africans have HIV/Aids. But, says Rian Malan, the figures are computer-generated estimates and they appear grotesquely exaggerated when set against population statistics Cape Town It was the eve of Aids Day here. Rock stars like Bono and Bob Geldof were jetting in for a fundraising concert with Nelson Mandela, and the airwaves were full of dark talk about megadeath and the armies of feral orphans who would surely ransack South Africa’s cities in 2017 unless funds were made available to take care of them. My neighbour came...