In The News

International AIDS Conference: Prime Minister Heckled at Opening

Phermsak Lilakul July 12, 2004
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was accused of being a liar when he pledged equal medical access for AIDS patients at the 15th International Aids Conference in Thailand. Controversy at the opening ceremonies centered around the Prime minister’s three-month-long, all-out war on drugs last year that resulted in the questionable deaths of more than 2,500 people. In Thailand, intravenous...

In Africa, an Exodus of Nurses

Celia W. Dugger July 12, 2004
Thousands of African nurses have migrated in recent years due to a combination of low pay and difficult working conditions in Africa and increased demand in developed countries with aging populations. Unfortunately, the exodus of African nurses has further deteriorated the already low quality of African health care systems that are strapped by insufficient funding and an AIDS epidemic. African...

China Seeks Low-Cost Drugs for AIDS Patients

Jason Leow June 30, 2004
HIV-AIDS in China has now infected almost a million people, according to official statistics. With at least 80,000 suffering from full-blown AIDS, the Chinese government is trying to find cheaper ways to treat them. Patented drugs from global pharmaceutical companies can cost up to 40,000 yuan a year – many times the average annual income in China. Under the rules of the World Trade...

U.S. Is Accused of Trying to Isolate U.N. Agency

Christopher Marquis June 21, 2004
In advance of a July 15 deadline on funding for international health programs, it appears that US President George W. Bush will continue to withhold monies from the United Nations agency responsible for population control issues. The UN Population Fund has been a target of US conservative religious groups for its supposed support of coerced abortions in China. The Bush administration cut...

Burma: Feel-Good US Sanctions Wrongheaded

David I. Steinberg May 19, 2004
President Bush's recent decision to extend sanctions against Burma for another year is emotionally satisfying but ineffective as a means of promoting democracy in the military-ruled state, argues David I. Steinberg, Director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Although US allies like India or Southeast Asian nations share its concern about the junta...

U.S. Speeding Up Approval Steps for AIDS Drugs

Lawrence K. Altman May 17, 2004
In its efforts to distribute cheap and easy-to-use drugs,the global fight against AIDS has encountered serious roadblocks in the past. Local governments and pharmaceutical companies have often fought against generic AIDS drug distribution. Now, the US – which has been accused of slowing the process more than any other country – is willing to give in a bit to quell global criticism. At the...

Death Sentence for Medics in Libyan HIV Case

Simon Jeffery May 6, 2004
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death after being found guilty of intentionally infecting 400 Libyan children while working in a hospital in the late 1990s. The scandalous accusation that aid workers would purposefully harm those they are supposed to help has shocked the world. Libyans originally accused the medics of running experiments on children to...