HIV DRUGS KILL LIKE POVERTY (APRIL '02)

"Median time from seroconversion to AIDS and death in poor, starving rural Africans (without access to health care, purified water or electricity)... is no different than that observed in Europeans, North Americans, or Australians who have full access to proper nutrition, health-care, "life-prolonging" anti-retrovirals, and prophylaxis against opportunistic infections." See this article by Dr. Rodney Richards. See also this interview with Dr. Richards by Mark Gabrish Conlan.

TREATMENT FAILURES (APRIL '02)

Nevirapine can also cause neuropsychiatric complications, see this report from the BMJ.

"In a warning letter to physicians Bristol-Myers Squibb has reported 22 cases (including 7 deaths) worldwide of a stavudine-associated rapidly ascending neuromuscular weakness and respiratory failure mimicking GuillainBarr�syndrome." See this article

"W.H.O. Moves to Make AIDS Drugs More Accessible to Poor Worldwide" see this article from the New York Times.

PRESIDENT & DISSIDENTS (APRIL '02)

"President Thabo Mbeki has distanced the government from the AIDS dissidents from whom he has taken controversial advice over the past few years", writes South Africa's Sunday Times. "Officials Urge AIDS Dissidents to Stop Misusing Mbeki's Name" says a Business Day headline. But "President Thabo Mbeki's relationship with AIDS dissidents looks set to be an enduring one, in spite of suggestions from within government that they should stop using Mbeki's name in their correspondence." See this article from Business Day.

President Thabo Mbeki launched an attack on AIDS lobbyists who conduct "propaganda attacks" against the state. See his report from News 24, and the column by Mbeki from ANC Today.

PROBLEMS WITH NEVIRAPINE TRIALS (MARCH '02)

The pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim dropped plans to try to get FDA permission to market nevirapine for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the US after "irregularities" were found in African trials of the drug. The FDA believes that the problems are "potentially quite serious". See this Reuters report, this AP release, this article from South Africa's Business Day, and this article from the Washington Post.

Some researchers rushed to defend the drug fearing it would give South Africa's government an excuse to reject it. See this Reuters report. "Top" South African scientists urged their government to end its opposition to the use of the drug. See this article from Reuters. South Africa's Medicines Control Council is considering reviewing the registration of the drug, says this article from South Africa's Business Day.

The Perth Group made a presentation reviewing the African nevirapine trials. View the slides, and listen (Real audio, 65 minutes) to the presentation, or read the transcript. See also this new article by Anthony Brink.

Update: An article from a newspaper from Kampala explaining why the FDA request was dropped.

AIDS ACTIVIST AND POLITICAL PRISONER (MARCH '02)

"San Francisco alternative AIDS activists David Pasquarelli and Michael Petrelis were arrested on November 28, 2001 and charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism. They were held on a combined $1.1 million bail for nothing more than an alleged series of phone calls to the homes and offices of local government officials and reporters." Read the interview with David Pasquarelli by Mark Gabrish Conlan.

AIDS DUEL (MARCH '02)

"AIDS 'dissident' David Rasnick of the University of California at Berkeley has agreed to inject himself with HIV if South African Professor Philip Machanick takes a three-drug cocktail of anti-HIV medicine for the rest of his life." See this article from the San Francisco Chronicle, and this older article from CNSNews.

See also the Rasnick's letters to South Africa's Daily Mail and Guardian.

NEWS FROM SOUTH AFRICA (FEB./MARCH '02)

The South Africa government maintained that its country needs more research on nevirapine before distributing it in public hospitals. See this AP release. "Opposition leaders hurled ridicule and defiance at President Thabo Mbeki," says this this Reuters release. See also this article from the Mail & Guardian. The government said it will expand research into the use of nevirapine, but will not make the drug universally available. Read this article from Reuters.

Nelson Mandela has been criticising his governments AIDS policy. See this BBC article, and this article. But according to this IPS story, "Mandela has made it clear that there is no direct conflict between himself and Mbeki." See also this article from Reuters, this article from BMJ, and this Reuters release.

President Mbeki got slammed in Newsweek. "Thabo Mbeki is feuding with allies, fighting his cabinet and losing international friends. How his dissent on AIDS is unraveling his presidency." Read the article by Tom Masland. See also this article from South Africa's Financial Times.

Former US President Jimmy Carter and William Gates Sr., co-chairman of the Gates Foundation, visited South Africa. Mandela accompanied them, and criticised his government again. See this Reuters story, and this article from AP. Carter had some advice for Mbeki, see this article from South Africa's Business Day. The ANC has reacted "angrily" to Carter. See this article from Business Day, and the press release from the ANC.

Judge Chris Botha ruled again that the South African government had to start providing nevirapine immediately for HIV-positive pregnant women in state hospitals. See this article from The Guardian. The ANC condemned the court order saying it "defies logic", and that courts should not determine health policy, says this article from Reuters. See also this article from SAPA, this Reuters release, this article, and see this release from the ANC.

The National Executive Committee of the ANC held a meeting to discuss AIDS. The committee released a statement. "Government is duty-bound to pose scientific questions on this and any other matter that affects public policy. In this regard, the NEC welcomes the continuing work of the Presidential Advisory Panel on AIDS, and urges that these matters under investigation should be handled with the urgency they deserve."

"The ruling African National Congress has given its top officials a document that questions the existence of AIDS, condemns AIDS drugs as poisonous and describes Western attitudes to the pandemic in Africa as blatant racism." The document was obtained by the Associated Press, see this article. See also this article from South Africa's Mail & Guardian, this article from South Africa's Financial Mail, and another article from the Mail & Guardian.

The former archbishop Desmond Tutu "said he supported the rollout of anti-retroviral drugs including the controversial nevirapine, which he said had an important impact on the prevention of AIDS." See this article from AFP. See this article too.

"Peter Mokaba, ANC MP, is no newcomer to rough politics. He has become a key player in the HIV/AIDS debate within the ANC." See this interview with Peter Mokaba from the Financial Mail, this interview from the New York Times, this article from The Guardian, and this article from South Africa's The Star.

See also this article by Anita Allen, and this letter by Dave Rasnick.

TREATMENT FAILURES (CONT.) (FEB./MARCH '02)

"With current therapies bedeviled by serious side effects and growing viral resistance, hopes are fading for a quick breakthrough." See this article from the Los Angeles Times.

"A class of anti-HIV drugs called nucleoside analogues, which include medications like AZT, can interfere with the ability of mitochondria to produce energy." Researchers have developed a new test to measure the mitochondrial toxicity. See this Reuters release.

"All the currently available drugs are losing their impact." See this article from AP.

"Strokes and coronary disease are linked to powerful protease inhibitors, some doctors suspect." Read this article from the Los Angeles Times.

"Scientists in the US have confirmed that children born to HIV positive mothers, exposed to treatment in the womb have an increased frequency of genetic mutations." See this article from the BBC.

"Therapy may also have an unexpected side effect: increasing the risk of febrile seizures in early childhood." See this article from Reuters.

"The Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has warned doctors that some patients who took its HIV, drug Zerit developed a rare nerve inflammation that caused some deaths." See this report from Bloomberg

People on protease inhibitors were much more likely to die 3 to 4 years after starting "antiretroviral" drugs than people started on drug regimens that did not contain protease inhibitors. Read this article by Matt Irwin.

"Median time from seroconversion to AIDS and death in poor, starving rural Africans without access to health care, purified water or electricity is no different than that observed in Europeans, North Americans, or Australians who have full access to proper nutrition, health-care, "live-prolonging" antiretrovirals, and prophylaxis against opportunistic infections." Read this article by Rodney Richards.

LETTERS TO THE BMJ (FEB. '02)

The British Medical Journal published several dissident letters online.

"As a prison medical officer in South Africa, I partly agree with President Mbeki's sceptical view of current statistical research into HIV infection and AIDS." Read this letter to the BMJ, and see the rapid responses.

"Managing shame is important for improving health care." An editorial about shame from the BMJ. See the responses too.

And a letter about the reduction of mother-to-child transmission of HIV from AnotherLook.

There was also some discussion in the JAMA about a breastfeeding study. Read the letters.

AIDS AND THE VOODOO HEX ( FEB. '02)

"Most people have heard of Voodoo hexing, where a hexed individual succumbs to a chronic illness that often results in death, exactly as predicted. Most people are not aware, however, that some of medicine's leading researchers and physicians have studied this phenomenon. In addition, most people have not considered how this might relate to AIDS." Matt Irwin MD, a family practice resident from the USA, reviewed the literature.

SUPPORT FOR JAILED ACTIVISTS (FEB. '02)

"Two aggressive AIDS activists jailed in San Francisco are finding support from unlikely sources: those who call their theories "crackpot" and consider their tactics indecent and abhorrent," says this article from the Los Angeles Times. See also this article from the Bay Area Reporter, and this press release.

Michael Bellefountaine answered some questions about the case.

See also this article from The New York Times, this article by Alexander Cockburn from Counterpunch, this article from POZ, this article by Patricia Nell Warren for A & U Magazine, this article from the San Francisco Examiner, and this article from The Advocate,

After preliminary hearings the Judge reduced the outrageous bail. See this press release. Both activists are now out of jail. See this article from the San Francisco Examiner.

COCAINE AND HIV (FEB. '02)

Cocaine makes AIDS progress faster and leads to more opportunistic infections. A new mice study showed "cocaine greatly enhanced replication of the virus and increased the number of human cells it infected and killed." See this article from the New York Times, and this article from Reuters.

AIDS MONEY (FEB. '02)

"So much HIV/AIDS-related funding is subject to waste and fraud that some patients could actually be suffering from it." Read the story from Fox News. See also this article.

NEW BOOK DR. KREMER (JAN. '02)

The german AIDS dissident Heinrich Kremer MD got his new book about AIDS and cancer published in Germany. The german magazine Raum und Zeit published an interview with Dr. Kremer. Read the translation.

WRONG TEST RESULT (JAN. '02)

"In a case that raises questions about the accuracy of HIV tests, an Oklahoma man has won a $1.4 million settlement nine years after a health clinic mistakenly told him he was infected." Read the article from Health Scout News.