New HIV Therapy

Researchers may finally be on track to fight the AIDS virus by blocking a long-elusive target, an HIV enzyme called integrase. An experimental drug that inhibits the enzyme helped to keep the infection in check in monkeys.

Today, there are two approaches to fighting HIV. One new drug, called Fuzeon, works by preventing HIV from invading immune-system cells. Numerous older drugs work after the virus has invaded those cells, by blocking two of the three enzymes - reverse transcriptase and protease - that HIV uses to incorporate its genes into cells and to spread.

Combinations of those drugs have helped thousands of patients live longer and healthier. But these drugs are not a cure and they gradually lose their effectiveness. So new approaches are needed, especially as the epidemic continues to rise.

The United Nations counts a record 5 million people worldwide infected by HIV last year, with 3 million killed. That explains the interest in the third enzyme, integrase, which is crucial to the actual melding of HIV genes with patients' own DNA.

Far more research is needed to prove if Merck & Co.'s approach really can block this enzyme's crucial work in helping HIV reproduce and spread.

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CDC Increases AIDs Testing

"It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance."-Elizabeth Taylor.

HIV & Aids Internet Resources-

AIDS/HIV Hotline:1-800-342-AIDS

Adolescent AIDS Program: Children's Hospital at Montifiore http://www.adolescentaids.org/
Based in the Bronx, New York, the Adolescent AIDS Program at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center serves as a local and national resource for those living with HIV/AIDS; adolescents who are at-risk for HIV infection; healthcare providers who treat adolescents living with or at-risk for HIV infection; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning adolescents, their families and caregivers.
AIDS Education Global Information System http://www.aegis.com
HIV/AIDS Daily Briefing
Critical Path AIDS Project http://tensegrity.critpath.org/cpap/
Seeks to provide a key set of materials and links on HIV/AIDS treatment, research issues and activists skills, as well as connections to allied movements.
American Social Health Association (ASHA) http://www.ashastd.org/
ASHA is dedicated to improving the health of individuals, families, and communities, with a focus on preventing sexually transmitted diseases and their harmful consequences.
American Foundation for AIDS Research Far (AmfAR) http://www.amfar.org
Dedicated to the support of AIDS research, AIDS prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of sound AIDS-related public policy.
AVERT Home Page http://www.avert.org/
The site emphasises HIV/AIDS prevention, and there is a large and very popular section for young people. But there is also help provided for HIV positive people, with new pages on HIV treatment, extra pages of stories from people living with HIV and AIDS, and a new section on HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The Body: A Multimedia AIDS and HIV Information Resource http://www.thebody.com/index.html
Mission: 1) Use web to lower barriers between patients and clinicians; 2) demystify HIV/AIDS and its treatment; 3) Improve patients quality of life and 4) foster community through human connection.
Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) http://www.epibiostat.ucsf.edu/capsweb/
CAPS, at the University of San Francisco, conducts rigorous theory-based research that will have maximum impact on the theory, practice, and policy of AIDS prevention.
Center for Disease Control's National Prevention Information Network (CDCNPIN) http://www.cdcnpin.org/
CDCNPIN is the U.S. reference, referral, and distribution service for information on HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and tuberculosis (TB). NPIN produces, collects, catalogs, processes, stocks, and disseminates materials and information on HIV/AIDS, STDs, and TB to organizations and people working in those disease fields.
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's Daily Health Reports on HIV/AIDS http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_hiv.cfm
HIV InSite http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu
Comprehensive, up-to-date information on HIV/AIDS treatment, education and policy from the University of California, San Francisco

HIV Vaccine Trials Network http://www.hvtn.org
The HIV Vaccine Trials Network is an international partnership of research scientists, clinical trial sites, and community representatives working in the global search for a preventive HIV vaccine. Learn more about how you can get in involved with a trial site in your area.
Journal of the American Medical Association: AIDS Resource Center http://www.ama-assn.org/special/hiv/hivhome.htm
The Center is designed as a resource on HIV/AIDS for physicians and other health professionals.
Journal of the American Medical Association: Sexually Transmitted Disease Center http://www.ama-assn.org/special/std/std.htm
Abstracts of major STD articles published in the literature
Minority AIDS Council http://www.thebody.com/nmac/nmacpage.html
National organization dedicated to developing leadership within communities of color to address the challenge of HIV/AIDS.
Managing Desire http://www.managingdesire.org
Goal of this web site is to demystify HIV prevention knowledge and practice.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt http://www.aidsquilt.org
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a poignant memorial, a powerful tool for prevention education and the largest ongoing community arts project in the world.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome http://www.niaid.nih.gov/daids/
Formed to increase basic knowledge of the pathogenesis, natural history, and transmission of HIV disease and to support research that promotes progress in its detection, treatment, and prevention.
UNAIDS - Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS http://www.unaids.org
As the main advocate for global action on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS leads, strengthens and supports an expanded response aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV, providing care and support, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV/AIDS, and alleviating the impact of the epidemic.

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Our Rating
Out Of Four Stars-

Category-
Drama

And The Band Played On

One of our readers wanted us to mention this movie as they felt it was a great one and we agree.

This superior, made-for-cable film in 1993, this Home Box Office adaptation of Randy Shilts' chronicle detailing the emergence of AIDS in America and the fight against bureaucracy and society for a cure is a taut, outrageous, and affecting true-life drama.

Matthew Modine (Birdy, Married to the Mob) is featured as a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control at the time when the first reports of a disease plaguing the gay community were heard. Modine and his colleagues embark on an investigation that resembles a compelling detective story as they try to track the source of the disease and discover a cure. Their efforts are thwarted by an ambivalent government and a turf war between French physicians and a celebrated American researcher (Alan Alda) who seems to place his own glory above the dead and the dying. Featuring heartfelt performances from a stellar cast including Richard Gere, Glenne Headly, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Ian McKellen, Saul Rubinek, and Lily Tomlin, this impassioned film stands as an impressive and important document of one of the darkest eras in modern human history, and a tribute to the spirit of those who sought to save lives.
--Robert Lane