The federal government has awarded Chicago nearly $37 million to help fund efforts against homelessness, officials announced Monday. Most of the money, $33 million, represents grants to provide transitional and permanent housing for the homeless and to offer a range of social services designed to prevent their return t
BEIJING -- James Morris, the Indiana native who heads the World Food Program, is worried that supplies of fortified crackers for North Korean children and mothers soon may run out because international donors don t trust the bellicose Pyongyang government. He also is concerned about the hungry AIDS orphans of Africa, w
Abbott Laboratories has drawn fire from AIDS activists in the United States for raising the price of its well-known HIV drug by more than 400 percent. Norvir , one of the earlier treatments for HIV, isn t the top-seller it once was, but it is commonly used to boost th
JOHANNESBURG -- Thandoxolo Doro and his wife, Simphiwe, had good jobs and last year qualified for a 20-year mortgage on a modest home in suburban Benoni. Soon afterward, however, while applying for a car loan, the couple acknowledged they were HIV-positive. Since then, the family s good fortune--and its access to fina
A stealthy enemy is lurking inside the bodies of millions of Americans that some medical experts fear may prove as devastating as AIDS. These people feel perfectly healthy, unaware that a virus is quietly destroying their liver, cell by cell. The first sign I got was two years ago when I crashed with end-stage liver d
It s World AIDS Day, one of the few things that leads television to still demonstrate some sense of civic responsibility. Oprah Winfrey, on her top-rated talk show (9 a.m., WLS-Ch. 7), talks to former President Clinton and U2 singer and AIDS activist Bono. The Cinemax documentary To Live Is Better Than to Die (6 p.m.)
Zackie Achmat is flamboyant and relentless, and courageous beyond common sense. He is also focused, like electricity racing through a wire, trying to zap the South African government out of its indifference to AIDS. Achmat s labor of several years has finally paid off. Health officials in his country have unveiled deta
Observers generally agree that Tony Kushner s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Angels in America, is the greatest masterpiece inspired by AIDS and its effects on the gay community. No small irony, then, that the new, belated HBO film version will also probably be the last of this gay/AIDS genre. Times have changed since
God, Mormons, rabbis, prophets and angels arrive next weekend on HBO. But religious leaders across America are unlikely to break out in spontaneous celebration of a spiritual rebirth in the secular world of cable television. For these are not those kinds of angels. Like a weird religious thunderbolt aimed at the home o
Buoyed by the success of its inaugural college scholarship program for Chicago area teens living with HIV-AIDS, Wheaton-based Canticle Ministries is going national with the project. We got inquiries last year from across the country about the scholarships, so we know the need is out there, said Canticle Ministries Dire
MOHLAKENG TOWNSHIP, South Africa -- Maria Mokhoane s treatment room may sport animal bones, powdered herbs and a copy of the Bible, but she also embraces modern medicine. For years the traditional healer has been helping tuberculosis patients in her community stick to taking their pills, and she has persuaded the HIV-
Aldermen and activists were successful in advancing efforts to secure greater funding for HIV/AIDS programs when the City Council Budget Committee voted Monday to add another $500,000 to the $3.7 million that Mayor Richard Daley had included in next year s budget. Daley s budget had increased funding for HIV/AIDS progr
Methods used successfully to combat HIV in gay white neighborhoods do not work nearly as well in minority communities, state health officials said Thursday. Programs to battle HIV rates in black areas need to be tailored for their populations, said Dr. Eric Whitaker, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health
VITA, Manitoba -- Awash in the glow of fluorescent lights, Lothar Dueck s drugstore in this community of 400 near the Minnesota border is the only place within 60 miles where shoppers can pick up a sponge mop, Beanie Babies, a deer-hunting license and blood-pressure medication in a single stop. It is also the unlikely
PRETORIA, South Africa -- The first large warship purchased by South Africa s navy in 18 years pulled into dock this week near Cape Town, cheered by sailors as a first step toward rebuilding the country s military infrastructure. Over the next few years, the nation also will get new helicopters, submarines and jet fig
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba -- Niurka Rojas was diagnosed with HIV 13 years ago and confined to a sanitarium on the outskirts of this provincial town. Since then, the government has given Rojas all the medication she needs to fight the illness, ample food and a tidy three-room home that would be the envy of most Cubans. In ex
Bonnie Miller Rubin and Nancy Munson, Tribune staff reporters
With a true story, a tragic hero and a haunting ending, there is no shortage of emotion unfolding on the stage at Prospect High School this weekend. But another drama is taking place outside the spotlight, with some parents calling for cancellation and threatening to protest The Laramie Project, based on the 1998 murde
Five Chicago-area health centers will divide almost $6 million in grants to combat drug abuse and HIV, federal officials announced Wednesday. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said the grants are intended to help minority communities disproportionately affected by drug abuse and HIV. The mon
For much of the 90s, Bill T. Jones reigned as the most provocative choreographer at work in America. He broke just about every rule and, by injecting long stretches of speech into his work, tackled fever-hot issues: race, religion, AIDS and gay rights. His breathtaking spectacle, Last Supper at Uncle Tom s Cabin/The Pr
Long before Arnold Schwarzenegger morphed from sci-fi roles into his new political role, designer Kenneth Cole was funneling fashion consciousness into social conscience. With advertising one-liners that double as a platform for a progressive agenda, Cole has delivered messages to America about AIDS, voter registration
SOWETO, South Africa -- Since finding out two years ago she was HIV positive, Judith Stevens, like many South Africans, has done what she can to extend her life. The 32-year-old mother of two has adopted a healthier diet, tried herbal remedies and attacked colds before they could turn into pneumonia. But her immune sy
Even though they may have the same malady, some people will respond well to a given treatment while others will experience little effect. If it were possible to know in advance which treatments were likely to work in which individuals, medical care would be much more effective. The notion of tailoring medication has ta
Jim Kirk and Bruce Japsen, Tribune staff reporters
Several giant drugmakers, including North Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories , are counting on a glitzy new advertising campaign to turn the tide of public opinion in the face of unprecedented attacks on the drug industry by prosecutors, lawmakers and consumer groups. Though advocacy advertising is nothing new for the $
Unlike most earlier AIDS treatments, Abbott Laboratories popular drug Kaletra is like the Energizer bunny in its ability to keep the deadly HIV virus suppressed for long periods of time. The drug lasts and lasts for its patients, a new study indicates. Kaletra has kept HIV at undetectable levels in nearly two-third
Marriage-conscious society mostly frowns, but homosexuals are finding a club here and a movie there that accepts them. It s a sea change, says one. NEW DELHI -- Under purple strobe lights, a man in a sleeveless T-shirt with Daddy on the front slow-dances with a long-haired guy in a tight seersucker blouse. At the bar,
A gasoline fire set on a North Side rooftop Tuesday morning caused part of the ceiling to collapse into a one-story building that houses the offices of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) as well as those of city and state officials and an AIDS advocacy group, police said. There was no indication any of the political off
Quiet efforts to persuade some of the largest U.S. producers of condoms to stop using a spermicide that may increase the risk of HIV and urinary tract infections haven t worked, so several California legislators, AIDS activists and women s groups set out last week to shame them into it. At a news conference in Sacramen
JOHANNESBURG -- The top South African official to meet with a visiting delegation of U.S. senators has advised them that the AIDS epidemic is being well-managed in the country and that the disease is having little effect on the economy or life expectancy. Alec Erwin, the country s minister of trade and industry, told t
E.A. Torriero, Tribune staff reporter on assignment in Iraq
An American with a crater visits a Baghdad dentist. E.A. Torriero fills us in. BAGHDAD -- Four months ago an American found sitting in Dr. Kifah Al-Yassine s dental chair would have faced a fate far worse than a root canal. But the war is over. And while former regime loyalists are still taking potshots at U.S. soldier
IKEA, the international home-furnishings retailer, and the United Nations Children s Fund have launched a fundraising effort to assist African children in need. Through August 2004, IKEA stores worldwide will donate $2 from the sale of every $6.99 BRUM teddy bear to benefit children in Angola and
Heroin addiction is a regrettable condition, and there are lots of theories about how to help people overcome it. But it is a truism, not a theory, that you can t help addicts once they are dead. Step 1 in assisting or even forcing heroin users into more socially productive behavior is keeping them alive. This elementa
WHEATON -- Next year, riders will get bigger maps. Otherwise, organizers of the first Heartlanders Opening People s Eyes Ride said they think the 300-mile fundraising bicycle journey that ended last week went well. It was a bit hard to manage 20 pages of maps on 8 1/2-by-11 sheets of paper, said Brad Ogilvie, director
SPRINGFIELD -- Sterile syringes will now be available without a prescription to buyers ages 18 and older under a new measure signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday. Meant to stem the spread of HIV by reducing the use of dirty needles, the measure also requires pharmacists to hand out pamphlets on drug treatm
Baxter International Inc. on Friday won approval for its next-generation blood-clotting drug for hemophilia patients. The Food and Drug Administration gave its OK to Baxter s Advate, the first genetically engineered clotting treatment made without addedanimal or human proteins. Researchers who have studied the drug bel
WASHINGTON -- While Democrats pound President Bush over the war in Iraq , conservatives are growing restless over Bush s support of costly programs such as a Medicare prescription drug plan, farm subsidy legislation and an AIDS-prevention package. The thunder from the right is not loud enough yet to qualify as a re
An American gymnast who alleges he was fired from Cirque du Soleil s Las Vegas show Mystere for being HIV-positive has sparked a federal discrimination complaint against the Montreal-based circus. I told them I was HIV-positive at the very start of my four months of training in Montreal said the Maryland-based Matthew
President Bush carried the American agenda to Africa, a continent defined by its needs, which are constant, demanding and, in many cases, debilitating. What responsibility does the United States have in Africa? When President Jimmy Carter made the first state visit of an American president to Africa in 1978, the only
GABORONE, Botswana -- President Bush, arriving Thursday in a nation devastated by AIDS, pledged to the people of Botswana and Africa that the United States would not allow the ravaging disease to undermine the hopes and progress of the continent s emerging democracies. Botswana has one of the world s highest rates
The world is right to greet with no more than polite applause the announcement that Liberia s President Charles Taylor will leave the country and accept asylum in Nigeria . He has made such offers before, and at the moment he s still firmly ensconced in Monrovia. Taylor is demanding that international peacekeepers, inc
President Bush is misleading a nation and a continent. He is misleading Americans by claiming his administration is taking real steps to address Africa s most urgent challenges. He is misleading Africans by declaring U.S. partnership with their efforts to fight AIDS and poverty and to promote peace. In fact, the Bush a
Researchers at Northwestern University discussed sexual behaviors with 800 juveniles ages 10-18 who had been arrested and detained at a juvenile center in Chicago. The findings are jaw-dropping. Among them: - Ninety-five percent reported having engaged in three or more risky behaviors involving drugs or sex. Behaviors
The AIDS Foundation of Chicago Thursday awarded $1.2 million in grants that will allow some area HIV and AIDS prevention organizations to fund programs aimed at stopping the spread of the disease. The average grant was $15,000 said Mark Ishaug, executive director for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Ishaug said the mone
Connie Lauerman, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune reporter Michael Killian and news services contributed to this report
Rarely a week goes by when reproductive rights don t make news and the last one was no exception. Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff known as Jane Roe in the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion, filed a motion in court in Dallas asking that the courts overturn the ruling based on new evidence that abort
WHEATON -- The training ride last week was nothing fancy. Just a bunch of guys on a 20-mile bike ride through Wheaton and Warrenville, learning to ride in a group. But the riders will get more exercise next month when they set out on the 300-mile Heartlanders Opening People s Eyes (HOPE) Ride to benefit Canticle Minis
If this was a midlife crisis, it sure was a doozy. In 1988, Walt and Terry Rucker were in their early 40s with their only child finishing up high school, living in a house purchased for its empty-nester appeal. Fifteen years later, the Ruckers have moved to a bigger house in Chicago s Ravenswood neighborhood, one with
For June, it s a busy television weekend. The newest Cirque du Soleil show, which comes to Chicago over the summer, can be previewed on video (Bravo, Saturday). Animal Planet, amusingly enough, lists the 50 Greatest TV Animals (Saturday). In sports, there s golf s U.S. Open from Olympia Fields (NBC, Saturday and Sunda
RIO DE JANEIRO -- At first, it was difficult for Luiza Souto to shake her depression and fear. Finding out she was infected with the virus that causes AIDS was like a death sentence for the 50-year-old homemaker who was proud of her good relationship with her husband, from whom she got HIV. I was angry at my husband an
The Village of Westmont has agreed to settle a lawsuit by paying $125,000 to an HIV-positive man who claimed its Police Department denied him a job as an officer because of his infection, lawyers said Thursday. The man, who said he is now a police officer in another town, sued the village and its Board of Police and Fi
A year ago, when Afghanistan was a hot topic among the leaders of major U.S. charities, Rich Stearns was beating a different drum. Guys, Afghanistan is a pimple on the nose of the world, Stearns, the president of the Christian relief organization World Vision U.S., told his colleagues. The AIDS epidemic is going to ge
Christi Parsons and Kate McCann, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson contributed to this report
SPRINGFIELD -- In a move that supporters say will slow the spread of HIV and other blood-borne diseases, the Illinois House Tuesday passed a bill that would make sterile syringes available without a prescription to buyers ages 18 and older. Designed to discourage the sharing of dirty needles, a leading cause of infecti
For Kristin Jones, 32, catching a cold from her 4-year-old son means more than a stuffy-headed fever. If he picks up something from a day-care situation and brings it back to me, that could be very serious, said Jones, who has HIV. If I get sick and have to go in the hospital, there are no relatives here in Chicago who
WASHINGTON -- The normally fractious House of Representatives united Thursday to pass a $15 billion, five-year plan to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and the Caribbean, by far the biggest contribution by the U.S.--or any nation--to the worldwide fight against the disease. Just three months after President Bush c
Medical scientists have known for almost a decade how to prevent transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from a pregnant woman to her child. So it s almost always a preventable tragedy when a baby is born with the fatal virus. The Illinois Senate has taken a half-step toward reducing the number of such cases a
Dennis Byrne - A Chicago-area writer and public affairs consultant
This is unbelievable. The Illinois legislature is about to pass a welcome compromise that would allow dozens of infants to be sentenced to a life of pain and near certain early death. I ll say it again, so that it can sink in. Nearly every newborn can be safeguarded from getting the virus that causes AIDS from his or h
Illinois is one of only five states that legally require a prescription for purchasing hypodermic needles, largely because of fear that deregulation would foster intravenous drug use and addiction. That flies in the face of science, sound social policy and common sense. The Illinois House passed a bill in 2000 legalizi
Illinois physicians and civil libertarians have disagreed for years on how far the state should go to find out whether pregnant women and newborn babies are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. A compromise reached by lawmakers in Springfield would make HIV testing routine for infants born to mothers who have not
Anna Rokowski s body is waiting to be claimed. She died Friday night, no family around, no family to be found. Unless you count Joe McDonnell. McDonnell was sitting at his office desk Friday afternoon when his phone rang. Could he come to Illinois Masonic Hospital right away? Anna Rokowski was dying. Somebody was neede
In a new laboratory at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, researchers began working in the last few days with the virus thought to cause the respiratory disease SARS in hopes of developing a vaccine for an illness no one yet truly understands. Although any useful vaccine likely is years away, teams already
John Chase and Christi Parsons, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Diane Rado and Ray Long contributed to this report
As Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan lavished praise on Gov. Rod Blagojevich Thursday for a state budget friendly to city schools, district number-crunchers tried to figure out why the fine print stripped away much, if not all, of the district s gains. Duncan, who introduced Blagojevich at a school in Little Vil
When the annual Heartland AIDS Ride ended a seven-year run in Chicago last summer amid controversy, the staff of Canticle Ministries in Wheaton saw the finale of the biking fundraiser as a loss and an opportunity. For some of us living with HIV, the Heartland ride always represented a marker for us in getting through s
Lobbyists for groups fighting AIDS are doing something rare: Doffing their hats in gratitude and admiration for U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, the gray-maned conservative Republican from Illinois. Though ideologically they are often miles apart, the two camps joined forces Wednesday on the need for billions more American dollar
SPRINGFIELD -- Anyone 18 or older could buy from pharmacies hypodermic needles without a prescription under a bill that narrowly passed the Illinois Senate Monday. Sponsors hope the bill will curb the spread of HIV/AIDS by giving more drug users access to clean needles and by educating them on how to properly dispose o
Little by little, woman by woman, inroads are being made to stem the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Ghana , said two prominent Ghanaian women visiting Chicago last week. Trust banks, or groups of women who obtain tiny business loans and act as each other s collateral, are the perfect venue for education to correct misconceptions
Now in her 15th year counseling AIDS patients, Gwen Currin is still holding hands and touching arms and doling out kisses on the forehead. She s still offering a shoulder to cry on and the same indefatigably buoyant charm that has been brightening the lives of visitors to an outpatient HIV clinic at the South Side s Mi
The first potential AIDS vaccine to reach advanced human trials failed to protect most at-risk people from the virus, the drug s maker said Monday, though company officials made a claim that the vaccine could offer some benefit for blacks and Asians. Numerous AIDS researchers said Monday there were too few minorities i
For the first time in years, Patrick has a plan. He has a workable drug regimen to treat his AIDS, he is off the streets and plans to go to school and find a job. Life has not always been so promising, though. Patrick credits the stability offered by his new home with helping him get back on track. He lives in AIDSCare
Born with HIV, the girl was never expected to live beyond the toddler years. But now, she s a studious sophomore in a Chicago public school, counting on a college scholarship that could change her life. Sitting on a worn couch inside her Northwest Side apartment, she looks and sounds like a typical, ambitious 16-year-o
As preoccupied as we are with war in Iraq , the Columbia disaster and the renaming of Comiskey Park, let us not forget the wretched plight of Africa. Torn by millions of deaths from pandemic, famine, poverty and civil war, Africa could be shaping up to be the globe s most devastating disaster since the Black Plague.
A strange thing happened to Larry McKeon on his way to dying. Diagnosed with HIV in 1989, McKeon reacted with a combination of roller-coaster emotions. One minute he was tearing his kitchen apart in a futile fit of rage, throwing dishes and Tupperware and punching holes in the walls. He was furious with God, furious wi
WHEATON -- A Barrington woman pleaded guilty Monday to attempted criminal transmission of HIV to an Elmhurst man and was sentenced to the time in jail that she had already served. Pamela Sohn, 47, was released Monday from the DuPage County Jail, where she had been held since Sept. 12, said Timothy Martin, her attorney.
The face of compassionate conservatism made a brief appearance during President Bush s State of the Union address Tuesday with his startling announcement of an Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The plan would commit $10 billion in new funds over the next five years to help fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Unfortun
Vicki Kemper and Paul Richter, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON -- Like a rumor too good to be true, word of a substantial increase in U.S. funds to fight AIDS began to reach activist groups late last week. But what President Bush proposed Tuesday night in his State of the Union address surprised even the most hopeful advocates. Bush s five-year, $15-billion Emergency Pl
Vincent J. Schodolski, Tribune national correspondent
LOS ANGELES -- In one advertisement, a no-nonsense woman lectures her sisters not to accept excuses from their boyfriends who don t want to use condoms. In another, an individual walks out into a street and slowly hundreds of other people appear, with the voiced-over message saying that when you have unprotected sex wi
CHICAGO -- The AIDS Legal Council of Chicago has filed a federal discrimination complaint against a Chicago Ridge nursing home, charging it refused to admit a patient because he had AIDS. The complaint to the Office for Civil Rights alleges the director of admissions for the Lexington Health Care nursing home, 10300 So
Sometimes the littlest things will cause the biggest fights, which has been the experience of Thomas Hope and David McDonald, microbiologists at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For the past few years, Hope and McDonald have told colleagues they can watch viruses as they move around inside a living human cell.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.