Jeff Coen, jcoen@tribune.com; Hal Dardick, hdardick@tribune.com; and Matthew Walberg, mwalberg@tribune.com
In a scathing report released Thursday, federal authorities said that a culture exists at Cook County Jail in which inmates are systematically beaten by guards and medical care is so substandard that some inmates have died. The Justice Department threatened legal action if steps aren t taken to ensure that inmates bas
Men who have sex with men are more likely to turn to the Internet to find sex partners than meet them at bars or clubs, according to a new report by the Chicago Department of Public Health. The trend is significant because health experts believe Internet hookups are helping to fuel a syphilis epidemic among men with sa
The move to legalize medical marijuana is advancing in the Midwest, with Michigan poised to be the first state between the Rockies and New England to sanction the use of the illegal drug by terminally or seriously ill people. Michigan voters will decide in November whether to authorize marijuana use, if a doctor determ
JERUSALEM - Inon Schenker, an AIDS prevention specialist, pulled out a medical logbook from a shelf and opened it to a page filled with handwritten entries. The notations, from 1993, recorded ritual circumcisions performed on Jewish men from the former Soviet Union at the height of the wave of Immigration to
During a brainstorming session on ways to implement health interventions for residents of Chicago s Austin neighborhood, someone tossed out an idea that struck a chord. How about inviting small groups of neighborhood residents to meetings in intimate settings similar to the homey way families swap stories around a kitc
On the eve of National HIV Testing Day comes this disappointing news from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of gay men diagnosed with HIV/AIDS is steadily rising, even as infection rates among heterosexuals and drug users have slowed. That s disappointing because gay men have been at the c
Dear Amy: I am a gay man living in a small town. Years ago, I confided in my sister that I am HIV-positive, and in the ensuing years she has told many of her friends, despite my having asked her not to tell anyone. Our social circles overlap, so I ve had to ask these friends not to tell anyone. My sister apologizes whe
David Mendell, dmendell@tribune.com and Ray Long, rlong@tribune.com
Long under fire for installing political donors on state boards and commissions, Gov. Rod Blagojevich was criticized in a state audit released publicly Thursday for failing to make enough board appointments. Auditor General William Holland found about one third of state panels do not have the legally required number of
LOS ANGELES-The Maya women sit patiently in the lobby of Clinica Oscar Romero, playing with their children and speaking in their native dialects of Kanjobal and Quiche. Idalia Xuncax knows all of the women. She is their guide, translator and advocate in a health-care world foreign from their villages in
One of the disease s most crippling effects is social isolation, says a resident aided by the home s founder, Ida Byther-Smith After years of living a street life, Woody Easley has finally found a home, and a new life, at a residential facility in Chicago s Roseland neighborhood. Easley, 60, was asked to leave another
Bruce Japsen, bjapsen@tribune.com and James P. Miller, jpmiller@tribune.com
Abbott Laboratories , once again benefiting from growth of its Humira rheumatoid arthritis drug and its AIDS pill Kaletra , said Wednesday that net earnings climbed 34.5 percent in the latest quarter on a 13.8 percent upturn in sales. The comparison is skewed upward by one-time factors in the year-ago quarter
Taylor Moore s spirited crusade for chastity is a tough sell to jaded teens. But she has faith in her message. On a bitterly cold Tuesday evening in February, the pews of Salem Baptist Church in Champaign were packed with teenagers who had been hustled into the warmth of the sanctuary by a lone parent or teacher. The g
A woman who sued her fiance s parents for allegedly covering up that he was dying of AIDS is not entitled to a $2 million jury award she received in 2004, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The woman, who is identified in court papers only as Jane Doe, had reason to doubt the health of her fiance, Albert Dillin
As more details about Mr. [ Jeremiah] Wright and his many brothers-in-arms black preachers are exposed in our media, it turns out that not only is Wright s version of black liberation theology common in many Chicago-area black churches, but it has been going on for decades! This is an edited excerpt from an e-mail Al S
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama s race speech didn t adequately answer the key question of his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., but his comments were revelatory in important ways. What Obama highlighted, if indirectly, is the dormant disconnect between much of black and white America. And what he revealed, if
Vincent L. Gillon knew what he was talking about when he counseled troubled men and women at Carepoint Adult, Child and Family Association, the Evanston social services agency he started in 1998. Mr. Gillon spent years as a heroin addict before he cleaned up, earned a master s degree and had a second chance in life wor
Alternatives, a North Side youth agency, recently held three forums for teenagers ages 14 to 19. The series was called Let s Talk about Sex. And talk, they did. In a co-ed forum, the teens pondered contraception. One well-meaning young man stood and said aluminum foil could be used in lieu of a condom. Other teens offe
It was a question typically reserved for policy experts at think tanks: Should the federal government increase its public-health aid to sub-Saharan Africa? But at Kenwood Academy High School on Saturday, more than 100 Chicago public school students tackled the issuein the city s first middle school debate league champi
When she was a teenager, Riverdale Mayor Zenovia Evans said she often ditched class at her high school to hang out at the local sweet shop. But after her mother found out and punished her, Evans shaped up and never missed a day of school, she said Tuesday at a Black History Month celebration at the Riverdale Senior, Yo
With its pay phones, answering machines, little arty film cameras, and snippy references to the Gap, Rent has become a bona-fide period piece. In art, at least, people don t talk so much about the HIV drug AZT anymore. And, for reasons good and bad, I m not sure anyone would now pen a lyric like: one song, before the
Several Chicago organizations are planning events Thursday to commemorate National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which promotes HIV testing and education in the African-American community. Near North Health Service Corp. will hold free HIV testing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at two city health centers: Komed-Holman Health Ce
NEW YORK - Seeking to stem the HIV/AIDS epidemic among black Americans, the NAACP, the National Urban League and other groups Thursday urged Congress to repeal a 20-year-old ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs. More than 200 such programs have been established locally and regionally to reduce HIV infect
Doctors should begin teaching adolescent sex education, a new study argues, because schools in Illinois aren t doing a good enough job. The study, to be published Thursday in the American journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that one-third of sex education teachers in Illinois public schools were not teaching com
Moving to capitalize on increased demand for nutritional products in the booming economies of Southeast Asia, Abbott Laboratories is spending more than $280 million in Singapore to build what will be the company s largest nutritional product-making plant. Asia is one of the fastest-growing markets for Abbott s more
Earnest E. Hite Jr. learned he was HIV positive in the late 1980s, which spurred him to focus on advocacy work that included starting a support organization for gay African-American teenagers. Mr. Hite, who was an HIV prevention counselor, died Monday, Jan. 14, in a car accident. He lost control of his vehicle as he tr
When an HIV-infected patient walked into Dr. Daniel Berger s North Side office with a nasty sore on his wrist, the physician suspected the culprit was a bacterium known as MRSA. The test results, however, were unexpected. Yes, this was methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but it was unresponsive to two medicati
University of Illinois trustees voted Thursday to ask Springfield for $150 million over five years to train future doctors and other health professionals. Their latest plea comes after several years of unsuccessful attempts to lobby state leaders, including a public awareness campaign. University leaders also plan to r
As she waited for the results from her first HIV/AIDS test, Chloe Rose Jackson felt confident. After all, the 15-year-old said, she wasn t even sexually active. But then she watched a skit at Trinity United Church of Christ in which a girl discovers she s HIV-positive. The girl blames her boyfriend, only to discover th
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.