Free Republic

Scientists in Israel have announced a breakthrough in HIV research, a development that will leave Israel boycotters with their latest ethical dilemma. The team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev say their finding will result in a “revolutionary diagnosis and the key to the clinical solution that will prevent infection with HIV and will destroy the deadly virus.” i24News reports that Dr Ran Taube of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics at the southern Israeli university said his team has discovered similarities between HIV (the virus that leads to AIDS) and leukemia. Conducted in collaboration with Dr. Uri Rubio...

The Bush administration's drug and sexual health policy is a key issue as the World Health Organization chooses its next leader, a post that wields great power in allocating billions of dollars in funds to alleviate misery around the world. ~snip~ Critics say the United States, WHO's largest donor, plays too large a role behind the scenes. They argue that the Bush administration is promoting the interests of its pharmaceutical industry at the expense of poor AIDS patients who could be saved by cheap generic medicines and has adopted an ideological line on issues like abortion. President Bush has made...

An investigation is under way to determine whether more than 100 HIV-positive foster kids were being used as guinea pigs in medical experiments over the past 12 years, as recently reported by the New York Post. According to the report, New York City's Administration for Children's Services assigned the children to a study (some as young as 3 months) in which they were given highly toxic and untested AIDS medications while they stayed at Manhattan's Incarnation Children's Center. The tests were conducted by doctors from Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, which was affiliated with the ICC until 2002 and reportedly reaped...