AIDS/HIV

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has recorded at least 3,409 deaths from AIDS, while another 2,097 people have been diagnosed as having the disease, according to health ministry figures reported by the ILNA news agency on Thursday. Full Story »

BERLIN (AFP) - Scottish singer Annie Lennox was presented with the 2009 "Woman of Peace" award on Wednesday at a summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Berlin for her work raising awareness of HIV/AIDS. Full Story »

KAMPALA (AFP) - Human Rights Watch on Friday criticised Uganda's HIV/AIDS bill, some of whose clauses call for mandatory testing of pregnant women, sex offenders and victims, and disclosure of HIV status. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - French scientists mixed gene therapy and bone marrow transplants in two boys to seemingly halt a brain disease that can kill by adolescence. The surprise ingredient: They disabled the HIV virus so it couldn't cause AIDS, and then used it to carry in the healthy new gene. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Waning international donor support for the fight against AIDS is a threat to a decade of progress in HIV treatment, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Thursday. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG - A medical aid group says funding for AIDS is threatened, and that could set back "dramatic" progress in decreasing HIV illness and death. Full Story »

CANCUN, Nov 3 (IPS) - With HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis occupying the global health spotlight, few resources are devoted to the "neglected tropical diseases" like dengue fever, hookworm infection and schistosomiasis that afflict some 1 billion people. Full Story »

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon hailed US President Barack Obama's removal of a decades-old travel ban on HIV-positive visitors, and urged other countries to do the same. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is poised to lift a decades-old ban on HIV-positive visitors from abroad that was based on fear and ignorance of the facts, President Barack Obama said Friday. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama announced on Friday that a 22-year-old ban on allowing people infected with the AIDS virus into the United States will be lifted on Monday. Full Story »

SHISELWENI, Swaziland (AFP) - Zodwa Mahlabane meticulously takes out her tablets from small yellow bags and puts them on a white tray. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is set to sign an extension of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS bill. Full Story »

NAIROBI (AFP) - Kenya will conduct a study among homosexuals and use the findings to help control the spread of HIV/AIDS in the east African country, where homosexuality is illegal. Full Story »

MOSCOW - AIDS experts urged Russian officials on Wednesday to scrap their abstinence-based strategy for curbing the spread of HIV, saying the country's fast-growing epidemic could be entering a dangerous new phase. Full Story »

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia came under fire from international AIDS campaigners on Wednesday for refusing to provide drug users with drug substitution therapy to stem a spreading HIV epidemic. Full Story »

MONDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that sperm, not just semen, can transmit the virus that causes AIDS to immune cells in the body and, in fact, sperm may play a major role in transmission. Full Story »

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AFP) - The number of people with HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean is on the decline, but more must be done to contain the disease, a senior official said Monday, on the eve of a regional meeting on the ailment. Full Story »