Almost everyone agrees that we need to invest more in developing drugs that treat and cure the illnesses that beset poor people. Many of us disagree, though, with pharmaceutical companies when they whinge about “patent protection”. This translates as keeping prices high while Big Pharma recoups its investment in research and rewards its shareholders. The [...]
Two recent stories in the New York Times make depressing reading for the New Year. New HIV infections among young gay men in New York City rose by a third between 2001 and 2006, very probably because condom use has been falling. Over roughly the same period, the number of people aged over 50 with [...]
It is easy to rail at the Bush administration for the chains in which they tie up their AIDS funding for developing countries — the just-cross-your-legs prevention policies, the our-drugs-or-no-drugs treatment protocols, the abolitionist approach to the sex industry. But you have to give them credit for upping the ante on funding, and for taking [...]
In a new report on HIV and corruption in South Africa, A Lethal Cocktail (pdf, 119 pages), Transparency International point the finger once again at South African President Thabo Mbeki. His dithering over HIV has, they say, created a climate of secrecy on the one hand and impunity on the other; both of these allow [...]
