• Saving AIDS Conferences Online: Interview with Sister Mary Elizabeth, Founder of AEGiS
  Some of the most important AIDS conferences are not online, and even the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the conference organizers do not have a paper or electronic copy of the abstracts presented. Some may be lost forever. But they could be saved if a copy can be found, and you might be able to help. Here we interview the founder of AEGIS (www.aegis.org), the well-known AIDS database that has done critically important work in preserving conferences as well as making AIDS news and other information available around the world.

• Warning on Two Specific 3-Drug Regimens: Viread + Videx + Either Sustiva or Viramune
  Two more three-drug antiretroviral regimens have unexpectedly failed to control HIV in many patients. But some related regimens do seem to be working well.

• New Treatment Guidelines Published October 29
  This edition of the guidelines includes information for special populations, as well as other changes to HIV treatment recommendations.

• Retroviruses Conference: Community Deadlines, Nov. 23
  Those planning to attend the Retroviruses conference in Boston in February must pay attention to its many deadlines.

• World AIDS Day, December 1: Women and Girls
  While the U.S. fights over abstinence vs. condoms, neither one is an option for many women, due to sexual violence -- throughout the world, from a fifth to half of all girls and young women report that their first sexual experience was forced. Women are twice as likely as men to be infected through a single act of unprotected sex. In parts of Africa, more than a third of all teenage girls have HIV. But going to school is protective. These are just a few of the facts about HIV and gender that need to be more widely known.

• Prison Health Care: Activist Campaign Targets Hepatitis, HIV Care for Prisoners and Continuity of Care After Release
  A new activist group wants to force medical practices in prisons to meet national standards for treatment and care, especially for hepatitis C and HIV.

• After the Election
  It is too early to know exactly how the recent elections will affect people with AIDS. But clearly the community will have to do more to improve and support advocacy for treatment and care, and for policies that work.

ISSN # 1052-4207

Copyright 2004 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.