Quoted: India health officials are alarmed by growing HIV/Aids infection rates in two key northern states.

Quoted: Former President Bill Clinton announced deals with two Indian generic drug companies on Tuesday to cut prices of AIDS treatments for 66 developing countries, a move that could help nearly half a million patients.

This is a good thing, as long as it doesn't make people become complacent. 3.2-3.5 million people with aids is still too many.

Quoted: The number of Indians affected by HIV/Aids may be lower than the UN estimate of 5.7 million, a study suggests.

The Good: I saw a special on CNN last night that corroborated these facts. The Bad: Only 50% of Kenyan babies with HIV-infected mothers receive this drug. And, that percentage is much lower in other African countries.

Quoted: In tandem with these studies are those investigating the efficacy, and practicality, of the drug, nevirapine. Using this drug in a study involving pregnant HIV-infected women in Uganda, Laura Guay, an assistant professor of pathology and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues achieved a 48 percent reduction in perinatal transmission rates, while holding the drug treatment costs to a mere $4.

good to hear.

Quoted: India launches a major offensive against HIV-Aids in rural areas.

while i hope for more programs targeting the root causes of aids, it is still nice to hear that the government is offering these free drugs.

Quoted: Some 100,000 HIV infected people in India will be provided free anti-retroviral drugs by 2007, officials say.

Interesting. I can understand why Gilead would not want to promote this. Gilead is one of the stocks we track in investment club.

Quoted: You'd think Gilead Sciences Inc. would be celebrating. Enthusiastic scientists are hopeful its drugs now used to treat people with the AIDS virus might actually protect healthy people from catching it.