Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

A prominent AIDS advocacy group filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday alleging that county public health officials have failed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the pornographic film industry.

As prominent AIDS advocates called Thursday for Los Angeles County officials to require condoms on porn sets or shut down production, more questions arose about why the Public Health Department has not investigated 18 HIV cases reported in the last five years by the clinic that serves the adult film industry. "L.A.

Scientists have discovered that chimpanzees in Tanzania are falling ill and dying from an AIDS-like disease -- a surprising finding that could lead to insights into the illness and, perhaps, to a vaccine. The study, published in Thursday's edition of the British research journal Nature, showed that chimps infected by certain strains of simian immunodeficiency virus, a precursor to HIV, died 10 to 16 times more frequently than uninfected chimps during a nine-year study.

Timothy Brodt is among more than 2,000 bike riders who left Sunday on a 545-mile trek from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of the AIDS/LifeCycle benefit. He carried with him a small black-and-white photo of his Uncle Richard, who died of AIDS more than 20 years ago. For the last two years, Brodt has participated in the annual bike ride to raise money for HIV and AIDS-related services at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

Twelve years after a Silver Lake man died, his pharmacy receipts and medical bills sit in a Los Angeles archive with a hand-written message declaring: "The Cost of AIDS." In a San Francisco library, a massive photo collection capturing the exuberance of gay liberation in the 1970s and its tragic collision with AIDS fills many cartons.

Larry Gibson first spotted Dennis Golay outside West Hollywood's French Market Place. By the time he was halfway across Santa Monica Boulevard, he'd fallen in love. It was Nov. 14, 1981 -- Golay's 34th birthday. Seven years later, both men tested positive for the AIDS virus, an almost certain death sentence in the days before antiretroviral drugs. Having dreamed of growing old together, they were devastated. "We had something so special," said Gibson, 63, looking back at that dark time.

The use of antiretroviral drugs by mother or baby for several months after delivery can significantly reduce the risk of transmitting the AIDS virus during breast-feeding, researchers reported this week. Public health officials have had great success blocking HIV transmission to newborns using the drugs AZT and nevirapine about the time of delivery, but they have had few tools to prevent transmission through breast-feeding.

Several promising, large-scale trials trying to prevent the spread of HIV have produced sobering results, as researchers discussed at a meeting last week, but longer-term data on new treatments are proving encouraging. Much of the buzz at the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, the largest yearly scientific meeting on HIV and AIDS, centered on further analyses of a Merck & Co. vaccine trial known as STEP.

This western Kenya village was slowly dying five years ago. One in three people was HIV-positive, then a virtual death sentence. Coffin-makers couldn't work fast enough and the nearby hospital overflowed with HIV patients. No family went untouched, but stigma was so severe that few got tested and the word AIDS was rarely uttered. Today, with an influx of U.S.-funded antiretroviral drugs, prevalence rates have dropped to single digits. The AIDS ward has shut down.

With old and young providing testament to the success of a U.S.-funded effort to fight AIDS, President Bush on Sunday called for Congress to renew the program quickly and said that helping Africa was in the national and moral interests of the United States. The program provides readier access to antiretroviral drugs, easing the impact of the disease. But it also puts a strong focus on premarital sexual abstinence, drawing criticism in the U.S.