Human Immuno Deficiency Virus

An HIV-infected woman who said she had a series of one-night stands to get "revenge" for contracting the virus from her boyfriend was sentenced Friday to 26 1/2 years in prison after changing her story in court. Pamela Wiser apologized to the men she exposed to the disease. She denied her earlier statements that she exposed them intentionally and testified that she just couldn't refuse when they asked her for sex. "I didn't know what I was thinking.

"El Cantante," Picturehouse films, directed by Leon Ichaso, premiered in the U.S. Aug. 3. The premise: Hector Lavoe (played by Marc Anthony) is a legendary Puerto Rican salsa singer in the 1970s and '80s whose unhealthful lifestyle includes multiple sexual partners, cigarettes, excessive alcohol, cocaine and intravenous heroin. He becomes more and more erratic and unreliable, and this downhill spiral destroys his singing career. After landing in Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, N.Y.

Researchers have tracked down the oldest known specimen of the virus that causes AIDS, a feat that has allowed them to pinpoint the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic to shortly after the end of World War II, a decade earlier than many experts had suspected. At the same time, another team has identified a new strain of HIV, a finding that some researchers speculate could eventually make identification, treatment and prevention of this disease more difficult.

A genetic analysis of 25-year-old blood samples has outlined a new map of the AIDS virus' journey out of Africa, showing that today's most widespread subtype first emerged in Haiti in the 1960s and arrived in the United States a few years later. The analysis fills in a gap in the history of the virus, whose migration has been known in only sketchy form from its origin in Africa in the 1930s to its first detection in Los Angeles in 1981. Dr.

Equipment used during routine visits to the dentist can harbor and possibly transmit the AIDS virus if rigorous sterilization procedures are not followed, according to a study released Friday by researchers at the University of Georgia.

AIDS in the United States has changed dramatically in the last decade, from an epidemic afflicting primarily gay and drug-using white men to a scourge of the African American community, participants in the 14th International AIDS Conference were told Sunday. About 15,000 scientists, educators, journalists and people living with AIDS have gathered in this Mediterranean port city for the weeklong conference, making it the largest such gathering ever. Addressing the opening session, Dr.

A married soldier infected with the virus that causes AIDS was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for having unprotected sex with seven women without disclosing his medical condition. Army Spc. Raymond Humphries pleaded guilty to seven counts of aggravated assault, eight counts of adultery, four counts of sodomy and one count of willfully disobeying an order to use a condom and disclose his HIV infection to his sexual partners.

Low doses of human growth hormone can reverse some of the abnormal fat distribution caused by HIV therapy, lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease, but the treatment may produce an unnecessary risk for those who have early stages of diabetes, researchers said Sunday. The hormone produced good results but would have to be used carefully to avoid inducing diabetes, said Dr. Steven Grinspoon of the Harvard Medical School, lead author of the paper.

Prompted by reports that at least three sex film actresses have tested positive for HIV since the beginning of the year, many of the largest sex video producers have formed a pact to require the use of condoms on screen--a move the industry has avoided since the AIDS outbreak began. The decision came at a hastily called summit of industry executives earlier this month, as rumors swirled and actors and actresses threatened to walk off sets.

When Brad Davis joined the cast of "The Habitation of Dragons," a drama about family and politics in a small Texas town, he had been HIV-positive for six years and had already developed some symptoms of AIDS. But nobody involved with the film knew that. So nobody knew then that the film--which airs tonight at 5, 7 and 9 as part ofcable channel TNT's "Screenworks" series--would be his last.