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The article reports that a study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health found that administering AIDS drugs to HIV patients rendered them significantly less infectious. Myron Cohen of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina led the study, which involved 1,763 couples, one each of which had HIV.

The article reports that clinical research shows women are able to significantly reduce their chances of becoming infected by the HIV virus by applying a gel containing the antiretroviral drug tenofovir both before and after sexual intercourse. Conducted by the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, the study holds promise for fighting AIDS in that nation and elsewhere in Africa.

Reports that French and South African medical researchers have found that male circumcision reduces the risk that men will contact HIV through intercourse with infected women by seventy percent. Review of the difficulty in stopping the spread of HIV cases worldwide; Difficulty of developing a vaccine for the disease; Discussion of how the circumcision findings were so dramatic that the data and safety monitoring board overseeing the research halted the study in February on the grounds that it would be immoral to proceed without offering the uncircumcised control group the opportunity to undergo the procedure.

Reports that former U.S. President Bill Clinton will announce a program designed to slash the price of antiretroviral AIDS medicine in developing countries. Price reduction of the drugs negotiated by Ira Magaziner, of the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, with several generic-drug companies -- Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., Cipla Ltd., Matrix Laboratories Ltd. and Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd.; Details of the health infrastructure plans to be implemented by several Caribbean states and three African countries, designed to improve drug delivery and overall health-care systems; Fund raising efforts by Clinton to finance the health systems.

The article reports on the failure of the experimental AIDS vaccine of Merck & Co. to prevent test subjects from becoming infected with HIV as well as offer indication that it might delay the onset of full-blown AIDS. Mark Feinberg of Merck has expressed disappointment over the failure of this trial which was considered the leading edge of research on T-cell based HIV vaccines.

Focuses on the world-wide AIDS epidemic. How many people in developing countries are not getting efficient treatment and drugs for the disease due to lack of funding and other factors; Description of two major campaigns to fight AIDS; Way that programs are falling short of the goals that were set; Efforts to solve this global problem.

Reports the Clinton Foundation, created by former United States President Bill Clinton, plans to announce deals with several of the world's leading medical companies to cut prices of two HIV diagnostic tests in developing nations. Comments from Jim Kim, adviser to the Director General of the World Health Organization, regarding the importance of diagnostic pricing; Concern among activists related to the test's ease of use in impoverished countries; Discussion of diagnostic pricing; View of doctors regarding the benefits of the tests on the drug treatment regimen given to patients; What the companies are including along with the test kits, including training and the machines necessary to run the tests; Companies that have signed the deal with the Clinton Foundation; Cost to the countries for the CD4 tests.

Reports on the plan of AIDS activist group, Treatment Action Campaign, to launch mass civil disobedience, aimed at urging the South African government to provide AIDS drugs in public hospitals and clinics.

Details the results of a study conducted by researchers from the federal AIDS center in Moscow, Russia which focuses on the possible surge of sexually transmitted AIDS in the country.

Reports on issues about AIDS and approaches empowering women economically through microcredit lending programs and education to prevent the spread of the epidemic as of July 9, 2002.

Reports on the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Discusses the growth of the AIDS epidemic in Russia. Fact that Russia has the world's fastest-growing rate of HIV infections; Prevalence of illicit drug use in Russia; How strict laws have filled the prisons with drug addicts, who spread HIV through shared needles and sexual contact; Concern that the infected prison and drug-using populations could lead to an epidemic within the general population; Description of prison conditions.

Reports on the hearings to be conducted by the United States Senate in February 2002 to discuss how the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria plans to enforce it standards.

Discusses research on a vaccine to prevent the AIDS virus from causing infected persons to become ill. Dan Barouch, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, and his work testing vaccines on monkeys; How the AIDS virus eventually evaded the vaccinated monkey's immune system; The dangers of creating a partial-protection vaccine to treat AIDS and HIV.

Profiles Richard Holbrooke, a former United States ambassador to the United Nations who is working to encourage multinational companies that do business in areas with high incidence of AIDS and HIV to deal with diseased employees. His leadership of the Global Business Council on HIV/AIDS; Methods by which he hopes to improve conditions for workers with HIV or AIDS.

Focuses on the experimental AIDS vaccine developed by husband-and-wife team Nina and John Rose that has protected monkeys from getting sick.

Discusses the investigation by Tanzania Department of Health on whether a human trial of an experimental AIDS drug, Virodene PO58, was conducted without gaining proper regulatory approval.

Reports that South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang warned public hospitals regarding their medical services to AIDS patients.

Profiles Anne Bayley, who first identified the presence of AIDS in Zambia. Career highlights, including how she came to Zambia as a British missionary doctor in 1961; History of the disease's spread in Africa; Patients treated by Bayley at her tumor clinic for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), whom she recognized as having AIDS; How the association of AIDS with homosexuality greatly inhibited scientific understanding of the disease's transmission; Bayley's contributions to AIDS research; Her personal views on AIDS.

Discusses the plans of Anglo American PLC to provide AIDS drugs to its African workers.

Covers the actions taken by the Treatment Action Campaign, a South African organization, against the high cost of AIDS therapies.

Reports on the changes in the AIDS prevention strategy of the United States Centers for Disease Control.

Considers the lack of health-care workers willing to treat AIDS patients in the developing world. Impact of a serious shortage of trained doctors, nurses and healthcare workers on the distribution of antiviral drugs in poor countries hard-hit by the epidemic; Examples of such countries as Cambodia, China, and Vietnam; Efforts by desperate patients to self-treat and under-medicate; Reasons for the shortage of health-care professionals in these regions; Lack of coordination and funding in getting doctors into developing countries from such places as the United States. INSET: Pitching In.