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The May 15 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, May 8) "AIDS at 25," is devoted to examining how AIDS has transformed the nation, bringing out the best and worst in us and in our culture. Featuring a photo portfolio of HIV survivors, reports on how AIDS is affecting Black America, what Black Leadership is doing about it, an interview with the head of UNAIDS and essays from Bill Clinton and Melinda Gates on the international fight against the crisis. (PRNewsFoto/NEWSWEEK)
NEW YORK, NY UNITED STATES
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NEW YORK, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- For many women, marriage is a risk
factor for AIDS because of their husbands' dangerous behavior, writes
Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in
an essay in the current issue. "Worldwide, 80 percent of women newly
infected with HIV are practicing monogamy within a marriage or a long-term
relationship," Gates writes. "This shatters the myth that marriage is a
natural refuge from AIDS. And it shows that, more than two decades into the
epidemic, our fight against AIDS has failed to address the unique
circumstances of women-especially women in the developing world."
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060507/NYSU009 )
In the May 15 issue of Newsweek "AIDS at 25" (on newsstands Monday, May
8), Newsweek devotes the issue to examining how AIDS has transformed the
nation, both bringing out the best and worst in us, our culture and our
souls. The cover package features a photo portfolio of faces of HIV
survivors. It also includes reports on how the disease is affecting Black
America, Ellis Cose on what Black Leadership is doing about it, a profile
of Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Program on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and an essay by former President Bill Clinton on the
international effort to fight the disease.
In her essay, Gates discusses the tools that her foundation is
developing that can put the power to prevent AIDS into the hands of women
as well as some of the steps needed to make the most of lifesaving
opportunities. "Microbicides are one exciting new prevention tool in
development. These are colorless, odorless gels that a woman could apply
vaginally-without her partner's knowledge-to prevent sexual transmission of
HIV. Microbicides may also prevent other sexually transmitted infections,"
Gates writes.
Gates also addresses governments in both developed and developing
countries. She says they "must commit more money to studying new prevention
tools ... Pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to invest, because
the women who most need these products can't afford to pay for them. But
governments can encourage companies to get involved by providing direct
funding for research, and by promising to purchase new technologies if they
are successfully developed. At the same time, developing countries, with
international support, need to build the infrastructure to host clinical
trials so that promising new tools can be tested in the settings where
they'll be used," Gates writes. "Countries need to invest in more
facilities, and train a new generation of doctors and nurses to run them.
The challenge is not just to develop new tools. We also need to ensure that
scientific advances reach the people who need them. Today, fewer than 20
percent of people at high risk of HIV have access to existing prevention
methods, such as condoms, education and HIV testing."
Elsewhere in the cover package, Senior Editor Geoffrey Cowley speaks
with Margaret Mukacyaka, who survived Rwanda's 1994 genocide but whose
struggle hasn't ended. Of the 132 people in her extended family,
127-including her parents and her eight siblings-were murdered by the
machete-wielding interahamwe. She now lives in the town of Rwamagana with
her 12-year-old son and two adopted daughters. Her son and her HIV
infection are both legacies of the weeks she spent in captivity as a
16-year-old schoolgirl, being raped and terrorized by Hutu militiamen.
(Read entire cover package at http://www.Newsweek.com.)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12665685/site/newsweek/ Melinda Gates: What
Women Really Need
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12666384/site/newsweek/ Rwanda: An HIV
Survivor's Story
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