Harvard World Health News - AIDS, Pesticides, EPA, Drug resistent Bacteria, and research ethics

Staying Alive: The Women Who Are Immune to AIDS
Stephanie Nolen (The Guardian, London, May 27, 2007)
"In the past 30 years Agnes has had unprotected sex with up to 2,000 infected men. Yet she and a small number of her fellow sex workers are still free from AIDS. Stephanie Nolen travels to Majengo, a slum in Nairobi, to meet the extraordinary women and researchers who are changing the history of HIV."

Plantation Workers Look for Justice in the North
T. Christian Miller (Los Angles Times, Mary 27, 2007)
"After years of toil in Central American fields where they say pesticide use made them sterile, plantation workers are suing Dow, Dole, and other firms in Los Angeles."

Scientists Criticize EPA Chemical Screening Program
Sue Goetinck Ambrose (The Dallas Morning News, May 27, 2007)
"Scientists say the Bush administration is developing a chemical testing program that favors the chemical industry when it comes to judging whether certain substances in the environment might cause cancer, infertility, or harm to babies in the womb."

Virulent Bacteria Hits Poor
Judith Graham (Chicago Tribune, May 29, 2007)
"Dangerous, drug-resistant bacteria are spreading rapidly in Chicago's poor, urban neighborhoods, posing a growing health risk in crowded public housing and an increasingly alarming public-health challenge, according to research published Monday." Free registration required.

Critical Care Without Consent
Rob Stein (The Washington Post, May 27, 2007)
"The federal government is undertaking the most ambitious set of studies ever mounted under a controversial arrangement that allows researchers to conduct some kinds of medical experiments without first getting patients' permission." Free registration required.