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More than 17,000 policy makers, researchers and activists gather in Bangkok for the 15th annual global AIDS meeting. Headlining: Asia confronts a rapidly growing epidemic, and women and children are increasingly at risk. Explore NPR coverage. Left, the U.N.'s Kofi Annan talks with HIV-infected children in Bangkok.
July 17, 2004 · The 15th International AIDS Conference comes to a close in Thailand. A U.S. plan to spend $15 billion on emergency measures is criticized over details, and divisions were evident at the gathering despite calls for unity. NPR's Richard Knox reports.
July 16, 2004 · The powerlessness of women is partly behind the spread of AIDS in some parts of India. Women are being sold into sex slavery in Mumbai, and rural women contract HIV when their husbands return after months as migrant workers. Brenda Wilson talks with Suniti Solomon, who is at the forefront of treatment efforts, and other women about their status and how it makes them vulnerable to HIV.
July 15, 2004 · With little hope of treatment, many people in developing countries decide they don't want an HIV test. But a program in Botswana is overcoming peoples' fears. Fred de Sam Lazaro of Twin Cities Public Television reports.
July 14, 2004 · Married Thai women have become an AIDS risk group. But in Thailand, as in many societies, women are in no position to tell their husbands to use condoms. As Richard Knox reports, that's giving new urgency to the drive to develop a gel that women can use to prevent HIV infection.
July 13, 2004 · New AIDS infections and deaths are continuing to rise at a high rate in parts of Africa. In its annual report, the United Nations said the pandemic continues to grow in southern Africa, with new infections outpacing deaths. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports on how the disease affects every level of African life.
July 13, 2004 · Experts say culturally ingrained gender inequality is contributing to the spread of AIDS. Women often say they are terrified to admit to their husbands that they're HIV positive, even though their husbands caused the infection. Jennifer Schmidt examines the cultural dynamic in South Africa that is making it difficult to stop the spread of AIDS.
July 13, 2004 · India is the largest manufacturer and supplier of cheap generic AIDS drugs to Africa, but virtually none of India's 5 million people with HIV are getting the drugs. NPR's Brenda Wilson examines what's behind India's access problems.
July 12, 2004 · More people in northern Thailand's remote border region with Laos are HIV-infected than anywhere else in the country. NPR's Richard Knox travels to the region to chronicle a momentous day in the life of a young woman, La, as she starts AIDS drug treatment.
July 12, 2004 · Thailand is ahead of all developing nations except Brazil in the number of people with HIV who are receiving life-saving drug treatment. Richard Knox profiles Krisana Kraisintu, who invented the first-ever generic, twice-a-day antiviral drug. The creation of the drug opened treatment access to tens of thousands of people. Kraisintu is now working to establish generic drug factories in Africa.
July 11, 2004 · For years, people with AIDS in Thailand have been ostracized from society. For many, their only refuge was a monastery north of Bangkok. Wat Prabat Nampu, a sanctuary for monks and those living with HIV, is the country's largest AIDS hospice. But, as Richard Knox reports, drug treatments have changed AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic disease, and the stigma is easing.
July 11, 2004 · The 15th Annual AIDS Conference opens in Bangkok, with calls for leaders to step up efforts to combat the disease. Thailand's prime minister warns that, for many countries, the pandemic was still in its infancy.
The U.N.'s Peter Piot discusses the changing face of AIDS and epidemic hot spots.
Young women in Uganda say they're getting a mixed message about the disease.
Faced with a possible resurgence of domestic cases, AIDS activists worry about health care cutbacks.
