HIV/AIDS

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new novel by Saul Bellow, “Ravelstein”

With the recent death of Israeli singer Ofra Haza to AIDS, World music critic Milo Miles reflects on the world musicians who have died of the disease, and the secrecy that surrounded their illnesses.

Nobel-prize winning biologist, Dr. David Baltimore talks about where we are in the search for an HIV vaccine. He also talks about recent studies and what they've told us about the disease. Baltimore heads the National Institutes of health advisory committee for AIDS Vaccine.

Dr. Hoosen Coovadia is a Pediatrician in Durban, South Africa. In his practice, 40 percent of the kids he treats are HIV positive. He'll discuss the rise of HIV in South Africa and other parts of Africa where he has traveled. Coovadia will serve as the Chairman of the next World Aids Conference in the year 2000. He heads the Pediatrics and Child Health Department at the University of Natal Medical School.

Dr. Jonathan Mann, the founding director of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS, died this week in the Swiss Air plane crash. Last year, Terry Gross interviewed him about the state of AIDS across the globe, as well as the speculations at that time about a possible AIDS vaccine. He was the Dean of the School of Public Health at Allegheny University of Health Sciences in Philadelphia. This interview was originally aired 12/1/97

Jeff Getty is an animal-human transplant recipient who advocates continued research in this field. Getty, who has AIDS, recieved bone marrow from a baboon in an effort to jump-start his immune system. Getty vehemently opposes proposed moratorium on animal-human transplant research.

New York Times Science Correspondent Sheryl Gay Stolberg talks about the comeback of the drug Thalidomide. In the 1960s the drug was banned worldwide after it produced a generation of babies with missing and stunted limbs. But it is now showing promise in treating leprosy and several other ailments including AIDS. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Dr. Jonathan Mann talks about the state of AIDS across the globe, as well as the speculations about an AIDS vaccine. (Today is World Aids Day.) Mann was the founding director of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS, and has just been named Dean of the School of Public Health at the Allegheny University of Health Sciences in Philadelphia. He also co-edited "AIDS in the World."

Dr. Jerome Groopman. Since the discovery of AIDS, he's treated patients and done extensive cancer and AIDS research. He's written a book titled "The Measure of Our Days: New Beginnings at Life's End" (Viking). It borrows stories from some of his patients in Boston and aims to give support, hope, and comfort to those suffering with life threatening illness. Dr. Groopman is Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and is also a professor of medicine at Harvard.

Novelist Edmund White has just completed his semi-autobiographical trilogy. The new novel The Farewell Symphony (Knopf) focuses on gay life from the 1960’s to the present. His other books include A Boy’s Own Story,The Beautiful Room is Empty,Genet: A Biography, Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, States of Desire: Travels in Gay America, The Joy of Gay Sex, and Caracole.

Daniel Baxter, M.D. has written a new book about his work, "The Least of These My Brethren: A Doctor's Story of Hope and Miracles on an Inner-City AIDS Ward."

Robin Gorna has been active in AIDS work since 1986. She is Head of Health Promotion at the Terrence Higgins Trust in London. She is the author of "Vamps, Virgins and Victims: How Can Women Fight AIDS?" She recently attended the National Conference on Women & HIV which was held in L.A. May 4-7.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews "In the Gloaming," the new telemovie on HBO starring Glenn Close and directed by Christopher Reeve.

Chef Robert Lehmann is the former Executive Chef of MANNA, a meals-delivery service organization for homebound people with AIDS in Philadelphia. He developed diet and nutrition standards for people who are HIV positive. He has a new book: "Cooking for Life: A Guide to Nutrition and Food Safety for the HIV-positive Community" Lehmann is currently Projects Coordinator for HIV Nutrition Research at The Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia.

Photographer John Dugdale is joined by psychotherapist Robert Levithan to talk about a new class of AIDS fighting drugs. Both men have the AIDS virus; they are being treated with protease inhibitors. The treatment is helping them live normal lives. John Dugdale's photographs are collected in the recent book "Lengthening Shadows Before Nightfall." Robert Levithan conducts workshops called "Outliving AIDS" for those with AIDS who are living longer than expected.

Doctor Marcus Conant. He talks to Terry about new drug therapies for AIDS patients. In the early 1980's DR. Conant was among the first doctors in San Francisco to treat AIDS cases. Now Dr. Conant heads the largest private AIDS medical practice in San Francisco. After his 1985 study on how condoms block transmission of the AIDS virus, condoms became a household word.

Author Andrew Holleran. His latest novel, "The Beauty of Men" (William Morrow), is about a gay man in his late forties who is obsessed with the beauty of youth and his own mortality. At the same time, he harbors guilt for mourning the loss of his youth when so many around him are dying young. Holleran, whose real name is not known, has written two other novels under the pseudonym and is a frequent contributor to "Christopher Street" magazine.

Documentary producer, Glenn Holsten who's recent documentary, "Mothers who March" focuses on the lives and commitment of four mothers who've lost children to Aids. It debuts on PBS television nation-wide tonight (Tuesday May 7).

Novelist R.S. Jones. His first novel, Force of Gravity was published in 1991. One reviewer called it, "a moving, acutely intelligent story about going insane." He's just published his second novel, Walking on Air (Houghton Mifflin) about a man who is dying of AIDS. A reviewer for The New York Times writes, "The novel's power resides in its almost total refusal to do anything but starkly describe this process, to trace the effects of the disease on this suffering man and his two friends. It rings true from start to finish."

Felice Picano talks about losing 74 friends to AIDS. He recently came across a list with 75 people who attended his 40th birthday party in 1984. All but one....who is unaccounted for have died from AIDS.