Gallery in Japan halts 'comfort woman' show after explosive device found

COMFORT WOMAN STATUE ON THE RIGHT
The exhibit of a Korean “comfort woman” statue was suspended Thursday after staff at Citizen's Gallery Sakae in Nagoya reported an explosive device in a package, according to multiple press reports. Photo by Yonhap/EPA-EFE


July 8 (UPI) -- A gallery in Japan suspended a "comfort woman" exhibit after a small explosive device was delivered in a package.

Citizen's Gallery Sakae in Nagoya said Thursday that a staff member opened the package about 9:35 a.m. and a firecracker inside exploded. No injuries were reported, according to Kyodo News.

The group organizing the exhibit, which includes a statue, said local authorities requested a temporary evacuation of the building. Organizers were forced to remain outside the gallery after the incident and the exhibit did not open at 10 a.m. as scheduled.

The city of Nagoya has ordered the gallery to close, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The exhibit in Nagoya opened Tuesday after much controversy, which forced other venues in Tokyo and Osaka to postpone similar shows.

The Nagoya exhibit was expected to continue through Sunday, but the gallery has been the target of protests. Far-right demonstrators used loudspeaker-equipped vans to disrupt the event. according to Channel A on Tuesday.

The statue of a Korean teenager in traditional dress, symbolizing the women victims forced to service Japanese wartime brothels, also became a flashpoint in 2019 at the Aichi Triennale.

RELATED Statue of 'comfort woman' in Japan draws crowds, jeers

Demonstrators two years ago threatened to set the exhibition hall on fire with gasoline, prompting organizers to cancel the exhibit after only three days.

The suspension of the show in 2019 prompted civic groups and artists to condemn the action. Some activists took legal action, according to Yonhap.

Japan's far-right was planning to hold a rival exhibit in Nagoya this month, but the event is likely to be canceled in light of the recent incident at Citizen's Gallery as investigations are ongoing, reports said.

Tokyo and Seoul have failed to resolve historical disputes after South Korea shuttered a foundation to compensate comfort women. Pressure from activists and former victims forced Seoul to close the fund in 2019.

Victims of California synagogue shooting can sue gunmaker


FILE - In this Sunday, April 28, 2019 file photo, a San Diego county sheriff's deputy stands in front of the Chabad of Poway synagogue, in Poway, Calif. A California judge on Wednesday, July 7, 2021 decided victims of the 2019 synagogue shooting near San Diego that killed one worshiper and wounded three can sue the manufacturer of the semiautomatic rifle and the gun shop that sold it to the teenage gunman, according to a newspaper report.(AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)


SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California judge decided victims of the 2019 synagogue shooting near San Diego that killed one worshiper and wounded three can sue the manufacturer of the semiautomatic rifle and the gun shop that sold it to the teenage gunman, according to a newspaper report.

Superior Court Judge Kenneth Medel said Wednesday that victims and families in the Poway, California, synagogue shooting have adequately alleged that Smith & Wesson, the nation’s largest gunmaker, knew its AR-15-style rifle could be easily modified into a machine-gun-like or an assault weapon in violation of state law.

A 2005 federal law shields gunmakers from damages in most cases for crimes committed with their weapons. But it allows lawsuits if the manufacturer was negligent or knowingly violated a state or federal law, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

Medel said the plaintiffs may also be able to sue on their claims that Smith & Wesson negligently marketed the rifle to youths on social media and video game-style ads, the newspaper said.

The judge also said the shop, San Diego Guns, could be sued for selling the weapon to John Earnest, who was 19 and lacked a hunting license that would have exempted him from California’s 21-year minimum age for owning long guns.

Prosecutors say Earnest, a nursing student, opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle during the last day of Passover services in April 2019. The attack killed 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye and wounded three others, including an 8-year-old girl and the rabbi, who lost a finger.

Earnest then allegedly called 911 to say he had shot up a synagogue because Jews were trying to “destroy all white people,” authorities said.

Earnest faces state murder charges carrying a potential death sentence and federal hate-crime charges.

Wednesday’s ruling is a victory for “all Americans who believe that the gun industry is not above the law,” said Jon Lowy, chief counsel for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which sued on behalf of the victims.

Lawyers for Smith & Wesson didn’t immediately respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment.

ARYAN EUGENICS

California to pay victims of forced, coerced sterilizations

July 7, 2021

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Stacy Cordova, whose aunt was a victim of California's forced sterilization program that began in 1909, holds a framed photo of her aunt Mary Franco, Monday, July 5, 2021, in Azusa, Calif. Franco was sterilized when she was 13 in 1934. Franco has since died, but Cordova has been advocating for reparations on her behalf. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is poised to approve reparations of up to $25,000 to some of the thousands of people — some as young as 13 — who were sterilized decades ago because the government deemed them unfit to have children.

The payments will make California at least the third state — following Virginia and North Carolina — to compensate victims of the so-called eugenics movement that peaked in the 1930s. Supporters of the movement believed sterilizing people with mental illnesses, physical disabilities and other traits they deemed undesirable would improve the human race.

While California sterilized more than 20,000 people before its law was repealed in 1979, only a few hundred are still alive. The state has set aside $7.5 million for the reparations program, part of its $262.6 billion operating budget that is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.

California’s proposal is unique because it also would pay women the state coerced to get sterilized while they were in prison, some as recently as 2010. First exposed by the Center for Investigative Reporting in 2013, a subsequent audit found California sterilized 144 women between 2005 and 2013 with little or no evidence that officials counseled them or offered alternative treatment.

While all of the women signed consent forms, officials in 39 cases did not do everything that was legally required to obtain their permission.

“We must address and face our horrific history,” said Lorena Garcia Zermeño, policy and communications coordinator for the advocacy group California Latinas for Reproductive Justice. “This isn’t something that just happened in the past.”

California’s forced sterilization program started in 1909, following similar laws in Indiana and Washington. It was by far the largest program, accounting for about a third of everyone sterilized in the United States under those laws.

California’s law was so prominent that it inspired similar practices in Nazi Germany, according to Paul Lombardo, a law professor at Georgia State University and an expert on the eugenics movement.

“The promise of eugenics at the very earliest is: ‘We could do away with all the state institutions — prisons, hospitals, asylums, orphanages,’” Lombardo said. “People who were in them just wouldn’t be born after awhile if you sterilized all of their parents.”

In California, victims include Mary Franco, who was sterilized in 1934 when she was just 13. Paperwork described her as “feeble minded” because of “sexual deviance,” according to her niece, Stacy Cordova, who has researched her case.

Cordova said Franco actually was molested by a neighbor. She said her family put Franco in an institution to protect the family’s reputation.

Cordova said her late aunt loved children and wanted to have a family. She married briefly when she was about 17, but Cordova said the marriage was annulled when the man discovered Franco couldn’t have children. She lived a lonely life in a Mexican culture that revered big families, Cordova said.

“I don’t know if it is justice. Money doesn’t pay for what happened to them. But it’s great to know that this is being recognized,” said Cordova, who has advocated for the state to pay survivors. “For me, this is not about the money. This is about the memory.”

Relatives like Cordova aren’t eligible for the payments, only direct victims are.

Sterilizations in California prisons appear to date to 1999, when the state changed its policy for unknown reasons to include a sterilization procedure known as “tubal ligation” as part of inmates’ medical care. Over the next decade, women reported they were coerced into this procedure, with some not fully understanding the ramifications.

A state law passed in 2014 bans sterilizations for the purpose of birth control at state prisons and local jails. The law permits sterilizations that are “medically necessary,” such as removing cancer, and requires facilities to report each year how many people were sterilized and for what reason.

Questionable sterilizations also occurred in facilities run by local governments. In 2018, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors apologized after more than 200 women were sterilized at the Los Angeles-USC Medical Center between 1968 and 1974.

Those people are not eligible for reparations under California’s program. But advocates say they hope to include them in the future.

“It’s only the beginning,” said state Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles who has been advocating for reparations. “I can’t imagine the trauma, the depression, the stress of being incarcerated, being rehabilitated and trying to start your life again in society, wanting to start a family, only to find out that that choice was taken away from you.”

Of the people California sterilized under its old eugenics law, just a few hundred are still alive, according to research conducted by the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab. Including the inmates who were sterilized most recently, advocates estimate more than 600 people would be eligible for reparations.

But finding them will be difficult, with advocates predicting only about 25% of eligible people will ultimately apply for reparations and be paid.

California’s Victim Compensation Board will run the program, with $2 million used to find victims by advertising and poring through state records. The state also set aside $1 million for plaques to honor the victims, leaving $4.5 million for reparations.

NK CYBERWAR

North Korea-linked hackers accessed South's atomic energy institute, Seoul says




North Korea-linked cybercriminals breached South Korean entities, South Korean lawmakers said Thursday after a briefing from the National Intelligence Service. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

July 8 (UPI) -- North Korea-affiliated hackers infiltrated the South's Atomic Energy Research Institute and data was breached for 12 days, Seoul's spy agency said.

South Korean lawmakers who met with local reporters Thursday after a briefing said that the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute was the target of Pyongyang-backed cybercriminals, but the "most sensitive information" was not accessed during the attack, KBS reported.

The National Intelligence Service also told the South's National Assembly Intelligence Committee that it warned the institute about possible breaches and urged the organization to take extra precautions, including changes of passwords. The institute allegedly did not comply with the requests, the NIS said, according to lawmaker Rep. Ha Tae-kyung of the main opposition People Power Party.

Local reports did not specify when the hacking took place.

Korea Aerospace Industries, a joint venture of Samsung Aerospace, Daewoo Heavy Industries' aerospace division, and Hyundai Space and Aircraft Company, is under investigation after a suspected hacking, according to JoongAng Ilbo.

The attack occurred around June 7, Ha said.

Seoul's spy agency also briefed lawmakers on changes in North Korean society.

RELATED China stands by mutual defense treaty with North Korea after 60 years

South Korean lawmakers said after the briefing that North Korean authorities are "cracking down" on the use of South Korean slang in everyday speech, Korea Economic Daily TV reported Thursday.

The use of popular South Korean phrases, likely transmitted to the isolated population via pirated South Korean videos, has been decried as counter-revolutionary in the North, Rep. Kim Byeong-ki of the ruling Democratic Party and Ha said.

South Korean-style attire is frowned upon and banned. Displaying affection in public also is considered an act of social deviance and discouraged for couples, lawmakers said.

Kim Jong Un said in April the hair, speech and clothing preferences of North Korean youth must come under state control.

In June, Kim called K-pop a "vicious cancer" on North Korean society.

STILL A BAD IDEA

UN nuclear agency to help monitor Fukushima water release


FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021 file photo, Nuclear reactors of No. 5, center left, and 6 look over tanks storing water that was treated but still radioactive, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said it reached an agreement with Japan Thursday, July 8, 2021 on helping monitor and review the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, file)


BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said it reached an agreement with Japan Thursday on helping monitor and review the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese government decided in April to start discharging the water in about two years after building a facility and compiling release plans adhering to safety requirements. The idea has been fiercely opposed by fishermen, residents and Japan’s neighbors.

Japan asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to review its plans against international safety standards and to support and be present during environmental monitoring operations. The Vienna-based IAEA said it has now agreed on “terms of reference” with Tokyo and its first review mission to Japan is expected later this year.

“The IAEA will play a vital role in monitoring and reviewing Japan’s implementation of its plan. As the eyes of the international community, IAEA experts will be able to verify that the water discharge is conducted safely,” IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said in a statement. “This is of paramount importance to reassure people in Japan and elsewhere in the world, especially in neighbouring countries, that the water poses no threat to them.”

The agency added that “Japan’s chosen disposal method is both technically feasible and in line with international practice.”

The accumulating water has been stored in tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi plant since 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami damaged its reactors and their cooling water became contaminated and began leaking. The plant’s storage capacity will be full late next year.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in April that ocean release was the most realistic option and that disposing of the water is unavoidable for the decommissioning of the plant, which is expected to take decades. He also pledged the government would work to ensure the safety of the water.

Toyota changes stand, halts donations to election objectors


FILE - In this Sunday, March 21, 2021 file photo, The company logo adorns a sign outside a Toyota dealership in Lakewood, Colo. Toyota has reversed itself and says its political action committee will no longer contribute to legislators who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election win. The move comes after a social media backlash over the contributions, with threats to stop buying Toyota vehicles. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)


DETROIT (AP) — Toyota has reversed itself and now says its political action committee will no longer contribute to the Republican legislators who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

The move by the Japanese automaker comes after a social media backlash over the contributions, including threats to stop buying the company’s vehicles.

“We understand that the PAC decision to support select members of Congress who contested the results troubled some stakeholders,” Toyota said in a statement Thursday. “We are actively listening to our stakeholders, and at this time, have decided to stop contributing to those members of Congress who contested the certification of certain states in the 2020 election.”

Last week the website Axios reported that Toyota led companies in donations to the 147 members of Congress who voted in January against certifying election results on the false grounds that the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump.

The Axios report, based on data gathered by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that Toyota donated $55,000 to 37 Republican objectors this year. That number was more than double the amount donated by the second-highest donor, Cubic Corp., a defense contractor in San Francisco, Axios said.

Toyota will not seek refunds of contributions it already has made, spokesman Scott Vazin said Thursday in an email. He said the company hasn’t decided if or when it will resume the contributions.

Immediately after Toyota’s spending was reported, the company defended it, saying it did not believe it’s appropriate to judge legislators based only on their electoral certification vote.

The company took input from employees and government officials, Vazin said. But the most important factor was customer feedback, he said. “That really drives our decision making,” he said.

Contribution data showed that 34 companies donated at least $5,000 to the campaigns and leadership political action committees of one or more election objectors this year, Axios reported.

In addition to criticism on Twitter and elsewhere, the Lincoln Project, a group opposed to Trump, released an internet ad urging people to call Toyota to get the company to stop contributing to the GOP members of Congress.

Shortly after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, dozens of big companies, citing their commitment to democracy, pledged to avoid donating money to the 147 lawmakers. It was a striking gesture by some of the most familiar names in business but was largely an empty one.

Six months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to political action committees that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not.

Walmart, Pfizer, Intel, General Electric and AT&T are among companies that announced their pledges on behalf of democracy in the days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent bid to disrupt the transfer of power. The companies contend that donating directly to a candidate is not the same as giving to a PAC that supports them.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M GREENWASHING

Volkswagen to appeal emissions ruling to US Supreme Court

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Volkswagen, which is now subject to Ohio anti-tampering laws that it says could cost hundreds of billions of dollars, wants time to stop a state lawsuit, the automaker said in a Thursday court filing.

At issue is the 2015 scandal in which the automaker was found to have rigged its vehicles to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests. The company ultimately paid more than $33 billion in fines and settlements.

In the wake of the scandal, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office sued the company, alleging Volkswagen’s conduct — affecting about 14,000 vehicles sold or leased in Ohio — violated the state’s anti-air pollution law.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last month that the federal Clean Air Act does not preclude Ohio from seeking its own compensation against Volkswagen. State Attorney General Dave Yost successfully argued the federal law doesn’t stop Ohio from suing over emissions test tampering that occurred after new cars were sold.

Volkswagen says such lawsuits could cost the company $127 billion a year over multiple years. The company asked the state Supreme Court Thursday to delay its ruling while Volkswagen appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Yost’s office is not objecting to the delay.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Purdue Pharma exit plan gains steam with OK from more states

By GEOFF MULVIHILL


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FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2020, file photo, Purdue Pharma headquarters stands in Stamford, Conn. In an agreement disclosed late Wednesday, July 7, 2021, in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., more than a dozen states have dropped their objections to OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s reorganization plan, edging the company closer to resolving its bankruptcy case. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s plan to reorganize into a new entity that helps combat the U.S. opioid epidemic got a big boost as 15 states that had previously opposed the new business model now support it.

The agreement from multiple state attorneys general, including those who had most aggressively opposed Purdue’s original settlement proposal, was disclosed late Wednesday night in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y. It followed weeks of intense mediations that resulted in changes to Purdue’s original exit plan.

The new settlement terms call for Purdue to make tens of millions of internal documents public, a step several attorneys general, including those for Massachusetts and New York, had demanded as a way to hold the company accountable.

Attorneys general for both states were among those who agreed to the new plan, joining about half the states that had previously approved it.

In a joint online news conference Thursday, some of the attorneys general who signed on noted that their states are in line to get more money faster to fund drug treatment and prevention.

But they continued to express ire with the company and especially members of the wealthy Sackler family who own the company and have not accepted any blame. “No one is happy with the settlement,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said. “Can the Sacklers do more? Hell yeah, they can do a lot better, but it should first begin with an apology.”

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein noted Thursday that the deal includes about $1.5 billion more than it initially did.

In a statement, members of the Sackler family called the support of more states “an important step toward providing substantial resources for people and communities in need.”

Still, nine states and the District of Columbia did not sign on. One of the holdouts, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson complained: “This settlement plan allows the Sacklers to walk away as billionaires with a legal shield for life.”

A 10th attorney general, West Virginia’s Patrick Morrisey, opposes the deal on separate grounds: That his state would get shorted when the money is allocated. He reiterated that position Thursday.

Purdue said in a statement that it will try to build “even greater consensus” for its plan.

Purdue sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 as a way to settle about 3,000 lawsuits it faced from state and local governments and other entities. They claimed the company’s continued marketing of its powerful prescription painkiller contributed to a crisis that has been linked to nearly 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the last two decades.

The court filing came from a mediator appointed by the bankruptcy court and shows that members of the Sackler family agreed to increase their cash contribution to the settlement by $50 million. They also will allow $175 million held in Sackler family charities to go toward abating the crisis.

In all, Sackler family members are contributing $4.5 billion in cash and assets in the charitable funds toward the settlement. They are not admitting any wrongdoing and no court has found any by a family member.

The agreement also prohibits the Sackler family from obtaining naming rights related to their charitable donations until they have paid all the money owed under the settlement and have given up all business interests related to the manufacturing or sale of opioids.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who had been the first attorney general to sue members of the Sackler family, praised the modified deal in a statement early Thursday. She pointed to the $90 million her state would receive and the way the company could waive attorney-client privilege to release hundreds of thousands of confidential communications with lawyers about its tactics for selling opioids and other matters.

“While I know this resolution does not bring back loved ones or undo the evil of what the Sacklers did, forcing them to turn over their secrets by providing all the documents, forcing them to repay billions, forcing the Sacklers out of the opioid business, and shutting down Purdue will help stop anything like this from ever happening again,” Healey said.

Purdue’s plan also calls for members of the Sackler family to give up ownership of the Connecticut-based company as part of a sweeping deal it says could be worth $10 billion over time. That includes the value of overdose-reversal drugs the company is planning to produce.

Money from the deal is to go to government entities, which have agreed to use it to address the opioid crisis, along with individual victims and their families.

Most groups representing various creditors, including victims and local governments, had grudgingly supported the plan. But state attorneys general until now were deeply divided, with about half of them supporting the plan and half fighting against it.

The attorneys general who had opposed the plan said they didn’t like the idea of having to rely on profits from the continued sale of prescription painkillers to combat the opioid epidemic. The revised deal lets state and local governments opt out of receiving those funds. Attorneys general also said the deal didn’t do enough to hold Sackler family members accountable or to make public documents that could help explain the company’s role in the crisis.

Last month, Massachusetts’ Healey told The Associated Press, “The Sacklers are not offering to pay anything near what they should for the harm and devastation caused to families and communities around this country.”

The support from additional states comes less than two weeks before the deadline to object formally to Purdue’s reorganization plan and about a month before a hearing on whether it should be accepted.

With just nine states and the District of Columbia remaining opposed to the plan, it makes it more likely the federal bankruptcy judge will confirm the deal.

Activists also dislike it, and two Democratic members of Congress have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to oppose it. Reps. Carolyn Maloney of New York and Mark DeSaulnier of California said in a statement Thursday that allowing Sackler family members “to obtain legal immunity through Purdue’s bankruptcy would be a tragic miscarriage of justice.” The Justice Department has not weighed in.

Last year, the company pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges and agreed to pay $225 million to the federal government.

In a separate civil settlement announced at the same time, Sackler family members agreed to pay the federal government $225 million, while admitting no wrongdoing.

The opioid crisis includes overdoses involving prescription drugs as well as illegal ones such as heroin and fentanyl. Purdue’s bankruptcy case is the highest-profile piece of complicated nationwide litigation against drugmakers, distribution companies and pharmacies.

Trials against other companies in the industry are playing out in California, New York and West Virginia, and negotiations are continuing to settle many of the claims.

People in U.S. with HIV have near-normal life expectancy, study says

By Cara Murez, HealthDay News

Testing HIV-positive is no longer a certain death sentence, and new research shows that Americans who have HIV today have life spans similar to those of their peers without the virus.

"In the early days of the AIDS pandemic, getting a diagnosis with AIDS was incredibly bad news and the prognosis for survival was really poor, and that's not true today," said lead author Jessie Edwards.

"Someone diagnosed with HIV in this day and age can be linked to care and receive highly effective treatment and feel confident that their survival outlook is actually very good," said Edwards, a research assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The gap in HIV/AIDS death rates closed dramatically between 1999 and 2017, especially after 2011, Edwards and her colleagues found.

RELATED Access to affordable drug therapy reduces HIV infections in men, study finds

They used U.S. federal statistics to examine death rates for close to 83,000 adults treated for HIV between 1999 and 2017 at 13 U.S. sites that were part of a North American AIDS collaborative.

Those folks were compared with a subset of the U.S. population without HIV matched by age, sex, race/ethnicity and home county.

Researchers were interested in learning whether people with HIV had higher death rates than folks in the general population in the years right after beginning treatment, Edwards said.

RELATED  HIV/AIDS at 40: Progress has been plentiful, but vaccine still elusive

"This is a time and point that's really important for intervention for people living with HIV," she said. "This is a time when clinicians could make treatment decisions about what treatments they will prescribe, as well as how they will treat any other ... conditions that those patients have."

Researchers found that the difference in early death rates between people with HIV and the general population dropped over time -- the difference was 11 percentage points for folks who entered care between 1999 and 2004, and it fell to 2.7 percentage points for those whose care began between 2011 and 2017.

During the latter period, Edwards said, "people with HIV were only about 3 percentage points more likely to die over the next five years than their peers in the general population."

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And the situation was even better for young adults, the study found. Mortality rates for those entering HIV care between 18 and 34 years of age were only about 1 percentage point higher over the next five years than their peers in the general population.

While that's been a success story in some ways, Edwards said concerns persist.

"There's still this gap that remains even with the new guidelines and even with these highly effective drugs," she said, suggesting it points to future avenues for research.

In addition, the new study only explored changes in U.S. death rates. While there has also been progress in developing countries, Edwards noted that new drug treatments have not spread as rapidly there.

The findings were published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, a disease that weakens the immune system, gradually destroying the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers.

It is spread most often through sexual contact; intravenous drug use; and from infected women to their babies at birth or through breastfeeding.

The first cases were reported 40 years ago, with AIDS-related deaths in the United States, peaking in the mid-1990s at more than 50,000 a year, according to an editorial accompanying the study. At that time, it was the leading cause of death for 25- to 44-year-olds.

Antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV can reduce the amount of virus in the blood to levels that are undetectable with standard tests.

Advances in antiretroviral therapy had contributed to the dramatic decline in death rates, said editorial author Dr. Marshall Glesby, associate chief of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Drug combos are now easier to take, more potent and have fewer side effects, he said. And people are being treated earlier in the course of their infection.

But, Glesby said, concerns persist about age-related complications of HIV infection. About half of U.S. individuals with HIV are over 50.

He said it's also important to understand that the improved death rates reported in the study are really focused on people who are in treatment. Not everyone who has HIV is aware of it and many who have it are not receiving care, Glesby pointed out.

"That's important both from the perspective of the health of those individuals and also for the public health perspective, in terms of preventing transmission," he said.

COVID-19 has had an impact in the past year as well. Glesby said interruptions in the supply of antiretroviral drugs are expected to have a significant impact on HIV-related death rates.

Meanwhile, efforts continue to develop therapies that can be taken perhaps every six months or a year.

"There's a lot of effort being put into addressing concerns about adherence to antiretroviral therapy, which despite the simplification of regimens can still be a challenge for some people," Glesby said.

"I think that's another major focus of research is really trying to make it even simpler for people to be dosed with antiretrovirals," Glesby said.More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on HIV and AIDS.

AMERICA SPEAKS Espagnol
Study: Language barriers keep 25M in U.S. from good healthcare

By HealthDay News

Due to language barriers, 25 million Spanish speakers receive about a third less health care than other Americans, a large study of U.S. adults shows.

The analysis of federal survey data from more than 120,000 adults revealed that total use of health care -- as measured by spending -- was 35% to 42% lower among those whose primary language is Spanish compared to English speakers.

"Too few doctors or nurses speak Spanish, and many hospitals and clinics have grossly inadequate interpretation and translation services, despite federal mandates requiring them," said senior study author Dr. Danny McCormick, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and primary care physician at Cambridge Health Alliance.

"But most insurers won't cover the costs of interpreters, and federal enforcement of the language mandates has been lax," McCormick said.

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The study found that Spanish speakers had 36% fewer outpatient visits; 48% fewer prescription medications; and 35% fewer outpatient visits.

Compared to Hispanic adults who were proficient in English, Spanish speakers also had 37% fewer prescription medications.

Spanish speakers also had slightly fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations, according to findings published in the July issue of the journal Health Affairs.

RELATED Minority infants receive poorer care in NICUs, study finds

Even when it comes to lifesaving services such as colon cancer screening, Spanish speakers are less likely to receive them, researchers reported.

Despite federal laws that mandate interpreter services for hospitals and other agencies receiving federal funding and ban discrimination based on national origin, language-based gaps in health care haven't narrowed over the past 20 years.

For example, the difference in health care expenditures between Spanish speakers and non-Hispanic adults increased from $2,156 in 1999 to $3,608 in 2018, even after accounting for inflation.

RELATED Report: Rise in fast-food advertising largely targets Black, Hispanic youths

Lead author Dr. Jessica Himmelstein said the pandemic has magnified the problems.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll in the Hispanic community, especially among people with limited English proficiency," said Himmelstein, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School and physician at Cambridge Health Alliance.

"The pandemic has been a magnifier of the failure of our healthcare system to meet the needs of patients facing language barriers," Himmelstein said.More information

The U.S. National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities offers health information in multiple languages.




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