While Doug Wright may draw on The Twilight Zone, we can't help but feel like we're in The Twilight Zone.

The Global Aids Fund - the Bono endorsed health org. - has denied Zimbabwe's application for $400 million to fight HIV, malaria and Tuberculosis. As many of you know, Zimbabwe's on many an international shit list for the government's gross human rights violations, some of which are against gays. While that may be the case, President Robert Mugabe's (pictured) country's claims to have made strides in terms of health care. Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr. Edwin Muguti had this to say:

There was no rational thinking that was applied when the Global Fund decided to deny the country funds.

We have managed to reduce the HIV and Aids prevalence in the country through homegrown solutions and if they think that they will fix us by denying us funds, then they are sadly mistaken because we are determined to fight these health problems and win.

According to an article from Zimbabwe's The Herald, Zimbabwe's the only country to score a success rate in fighting AIDS, with a 6.6% decrease in prevalence.

Considering this statistic from an articlefrom China's People Daily, this decrease may come from a horrific death toll: "...The total number of HIV-infected is about 1.6 million, with about 2,500 people infected the virus daily and 3, 000 die from the disease weekly."

Yow.

Regardless, many question whether or not The Global Fund's playing politics. Writing for Voice of America News, Ndimyake Mwakalyelye reports:

Zimbabwe has been awarded US$46 million in two previous Global Fund rounds, but to date has received only about US$4 million for HIV-AIDS programs. Other regional nations including Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia have been granted some $359 million and received US$173 million.

The disparity in grant awards and distribution, and previous rejections of Zimbabwe’s proposals, have led some to allege political bias on the part of the Global Fund.

But Fund spokesman John Liden said Zimbabwe is not alone in seeing its applications rejected. He invited it to appeal the decision or submit another application in 2007.

While who to believe here, but it seems a little fishy. Yes, $400 million's a big request, but The Global Fund could have given them something. Or, at the very least, give them the old money they promised.

Sure, we're not the biggest fans of Zimbabwe's politics, but if The Global Fund is playing politics, well, that's just stupid.

No other word for it, really. Stupid.

World AIDS Day's December 1st. Thom Fitzgerald's cinematic excursion into the AIDS pandemic opens December 1st. Coincidence? Fuck no. It's a chronologically-coordinated publicity stunt, but unlike so many flack concoctions, this one's actually for a good cause.

While the film visits South Africa, China and Montreal in its effort to share the universal destruction of the disease, people everywhere can help the stars, director and producers fight AIDS in Africa.

It seems they've created a MySpace page to help fight AIDS in Africa. With support of stars Chloe Sevigny, Sandra Oh, Lucy Liu, Stockard Channing and Shawn Ashmore, they'll donate ten cents for every one of their MySpace friends to support AIDS prevention in Africa.

As it stands, the movie's got 803, way below their December 1st goal of 50,000. So, kiddies, why not head on over and add them? It's free, it's for a good cause and it's simple as pie.

(And if you're still not convinced, we've included the press release after the jump.)

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We've been a little wary of this story, as we've heard these "cure for HIV" promises before. But scientists believe that drugs already used to treat HIV can actually be taken to prevent HIV infection.

Taking the pill called Truvada, which is a mix of two drugs (tenofovir and emtricitabine), has been shown to prevent HIV infections in monkeys, when the pill was taken before exposure to the virus.

HIV causes illness by infecting white blood cells, where it replicates thousands of times before bursting out of the cell, destroying it. Then all those strains of the virus attack other white blood cells, until your body has no immune defense system left. Modern drugs combinations (including the medicines in Truvada, as well as "protease inhibitors") block HIV from replicating--which saves your white blood cells from damage.

While these drugs are not a "cure," they certainly elongate the lifespan of many people with the disease. If caught early enough, the drugs can obliterate enough of the virus to make it "undetectable" in your bloodstream (even though there's usually a little bit hiding somewhere). So conventional logic leads scientists to believe that if the drugs are already in the blood, they would stop the virus before it has a chance to get started. Sounds simple enough, right? Perhaps. In lab tests on animals, it seems to work great so far.

But that's not the whole story.

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