The U.S. Senate passed a crucial bill on Wednesday that will triple funding for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. Backed by President Bush, the plan received a 80-to-16 vote to authorize $48 billion over the next five years.

The amount authorized is $18 billion more than what Bush had requested. It would replace and expand the current $15 billion program started by the President in 2003. That act expires at the end of September

Sens. John Cary (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), are proposing a bill that would fight Aids in other countries and at the same time lift a two-decade-long ban on visitors to the U.S. with HIV. Other countries that have the same ban include Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia.

Kerry, the co-author of the bill, pointed out that China has amended its policy and challenged the U.S. to "move beyond an antiquated, knee-jerk reaction" to persons with HIV

Sens. John Cary (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), are proposing a bill that would fight Aids in other countries and at the same time lift a two-decade-long ban on visitors to the U.S. with HIV. Other countries that have the same ban include Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia.

Kerry, the co-author of the bill, pointed out that China has amended its policy and challenged the U.S. to "move beyond an antiquated, knee-jerk reaction" to persons with HIV

Drug maker Roche Holding AG has announced it will stop ongoing experiments for HIV treatment medicines after it determined their products did not result in any improvements compared to other drugs currently available.

The company, known for being the first to produce an anti-HIV treatment, will suspend current experiments being done on two other similar products as a response to the findings of a standard product review

Anti-retroviral drug therapy has slashed AIDS death rates to match those of uninfected people in the first five years after the virus attacks the body, new British research has found.

Since the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs such as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's. Sustiva in 1996, the five-year, post-diagnosis survival for those infected sexually is now about equal to that of the general population