Resource Center

Stories

The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast.

These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need.

Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:



Search results for "HIV" ...

  • Prison Zip Codes

    This investigation by WSMV looks at the trend of parolees, prisoners, their respective zip codes, and the continuous cycle of violence that occurs when they're released into the same environment. The trend shows that certain zip codes with hundreds of parolees also tend to have the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV. Through their analysis, reporters at WSMV discovered that many of these parolees have no choice but to return to these high-crime neighborhoods with cheap housing due to their criminal past. "So when parolees return to these areas, they are exposed to crime again and get caught up in a cycle of violence."

    Tags: probation; parolees; STDs; HIV; zip codes

    By Jeremy Finley

    WSMV-TV (Nashville, Tenn.)

    2004

  • The Hidden Cause of AIDS

    This story analyzes the spread of AIDS through rural areas in Mozambique, Africa. People in small, rural communities who should be at a low risk for contracting the virus have very high infection rates. It turns out that this is because men from these areas often leave to go work in the mines in South Africa, but keep girlfriends and wives in Mozambique. The miners get AIDS from prostitutes around the mines and then transmit it to their partners at home. The story also explores the socioeconomic effects of AIDS on small rural communities, and looks at ways in which the government and NGOs are working to stop this trend.

    Tags: AIDS; HIV; Africa; WHO; UNAID; Family Health International; safe sex; sex-education; miners; prostitution

    By Helen Epstein

    None

    2002

  • Aids in South Florida

    An exhaustive series on the HIV/AIDS virus and its growth in South Florida. This series of stories outlines the growth of the disease and its slow but steady spread into the general American public. Chapters include Survivors, Children, African-Americans, Immigrants, Young Gays, Solutions, How to Help, and By the Numbers.

    Tags: HIV; infection; gay; homosexual

    By Liz Doup;Madeline Baro Diaz;Diane Lade;Bob LaMendola;Gregory Lewis;John Maines;Thomas Monnay;Dana Williams;Scott Wyman

    Sun-Sentinel (Delray Beach, Fla.)

    2003

  • The Next HIV?

    Lower-profile and little feared, hepatitis C one day will kill more people than the virus that causes AIDS. A discussion of the treatment and drugs available now and those being developed.

    Tags: hepatitis C; hep-C; Rebetron; Zadaxin

    By Rob Wherry

    Forbes Magazine

    2001

  • When Rubbers Hit the Road

    In the mid-90s, the number of new AIDS cases amongst gay men took a steep decline. This improvement has vanished the last couple of years. Webb writes on the fact that promoting safe sex might not be enough to stem the tide of new AIDS infections in the gay community. Aggressive techniques such as contact tracing might do the job. The technique is effective when used with heterosexuals. Webb argues that different societal attitudes towards the seperate communities should not prevent an aggressive fight against the disease.

    Tags: AIDS; HIV; condoms; contact tracing; health; safe sex

    By Andrew Web

    Washington Monthly

    2001

  • Avi Ben Abraham series

    Chicago Tribune tells the story of an "ingratiating charmer," Avi Ben-Abraham, 43, who persuaded some of the smartest world's investors to finance a nonexistent vaccine for AIDS. To gain access to the circles of wealth and power on three continents, Ben-Abraham purported to be the youngest doctor in the world with an unbelievable IQ and a degree from an Italian university. The investigation revealed that Ben-Abraham is not a doctor at all, and that he received his diploma by deception. The want-to-be doctor recently announced a project to clone the first human being, the series reports, but other doctors in the cloning consortium denounced him as a fraud.

    Tags: medicine; business; politics; Israeli parliament; biotechnology; HIV

    By John Crewdson

    Chicago Tribune

    2001

  • Sick in Secret: The Hidden World of Prison Health Care

    The American-Statesmen reports on the health care failures of the Texas prison system. The series reveals that - even though the state has hired the University of Texas' medical school to provide care for sick convicts for $297 million a year - the prisons continue to have "deadly inadequacies" in their medical care. "The care is so bad that prisoners angle to join medical experiments that will take them away from prison infirmaries," the investigation reveals. On the other hand, there is evidence that some prisoners have seen both the best and the worst of health care. Some of the difficult cases have been handled with "real-world ferocity" by university doctors, but prisoners have also been left to starve to death in infirmaries and prison clinics operated by the university.

    Tags: experimentation on prisoners; Nazi doctors; FOIA requests; medical privacy; health care; drug-resistant HIV

    By Mike Ward;Bill Bishop

    American-Statesmen (Austin, Texas)

    2001

  • Debt to Society: The Real Price of Prisons

    A Mother Jones interactive project chronicles and quantifies "the explosive growth of America's inmate population." The online series depicts the economic and social costs of prisons, and includes a database on states' prison population and prison spending. The first part explains why America became the world's leading jailer, and looks at the paradoxical growth of the incarceration rate over the past decades when the crime rate was declining. The reporters find that "the soaring number of nonviolent drug offenders" and increases in sentencing are behind the expansion of prisons. The second part discovers that "prisons are rife with infectious illnesses - and threaten to spread them to the public." The third story examines the influence of jail sentences on inmates' inclination to violence after being released. The fourth part looks at the social costs for children who have a parent behind bars. The fifth article explains various alternatives for society to respond to lawbreakers without locking them up. The sixth part reveals that spending on a domestic anti-drug war is ineffective. The seventh article finds that "mass incarceration comes at a moral cost to every American."

    Tags: corrections; law enforcement; crime; racial disparity; arrests; the Twin Towers Correctional Facility; rape; HIV; mental health; AIDS; families; drugs; courts; judges; CAR; database mapping project

    By Vince Beiser;Eric Bates;Mike Males

    Mother Jones

    2001

  • Global Apartheid

    The Nation looks at the AIDS pandemic fueled by unequal access to medical care, and by social and economic conditions. The article reveals that Bush administration and the corporate interests of the giant American pharmaceutical companies prevents Africans from receiving lifesaving AIDS treatment. The author points out that African countries are "forced to give priority to paying illegitimate foreign debts over making investment in public health."

    Tags: HIV; AIDS; patents; international political economy; politics; United Nations; pharmaceuticals; racism; World Health Organization

    By Salih Booker;William Minter

    The Nation

    2001

  • Like a virgin

    Spin examines the health risks related to the new teenagers' vogue - abstinence until marriage - inspired by chaste celebrities. The story finds that abstinence-only education is a contradiction in terms. It points to statistics showing that "pledge-takers were less likely to use contraception during their first time - the probable result of not being educated enough about health risks and not planning for the encounter. "A promise made is not always a promise kept," Spin points out.

    Tags: sexual activity; dates; AIDS; HIV; contraception; birth control; condoms; religion; schools; education; teenagers; Britney Spears; Jessica Simpson

    By Vanessa Grigoriadis

    Spin Magazine

    None