AIDS News on the World Wide Web: AEGIS (http://www.aegis.com) and Others

The well-known AEGIS site (AIDS Education Global Information System), with over 350,000 documents online dealing with AIDS/HIV, is probably the most comprehensive single Web site for AIDS news and general information. Major strengths are (1) mainstream news reports, both current and archival; (2) the AEGIS library, with current and back issues of community newsletters and fact sheets, and government documents and databases; and (3) a clean user interface, and rapid, flexible search engine to find the information you want. AEGIS also allows you to do free AIDSLINE searches (which are available through other Web sites as well), and has a well-organized collection of links to other sites.

AEGIS has been given permission to reproduce many (not all)of the AIDS stories from major media, including THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, LOS ANGELES TIMES, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER, REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, BUSINESS WIRE, and AIDS WEEKLY PLUS. It also includes the AIDS DAILY SUMMARY from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which summarizes major news stories each weekday and makes the abstracts available for noncommercial use. The result is a huge, free, searchable clipping service of U.S. and some international media on all aspects of AIDS; you can have the stories delivered to you by email (which we will discuss in a separate article), or search on the AEGIS Web site for stories containing any words you specify.

While major newspapers and wire services seldom have information detailed or accurate enough to be useful inmedical care, they do tell you that something has happened -- usually the publication of a journal article or conference presentation, or a statement by a major company or recognized expert. The stories probably include the names of potentialtreatments and/or the people involved -- a starting point for conversation with your physician, or for other research. When you hear part of a story on television or in a rumor, you can usually use AEGIS to find a longer press report; try to remember one or more names or key words to search for. But usually the date of the broadcast will be enough to locate more information on AEGIS about a national news story.

Treatment Newsletters on AEGIS

AEGIS has current and back issues of about 30 AIDS newsletters and other publications. You can search through all of these publications together, or any single one alone, for articles containing any words you specify. Usually AEGIS has all the issues of every newsletter, from #1 up to and including the current issue.

Newsletters on AEGIS include:

* AIDS INFORMATION NEWSLETTER (from the U.S. Veterans Administration)

* AIDS TREATMENT NEWS

* AIDS TREATMENT UPDATE (published in the UK)

* AIDS WEEKLY PLUS (which has extensive coverage of scientific conferences and publications on AIDS treatments and scientific advances)

* BETA (BULLETIN OF EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENTS FOR AIDS, from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation)

* JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICIANS IN AIDS CARE

* NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND (from PWA Health Group, New York's oldest buyers' club)

* TAGLINE (from the Treatment Action Group)

* TREATMENT ISSUES (from GMHC in New York)

* TREATMENT REVIEW(from the AIDS Treatment and Data Network)

* TREATMENT UPDATE (from CATIE in Canada)

* WOMEN ALIVE

There are also many newsletters, fact sheets, and publications from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and other government agencies.

Always note the DATE of newsletter articles. We often hear from someone who has read a years-old article as if it were current.

AEGIS -- Other Strengths

* Religious links. AEGIS, started by Sister Mary Elizabeth of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, has a strong collection of links to Web sites of AIDS religious organizations, including Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and interfaith organizations.

* International involvement. AEGIS currently has links to Websites in Australia, Canada, France, Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Also, some of its services are available through FidoNet, which connects computer bulletin boards in many parts of the world which do not have regular access to the Internet.

* AEGIS also has links to Web sites of over 20 scientific and medical journals, over 15 U.S. government agencies, and about 15 pharmaceutical companies. There are also links to general health resource Web sites, and separate categories for sites on tuberculosis, and on sexually transmitted diseases.

AEGIS Search Example: Sinusitis

To illustrate searching on AEGIS, we picked sinusitis as a sample topic. From the home page, click "Search" (either the "Search" button, or the underlined word "Search" -- both are exactly the same, which can be confusing at first).

We selected All (meaning to search all databases on AEGIS),entered "sinusitis" as our only search word, and started the search. Within 15 seconds the system found 233 documents which used the word "sinusitis" at least once, and returned titles of the first 10 of them (and a link to get to the next 10 titles, etc., if you want to see them). The system tries to list the most relevant documents first; however, this mayor may not be what you want. The "search engine" used by AEGIS allows you to display the found documents in either of two ways: full text with the searched words highlighted, or excerpts from the text showing where the searched words appear. (In the case of medical-journal articles, the "fulltext" is usually only the abstract, as the full article is unlikely to be available online at all. For the AIDS newsletters and wire service stories, the entire article is usually on AEGIS.)

We looked at some of the 233 titles and documents, and most are indeed relevant, with medical information from around the world about AIDS-related sinusitis and its treatment. Do note the dates; while most of the articles we saw were 1997 or 1996, the first one listed was from 1992.

AEGIS allows a search to be limited to a particular day (for example, a search for "970512" [without the quote marks] will get all articles dated May 12, 1997; this can be used to find very recent documents, such as today's entries, or yesterday's, for example to follow up on a television or radio report). A search can also be limited to a month (for example, "sinusitis and 9701*" will find the sinusitis articles dated January 1997). However, limiting a search to a year (97*) does not work at this time; the system returns no documents, with a message saying that the search would be too expensive to complete.

Other AIDS News Sites

Here are news highlights from several other sites, which we listed in alphabetical order. These sites have much more than the news described here, and we will return to them in future articles.

We have not included news from AIDS conferences, nor newsgroups, nor Web search engines, as we will cover them separately.

ACT UP/Golden Gate

(http://www.actupny.org/indexfolder/actupgg.html)

Two news collections on this site are particularly useful. Most of the AIDS treatment articles written by the ACTUP/Golden Gate Writers' Pool, and published weekly in the BAY AREA REPORTER from 1995 through the present, are available. Also, the news releases (1996 and 1997) provide a history of the work of this leading treatment activist organization.

American Medical Association

(http://www.ama-assn.org)

This site, written primarily for physicians, includes: news briefings, current and archived, including REUTERS reports, the AIDS DAILY SUMMARY, and a link to SCIENCE NOW; special reports, in-depth articles from major professional sources; and Journal Scan -- postings of abstracts from major journals and related commentaries, sometimes with links to the full-text articles (which often require registration, however, and may not be free).

Critical Path AIDS Project

(http://www.critpath.org)

Includes treatment and research news, and Federal, state, and local policy issues.

New York Academy of Medicine

(http://www.aidsnyc.org)

This site is host to many AIDS organizations in New York. A "What's New" link tells what has been posted recently on all of the sites, and the date of each posting. You get the benefit of over 20 different AIDS organizations bringing to the public what they feel is important. Also, upcoming AIDS forum announcements (generally for the New York City area) are posted.

Project Inform

(http://www.projinf.org)

Includes treatment and policy news, action alerts, and press releases.