Thousands of breast cancer patients are to be denied a life-prolonging drug because it has been deemed too expensive for the NHS.

Only one in 20 of the H.I.V.-infected children worldwide who need life-prolonging drugs gets them.

Health-care workers say many of those infected do not know about or have access to life-prolonging drugs, and many do not seek health care until they are dying.

Thousands of breast cancer patients 'to be denied life-prolonging drug'

Burroughs Wellcome manufactures AZT, the only federally approved life-prolonging drug for people with AIDS.

Improved access to life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs could change the picture significantly, as it has in Europe and North America.

In the close comradeship that has developed among treatment-campaign advocates, it is perhaps not surprising that Mr. Achmat says he feels guilty about his decision to take the life-prolonging drugs.

Investors saw a bright future in genomics, believing that the science, which identifies the genetic roots of illnesses, would lead to the development of lucrative life-prolonging drugs.

But only last Friday did the government solicit proposals from pharmaceutical companies that supply the life-prolonging drugs, pushing back the start of treatment for thousands of patients.

A doctor saw his page and put him on a life-prolonging drug.