Updated to include: New Wikipedia article on Kamiar Alaei and his brother Arash now posted.

One of the most widely read progressive blogs in the U.S., The Daily Kos, launched its new Health Care Friday Series with a lead story on Kamiar and Arash Alaei. Progressive bloggers have been key allies in this case as well as in PHR’s previous successful work to free five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who faced the death penalty in Libya.

Blogger DemFromCT quoted yesterday’s Boston Globe article in the DailyKos post, including a message to:

Please take a moment today to call the Iranian Mission to the UN, +1-212-687-2020, to express your support for the release of the Doctors Alaei. Tell them Treating AIDS is NOT a Crime!

In addition, Philip Nasca, Dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Albany, where Dr. Kamiar Alaei is a doctoral student, released a statement today expressing concern for the Drs. Alaei. Dean Nasca writes:

“The students and faculty of our School are deeply distressed. They recognize the outstanding humanitarian public health work accomplished by Kamiar and Arash, who have been hailed by AIDS specialists throughout the world for the model they created in Iran. Public health is a global science, one that requires medical and public health professionals to collaborate and share best practices; it cannot thrive if there is not cooperation between and among experts in all countries facing similar problems. Kamiar’s enthusiasm and extraordinary energy inspired those of us at this School and in the New York State Health Department.

Dean Nasca also mentions that Dr. Kamiar Alaei had never expressed a desire to subvert the Iranian government, as alleged by Tehran prosecutors in the Alaeis’ Dec. 31 trial.

He always spoke respectfully of his country’s support for the clinics he and his brother established to serve those infected with HIV and suffering from AIDS. Any misunderstanding of their scientific activities must be clarified so they can return to the work they were so successfully doing and so that Kamiar can return to his studies here in Albany. We send our fervent wishes for a positive outcome to Kamiar, Arash, their family members, those striving on their behalf, and all those served by their excellent work.”