Monday, June 11, 2012
Friday, June 08, 2012
Man Cured of AIDS: ‘I Feel Good’
source : abcnews http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/06/08/man-cured-of-aids-i-feel-good/
The fact that Timothy Brown is a reasonably healthy 46-year-old is no small thing. Only a few years ago, he had AIDS.
"I feel good," Brown told ABC News. "I haven't had any major illnesses, just occasional colds like normal people."
Brown is the only person in the world to be cured of AIDS, the result of a transplant of blood stem cells he received to treat leukemia.
"My case is the proof in concept that HIV can be cured," he said.
Brown got lucky. The blood stem cells he received came from a donor with a special genetic mutation that made him resistant to HIV. The genetic mutation occurs in less than 1 percent of Caucasians, and far less frequently in people of other races. Before Brown got his transplant in 2007, doctors tested nearly 70 donors for this genetic mutation before they found one who was a match.
But doctors hope that a similar solution could help other people with HIV: umbilical cord blood transplants.
Dr. Lawrence Petz, medical director of StemCyte, an umbilical cord blood bank, said although Brown was cured by his transplant, the process was complicated because the blood stem cells came from an adult donor.
"When you do that you have to have a very close match between donor and recipient," Petz said. "With umbilical cord blood, we don't need such a close match. It's far easier to find donor matches."
But it's still not that easy. Petz and his colleagues have tested 17,000 samples of cord blood so far, and found just 102 that have the genetic HIV-resistant mutation. The team performed the first cord blood transplant on an HIV-infected patient a few weeks ago, and they have another transplant planned for a similar patient in Madrid, Spain, later this year. It will still be months before researchers can tell if the transplants have any effect on the patients' HIV.
Petz also noted that transplants aren't performed solely to treat AIDS. Patients who get them have an additional condition that requires a blood stem cell transplant. Curing their AIDS would be an incredible bonus.
"It can be done. It's just a matter of time," Petz said.
Brown had his transplant in February 2007. Today, his body shows no signs of the virus.
Brown said he feels guilty being the only person to have been cured of the virus when millions still live with it. But he hopes his story will inspire others that a cure is possible.
"I don't want to be the only person in the world cured of HIV. I want a cure for everyone," he said.
Romney on Obama
via Yahoo News
Mitt Romney called President Barack Obama's handling of the economy a "moral failure of tragic proportions," suggesting he's failed the American people by enacting policies that have been "muddled, confused and simply ineffective."
Speaking at a campaign event in St. Louis, the Republican nominee said it is "painfully obvious" that Obama was "inexperienced" and "simply not up to the task" of leading the country out of this "great economic crisis."
"We have waited, and waited and waited for recovery, and enough time has passed to pronounce judgment on the economic policies of this administration: They have not worked," Romney told supporters at a campaign event in St. Louis. "Your government has failed you."
The Republican nominee accused Obama of being unfriendly to "free enterprise" and said his administration has failed to deliver on its chief commitment to the country: helping "every American help themselves."
"I do not believe this has been done with evil intent or ill will," Romney noted. "But for a family watching their house being sold at foreclosure, or the family that is forced to spend their kid's college savings just to make ends meet, the results are just as devastating."
Romney vowed to do "everything in my power to end these days of drift and disappointment," suggesting something is "fundamentally wrong" with the country's course when 23 million Americans remain out of work.
"Yet the president tells us he's doing a great job," Romney said. "I will not be that president of deception and doubt. I will lead us to a better place."
Romney's remarks in Missouri expanded on a general theme the GOP nominee has been pushing on the campaign trail in recent weeks. He's argued that the nation's economic struggles are not just a test of policy but a "moral" issue because of the suffering of so many Americans. In his remarks today, Romney used the word "moral" or a variation of it five separate times in pushing the idea that Obama's policies have been a failure for the country.
Echoing a message he repeats regularly on the trail, Romney accused Obama of trying to restart the nation's economy by building up the government rather than helping private business. He called Obama's vision for the country "deeply flawed."
"There is nothing fair about a government that favors political connections over honest competition and takes away your right to earn your own success," Romney said. "And there is nothing morally right about trying to turn government dependence into a substitute for the dignity of work."
Under Obama, the country was on the brink of a "government-led economy," the GOP nominee warned.
"It doesn't have to be this way," Romney said. "These have been years of disappointment and decline, and soon we can put them behind us. We can prosper again, with the powerful recovery we have all been waiting for, (and) the good jobs that so many still need.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
How Dalits "untouchable" are suffering in India
source : AFP/Yahoo News
Police in north India said Wednesday they were hunting for a village leader accused of beating to death an "untouchable" neighbour who broke strict caste-based rules by using a local handpump.
Mohan Paswan, in his late 40s, was lynched in Parhuti village in Bihar state last Thursday when he disobeyed an order by a local thug not to use the pump during a heatwave.
"Paswan was attacked and brutally thrashed by a village strongman Pramod Singh and his henchmen for taking water," local police official Saroj Kumar told AFP.
"Police have been trying hard to arrest the accused in the case but they are absconding."
Caste-based discrimination is illegal in India, but abuse is rife, particularly in remote rural areas where the rigid system that places "untouchables" at the bottom of the social order remains in tact.
The low castes, also known as Dalits, traditionally do menial, dirty and often dangerous jobs and are seen as spiritually and physically dirty by the high castes who sometimes prevent them from drinking at the same wells.
A fortnight ago there were tensions in the Arwal district of Bihar where Dalits were prevented from entering a Hindu temple where high castes were worshipping.
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