US HIV baby 'cured' by early drug treatment

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the immune system

A baby girl in the US born with HIV appears to have been cured after very early treatment with standard drug therapy, doctors say.

The Mississippi child is now two-and-a-half years old and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

More testing needs to be done to see if the treatment - given within hours of birth - would work for others.

If the girl stays healthy, it would be the world's second reported 'cure'.

Dr Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, presented the findings at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.

"This is a proof of concept that HIV can be potentially curable in infants," she said.

Cocktail of drugs
In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown became the first person in the world believed to have recovered from HIV.

His infection was eradicated through an elaborate treatment for leukaemia that involved the destruction of his immune system and a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection.

In contrast, the case of the Mississippi baby involved a cocktail of widely available drugs, known as antiretroviral therapy, already used to treat HIV infection in infants.

It suggests the swift treatment wiped out HIV before it could form hideouts in the body.

These so-called reservoirs of dormant cells usually rapidly reinfect anyone who stops medication, said Dr Persaud.


Dr Deborah Persaud, Johns Hopkins Children's Center: "This sets the stage for paediatric care agenda"
The baby was born in a rural hospital where the mother had only just tested positive for HIV infection.

Because the mother had not been given any prenatal HIV treatment, doctors knew the baby was at high risk of being infected.

Researchers said the baby was then transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

Once there, paediatric HIV specialist Dr Hannah Gay put the infant on a cocktail of three standard HIV-fighting drugs at just 30 hours old, even before laboratory tests came back confirming the infection.

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We really can quite confidently conclude at this point that the child does very much appear to be cured”

Dr Rowena Johnston, Foundation for Aids Research "I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk and deserved our best shot," Dr Gay said.

The treatment was continued for 18 months, at which point the child disappeared from the medical system. Five months later the mother and child turned up again but had stopped the treatment in this interim.

The doctors carried out tests to see if the virus had returned and were astonished to find that it had not.

Dr Rowena Johnston, of the Foundation for Aids Research, said it appeared that the early intervention that started immediately after birth worked.

"I actually do believe this is very exciting.

"This certainly is the first documented case that we can truly believe from all the testing that has been done.

"Many doctors in six different laboratories all applied different, very sophisticated tests trying to find HIV in this infant and no body was able to find any.

"And so we really can quite confidently conclude at this point that the child does very much appear to be cured."

A spokeswoman for the HIV/Aids charity the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "This is interesting, but the patient will need careful ongoing follow-up for us to understand the long-term implications for her and any potential for other babies born with HIV."

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21651225

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Territorial Dispute: Sabah, Malaysia or Philippines?

THE HISTORY OF SABAH, PHILIPPINES

In 1658, the Sultan of Brunei gave Sabah to the Sultan of Sulu for his help in sending Tausug Warriors to stop a rebelion and civil war. Since then, Sabah became a property of Sultan of Sulu and the Sultanate of Sulu. 

In 1878, HM Sultan Hamalul Aklam Kiram (The Sultan of Sulu and the Sultan of Sabah), leased Sabah to a British Company of Gustavus Baron de Overdeck and "The North Borneo Company.", for their used and their heirs. The leased prohibits the transfer of Sabah to any nation, company or individual without the consent of the Government of the Sultan of Sulu.

In 1946-47, the leased was illegally transfered to the British Government by Overdeck and Dent when their company North Borneo ceased to exist.

On September 12,1962, the still on leased territory of North Borneo (SABAH) and the full sovereignty, the title and dominion over the territory was ceded by the then reigning Sultan of Sulu, HM Sultan Muhammad Esmail E. Kiram I to the Republic of the Philippines. The cession effectively gave the Philippine Government the full authority to pursue their claim in international courts. 

In 1963, the British illegally transferred Sabah to newly formed Federation of Malaysia. Upon the illegal inclusion of Sabah into Malaysian Federation, President Diosdado Macapagal broke diplomatic relation with Malaysia.

PHILIPPINE' SULTANATE OF SULU ROYAL FORCES STANDOFF WITH ILLEGAL MALAYSIA GOVERNMENT IN NORTH BORNEO!

MAP OF THE SULTANATE OF SULU. The Sulu Sultanate was once a powerful kingdom, stretching from Borneo, Southern Philippines to parts of the Visayas, Part of Mindanao, Palawan to the Spratly Islands. During the height of its power during the 1700s, the Sultanate exercise control over most of what is now known as Mindanao and North Borneo.

The area was once controlled by the old Sultanate of Sulu but Britain illegally ceded the North Borneo to Malaysia without informing the Sultan and without even paying a single dime to the Sultan who ruled the territory.

'Till todate, Malaysia still recognized Sabah State or North Borneo State as part of the Sultanate of Sulu by paying a rental of M$5,000 Malaysian Ringgit per year to the Royal Sultanate of the Southern Philippines.

Britain, the responsible of the trouble in the Southern Philippines for the illegal transfer of the territory to Malaysia remained silent for few decades and ignored the call of the Philippines to respect the Sultanate of Sulu as the original Territorial owner of Sabah (North Borneo) and the territory must be return to the Sultanate of Sulu. Philippines and the Sultanate of Sulu State are too weak also to against the illegal order and the bully of the abusing powerful Britain. 

Ismail, quoted on the website of The Star newspaper, said the group demanded to be recognized as the "Royal Sulu Sultanate Army" and insisted that as subjects of the sultanate, they should be allowed to remain in Sabah.

The Standoff begun after Malaysian Government deported the Sulu Nationals who settled in North Borneo for several decades. The Sulu Nationals (Philippine Citizen of the Southern Philippines under the old Sultanate of Sulu) still believe that Sabah or North Borneo is still part of the Sultanate of Sulu and they must be allowed to stay in Sabah as long as they want as it is part of the Sultanate of Sulu but Malaysian Government deported several hundreds of their compatriots and would probably affect the estimated 30% of the total residents of Sabah who are originally from the old Sultanate of Sulu Capital in the Southern Philippines.

In 1963, Sabah, which was leased by the Sulu Sultanate to the British since the 19th century, became part of the Federation of Malaysia when Britain illegally ceded the territory to Malaysia . The Filipinos protested, claiming that Sabah was never sold to foreign interests.

In 1967, an attempt to land Filipino commandos, trained in Corregidor, on Sabah and invade Sabah under the "Operation Merdeka" was aborted after the supposed commandos were all but one killed. The lone survivor of the carnage, Jibin Arula, revealed what was eventually known as the Jabidah massacre.

Lahad Datu is a town in Tawau Division, in the east of Sabah, on the island of Borneo. The town, which occupies the peninsula on the north side of Darvel Bay, has population of 156,059 based on the 2000 census where 80% of the populations are originally from the Sultanate of Sulu (Basilan, Tawi-tawi, Zamboanga).

Lahad Datu is home to Sabah's population of Orang Bajau and other ethnic tribes or BADJAO who scattered around the Philippines as boat people, such as the Cocos Island Malays, who settled in the area in the 1950s when the Cocos Islands became part of Australia. Lahad Datu is known for its palm oil refineries.

The Philippine government signed a landmark peace deal with Muslim rebels late last year to end the 40-year conflict in the south, but some factions have voiced opposition as the deal could affect their claim that Sabah must be returned first to the Philippines and the Sultanate of Sulu must be re-empowered.

"Since Malaysia brokered the deal, followers from the Misuari Breakaway Group have decided to stir up some trouble and create fireworks in Sabah." the report quoted the Malaysian official as saying.

The Sulu Sultanate was once a powerful kingdom, stretching from Borneo, Southern Philippines to parts of the Visayas, Part of Mindanao, Palawan to the Spratly Islands. During the height of its power during the 1700s, the Sultanate exercise control over most of what is now known as Mindanao and North Borneo.

Raja Muda Muedzul-Lail Tan Kiram was proclaimed as the 35th Sultan of Sulu during ceremonies held in Maimbung, Jolo last September.

Security on Malaysia's sea border with the Philippines has been problematic for Sabah, where tens of thousands of Filipinos have immigrated in the past few decades.

With report sources from Manila Standard Today, Inquirer, Reuters and Bangkok Post.


http://betterphils.blogspot.com/2013/02/philippine-sultanate-of-sulu-royal.html

source: https://www.facebook.com/ControversialFiles

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"Like Lolo, Like Father, Like Son?"

Like Lolo, Like Father, Like Son?

By Ronald Roy  

In a way, I feel sorry for Noynoy. He looks like a little boy suddenly thrust in the man-size war zone of politics. Egged on by opportunists, misguided clerics, arrogant elitists, and lately the meddlesome Time Magazine, he now basks in the vanishing afterglow of EDSA I, proclaiming a right to the presidency on the basis of family relations. He would have us vote for him for president because he is the son of Ninoy the slain martyr and Cory, the "revered"saint, the grandson of a public servant named Benigno Aquino Sr., the brother of "famous" TV host Kris and the brother-in-law of basketball superstar James Yap.

Unfortunately, Noynoy has nothing much to show for himself except as an alleged participant in the massacre of farmers in the family owned Hacienda Luisita and the owner of a sub-standard legislative record. The scary part is he now threatens to hose down a nation on fire. But for the fact that Noynoy seriously exalts his lineage a as the underpinning of his "quest" for the presidency, I would hate to rake the past of dead people. However, we now stand in the electoral doorway to freedom, and it would be rank treason if I chose not to uphold the truth that is supposed to set us free.

See any old folk if you care to know if Benigno Aquino Sr. was a despised traitor to Filipinos during World War II. I remember my grandmother telling stories about Ninoy's father being a "Makapili" or a Japanese collaborator who spied on the secret activities of the Filipino guerillas, and that it was for this treasonous behavior that he was often jeered and stoned in public. He was a member of the Philippine Puppet Government whose son Ninoy and grandson Noynoy would in their respective times be similarly lured in to politics.

In this connection, it is interesting to note that certain traits, genetic or otherwise, do run through generations within a family. Don't voters now have the right to apply the modified aphorism "like lolo, like father, like son?" I now speak from personal knowledge if not with moral certainty: I share the view of countless others that Ninoy Aquino was a ruthless man. To believe what had then become folklore, I had to actually see and hear him brag how some suspected cattle rustlers writhed to death from a poison he had laced their food with.

More horrendous is the lingering widespread suspicion that he purposely did not attend the LP miting de avance at Plaza Miranda which he was supposed to emcee. Already believable is: Ninoy knew the communists would bomb the makeshift stage at 10 in the evening to annihilate the party's bigwigs, blame President Ferdinand Marcos for the carnage, and groom him as the sole surviving opposition challenger to the re-electionist Marcos.And where was Ninoy at 10 that night? At an insignificant "despedida de soltera"-- to which I had also been invited-- watching the rally on TV and looking fidgety until the grenades exploded shortly past 10.

During the years that followed, Doy Laurel and I would share the same suspicions about Ninoy-- until the communists eventually announced the carnage was their handwork.

Ninoy once urged me to build a private army which the Roys could use gain political supremacy in Tarlac's first district. For starters, he offered me a half a dozen hitmen and gangsters-- probably communists-- but I flatly rejected the offer.I told him we were a non-violent family in full support of Danding Cojuangco's armed struggle to drive the Reds out of the province.

Obviously Ninoy had hoped to intrigue between the Cojuangcos and the Roys in order to gain control of the district; but he failed. It was the same old Machiavellian divide-and-rule tactic which triggered a shootout between the rebel forces of Huk Kumander Alibasbas and those of Huk Kumander Sumulong. From the resulting disarray emerged a unifying commie leader in the persona of Ninoy. The Reds would henceforth remain supportive of Ninoy's consuming obsession to be president of the country.

This piece cannot end without citing the case of Rafael Suarez, a charismatic wealthy haciendero who ran for mayor of Concepcion, Tarlac, under the NP flag. Failing to convince Suarez to run as an LP candidate, Ninoy warned Suarez he would not assume office if he won. Suarez handily beat Ninoy's candidate. Shortly thereafter, Suarez was miraculously survived a highway ambush that killed his driver. Who did it? John Dillinger? Suarez incidentally was my late brother's father-in-law.

NOYNOY FOR PRESIDENT? THINK AGAIN. Not even Cory would endorse him if a certain Dr. Armando Armas were to be believed in his forthcoming explosive book. THINK AGAIN, if you don't want this country to be run by Joma Sison and his Maoist comrades.

source: https://www.facebook.com/ControversialFiles

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