Toddler cured of HIV

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Toddler cured of HIV
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Researchers announced Sunday that a 2-year-old
Mississippi girl is the first child to be
"functionally cured" of HIV. A "functional cure"
is when the presence of the virus is so small,
lifelong treatment is not necessary and standard
clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the
blood. Researchers said they believe early
intervention -- in this case within 30 hours of
birth -- with three anti-viral drugs was key to
the outcome. The finding was announced at the
2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic
Infections in Atlanta. The unidentified girl was
born HIV-positive to a mother who received no
prenatal care and was not diagnosed as
HIV-positive herself until just before delivery.
Researchers say the only other documented case of
an HIV cure is that of Timothy Brown, the "Berlin
patient." In 2007, Brown, an HIV-positive
American living in Germany, was battling both
leukemia and HIV when he underwent a bone marrow
transplant that cured not only his cancer but his
HIV as well.
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In Other News

• A midnight car crash in New York killed two
  expectant parents who were heading to the
  hospital Sunday. But their baby was rescued from
  her dead mother's womb by Cesarean section and is
  in critical condition. Nathan and Raizy Glauber,
  both 21, were riding in a livery cab in Brooklyn.
  Another car, a BMW, crashed into the cab at an
  intersection, slamming into its side, at about
  1210 a.m. Sunday. The two occupants of the BMW
  fled the scene on foot and are being sought by
  police.
• A comet is expected to be visible for sky
  watchers in the Northern Hemisphere. Up first is
  Comet Pan-STARRS, which gets its name from the
  telescope credited with discovering it in June
  2001 the Panoramic Survey Telescope Rapid
  Response System in Hawaii. The comet is already
  visible through telescopes in the Southern
  Hemisphere, and it should swing into view over
  the Northern Hemisphere beginning around March 8.
  It's hard to predict exactly how bright
  Pan-STARRS will be, but you should be able to see
  it without binoculars or telescopes. It should
  be about as bright as the stars in the Big
  Dipper. About half an hour after sunset would be
  a good time for people take a look.
• President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate
  Gina McCarthy to be the next administrator of the
  Environmental Protection Agency and MIT physicist
  Ernest Moniz to lead the Energy Department.