Another Person Seems To Have Beaten HIV With Their Own Immune System

Stat: Scientists Report Finding A Second Person ‘Naturally’ Cured Of HIV 
One evening in March 2020, a doctor walked out of a hospital in the Argentine city of Esperanza cradling a styrofoam cooler. He handed it to a young man who’d been waiting outside for hours, who nestled it securely in his car and sped off. His destination, a biomedical research institute in Buenos Aires, was 300 miles away, and he only had until midnight to reach it. That day, while his sister was inside the hospital giving birth to her first child, Argentina’s president had ordered a national lockdown to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, including strict controls on entering and leaving the nation’s capital. If the brother didn’t make it, the contents of the cooler — more than 500 million cells from his sister’s placenta — would be lost, along with any secrets they might be holding. (Molteni, 11/15)

CNN: A Second HIV Patient May Have Been 'Cured' Of Infection Without Treatment 
Researchers say they have found a second patient whose body seemingly had rid itself of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS -- supporting hope that it may be possible someday to find a way to cure more people of the virus. The patient has received no treatment for her infection but is a rare "elite controller" of the virus who, eight years after she was first diagnosed, shows no signs of active infection and shows no signs of intact virus anywhere in her body, researchers reported Monday. This has only happened once before. (Howard, 11/16)

NBC News: Woman’s Own Immune System Has Possibly Cured Her Of HIV
A woman in Argentina has become only the second documented person whose own immune system may have cured her of HIV. Researchers have dubbed the 30-year-old mother, who was first diagnosed with HIV in 2013, the “Esperanza patient,” after the town in Argentina where she lives. In English, “esperanza” means “hope.” (Ryan, 11/15)

On depression —

Axios: Increased Depression Ups Heart Risk 
Nearly 40% of patients reported new or continuing symptoms of depression in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic — a problem that could lead to increases in future physical health problems, according to a new study by Intermountain Healthcare. The study, presented this weekend at American Heart Association's virtual 2021 Scientific Session, warns that the uptick could be linked to future increases in heart concerns. (Reed, 11/15)

CIDRAP: Depressed Patients Visited ED More Often For Anxiety, Chest Pain In Pandemic
Researchers at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City examined 4,633 patients who completed a routine depression screening before (Mar 1, 2019, to Feb 29, 2020) and during (Mar 1, 2020, to Apr 20, 2021) the pandemic.Nearly 40% of patients said they had new or continuing depression symptoms in the first year of the pandemic. Among depressed patients, screening scores were higher during rather than before the pandemic. The odds of visiting an ED for treatment of anxiety was 2.8 times higher for depressed versus nondepressed patients and 1.8 times higher for anxiety accompanied by chest pain. (11/15)

Also —

Fox News: New Study Gives Hope For Treatment Of PBC, The Silent Liver Disease
Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) is an autoimmune disease where the small bile ducts of the liver become inflamed. The disease often goes undetected, potentially leading to scarring and cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure, and possibly death, hepatologists told Fox News. Patients with advanced stages of the disease who do not respond to other therapies may require a liver transplant, liver disease experts said. However, a recent report shows new hope for treatment. "PBC is a serious silent liver disease often misdiagnosed because of lack of knowledge in the medical community," Douglas Dieterich, M.D., a liver disease specialist and professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explained to Fox News in an interview. (McGorry, 11/15)

Stat: A Path Forward For Trusted AI In Breast Cancer Risk Prediction
As the role of artificial intelligence grows in medicine, one of the leading concerns is that algorithmic tools will perpetuate disparities in care. Because AIs are trained on health records reflecting current standards of care, they could end up parroting bias baked into the medical system if not carefully designed. And if algorithms aren’t trained and tested on data from diverse populations, they could be less effective when used to guide care for poorly-represented subsets of patients. So some AI development groups are tackling that problem head on, training and testing their algorithms on diverse patient data to ensure they can apply to a wide range of patients — long before they’re deployed in the wild. (Palmer, 11/16)

CIDRAP: Global Survey Shows More Countries Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance
A growing number of countries are making commitments to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed progress and much work remains, according to the latest global survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). While a record number of countries (163) responded to the latest Tripartite AMR country self-assessment survey, more than 90% reported that the pandemic has impeded development and implementation of national plans to address AMR. (Dall, 11/15)

CIDRAP: Female Docs 30 Times More Likely To Manage Childcare Amid COVID: Survey
Physician mothers were more likely than physician fathers to be responsible for childcare, schooling, and household chores; work mostly from home; reduce their work hours; have work-family conflicts; and have symptoms of depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey-based study published late last week in JAMA Network Open. The study, led by University of Michigan at Ann Arbor researchers, involved 276 US physicians enrolled in the Intern Health Study, which assessed stress and depression in their first year of residency and who completed an online follow-up survey in August 2018 and again 2 years later. (Van Beusekom, 11/15)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Science Explains The Differences In Aging Between Men And Women
Consider 100 baby boys and 100 baby girls born in 1950. Experts predict that 46 of the men and 61 of the women — a third more — will still be alive at age 80 in 2030. Even Steven Austad, an expert on aging at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, didn’t give statistics like that much thought until about 10 years ago. Everyone knew that women outlived men. He figured it was just because men had more heart disease. (Burling, 11/15)

Axios: BioNTech Sets Sights On Cancer 
BioNTech, the German biotech that gained global attention for its partnership with Pfizer on a COVID-19 vaccine, has turned its attention back to one of its earlier mRNA targets: cancer. CEO Uğur Şahin presented new cell therapy data at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer conference in D.C. over the weekend. "We have a blueprint now for infectious disease vaccines," Sahin told a gathering of reporters about the impact the COVID vaccine development had on the future of mRNA technology. (Reed, 11/15)