Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
A Cure For HIV? One Child May Give The World Hope
The Washington Post: New Hope For HIV Cure As Child Remains Virus-Free Years After Final Treatment
A South African boy, believed to have been infected with HIV around the time of his birth, has remained free of the virus for 8½ years after early treatment — renewing hope among scientists that such outliers may hold clues to help end the decades-old epidemic. The case study, described by researchers before a presentation Monday at an international AIDS conference in Paris, suggests a paradigm shift in the treatment of those infected. It establishes that HIV may be controllable in some way other than a daily and lifelong regimen of antiretroviral drugs. (Cha, 7/24)
The New York Times: Companies Rush To Develop ‘Utterly Transformative’ Gene Therapies
The approval of gene therapy for leukemia, expected in the next few months, will open the door to a radically new class of cancer treatments. Companies and universities are racing to develop these new therapies, which re-engineer and turbocharge millions of a patient’s own immune cells, turning them into cancer killers that researchers call a “living drug.” One of the big goals now is to get them to work for many other cancers, including those of the breast, prostate, ovary, lung and pancreas. (Grady, 7/23)
NPR: Alternatives To Vaccination Shots Are In Development
News this summer of a flu vaccine patch sparked a lot of chatter. Could getting vaccinated be as easy as putting on a bandage? Could there be fewer, or at least smaller, needles in our future? Some companies and academic labs are working to make those things happen. (Columbus, 7/23)
The New York Times: Another Possible Indignity Of Age: Arrest
It was the sort of incident that happens at facilities that care for people with dementia. At a residence for older adults in San Francisco last summer, Carol King momentarily left a common sitting area. When Ms. King returned, she found that another resident had taken her chair, a nurse who witnessed the episode later reported. She grabbed the usurper’s wrist. (Span, 7/21)
NPR: Concussions May Hit Female Brains Harder, Research Suggests
Thanks to research on boxers and football players, both athletes and the public are becoming more aware of the dangers of sports-related head injuries. Yet there is little data on participants like Mazany. That's because, unlike the vast majority of athletes studied, she is a woman. "We classically have always known the male response to brain injury," says Mark Burns, at Georgetown University. But there have been remarkably few studies of females. The bias runs throughout the scientific literature, even in studies of mice. (Hamilton, 7/24)
NPR: Inflammation Can Be Bad For Your Health, Or Good
Chronic, low-level inflammation seems to play a role in a host of diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's, cancer and even depression. And even though the science on inflammation and disease is far from settled, tests and treatments are being promoted that claim to reduce that risk. (Hobson, 7/21)
The Washington Post: He Thought He Just Had Blisters From A Hike. He Had Flesh-Eating Bacteria And Nearly Died.
Wayne Atkins thought little of the blisters he had gotten while hiking. He was trekking up and down the 4,500-foot-high Mount Garfield in New Hampshire — 10-miles round-trip — and blisters were no surprise. He was in the Granite State for a family member's early June wedding, which went off without a hitch, even with the blisters. But things soured when he returned to Miami, according to Manchester, N.H., ABC affiliate WMUR-TV. (Wootson, 7/23)
