Wonders:Second baby possibly ‘cured’ of HIV

(CNN) – The first time, it happened almost by accident.

Just hours after delivery, a baby born with HIV in Mississippi was given high doses of three antiretroviral drugs. More than three years later, doctors say the little girl has no evidence of the life-threatening disease in her blood, despite being off medication for nearly two years.

Now doctors say another child born with the virus appears to be free of HIV after receiving similar treatment. The case report was presented at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston this week.

The girl was delivered at Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, California, last summer to a mother with AIDS. Doctors gave the baby high doses of antiretroviral drugs — AZT, 3TC and Nevirapine — four hours after birth. Eleven days later, the virus was undetectable in her body and remained undetectable nine months later.

The California baby is still on antiretroviral treatment, so it’s too soon to tell if the child is actually in remission.

“Taking kids off antiretroviral therapy intentionally is not standard of care,” said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a virologist with Johns Hopkins Children’s Center who has been involved in both cases. “At this time, there is no plan to stop treatment.”

While doctors around the world are trying to duplicate the Mississippi case, more research needs to be done before new standards are implemented for treating babies born with HIV.

“This has to be done in a clinical trial setting, because really the only way we can prove that we’ve accomplished remission in these cases is by taking them off treatment, and that’s not without risks,” Persaud said during her presentation at the conference.

A clinical trial designed to test the effectiveness of this early treatment technique on infants born with HIV is set to begin in the next couple of months, she said.

The results could be a game changer in the fight against AIDS.

BIZZARE PHOTOS: Woman With Buble Skin Disorder Disowned By Family, Forced To Beg To Survive

A 46 year-old woman from Indonesia has been disowned by her family who are embarrassed by the rare skin condition.

A woman with bubble-like tumours across her body has fled her village after being disowned by her family.

She says all she hopes for is to fully recover so she can “be beautiful like most women.”

Sarotin, 46, from Indonesia, has suffered from the unsightly rare skin condition for three years and is forced to beg in order to make a living.

She has has a local government-funded operation to remove a 70.5kg tumour from her back but the condition is showing signs of growing back.

Half her face has been obscured by a tumour as well as hundreds of smaller ones covering her entire body.

Widowed Sarotin, who has four children, says she could not afford medical treatment in her home village in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.

Crazy:Home Jonathan’s adopted father’s kidnappers reject N30m offer

The kidnappers of Chief Inengite Nitabai, cousin of President Goodluck Jonathan, have rejected N30 million offered by the family for the release of the septuagenarian, our correspondent learnt.

The kidnappers had, last Friday, opened communication with the family and demanded N500 million ransom as a condition for the release of Nitabai, Jonathan’s adopted father.

The family did not hide their feelings by telling the captors that the demand was outrageous.

Since that Friday, it was learnt that the family had been in a quandary as to how to ‘appease’ the kidnappers to avoid them hurting or killing the victim.

Nitabai was kidnapped on Sunday, February 23, by unknown gunmen, suspected to number 10, and whisked them away in his private Sport Utility Vehicle to yet-to-be-ascertained destination.

A security source, who craved anonymity, told our correspondent that the kidnappers said the N30 million was too small.

He said, “The kidnappers were said to have described the N30 million offer by the family as a huge joke.

“They said it was ‘unpresidential’ to give such a paltry sum to them. What will N30 million amount to when shared by all the interested parties in the abduction.”

The rejection of the N30 million offer came on the heels of call by the Ijaw Youth Council on the family not to offer any ransom to the kidnappers.

The IYC said a three-man committee had been set up by the council to work with security agencies to fish out the kidnappers.

Spokesman for IYC, Eric Omare, who made this known after the inaugural meeting of the council at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa, said the identities of the three men would not be disclosed for security reasons as serious progress had been made to free the victim.

Omare said, “We have warned those concerned not to pay any ransom to the kidnappers because it (kidnapping) is a crime which the council is fighting against.

“Contacts have been established and we want to assure all that in no distance time the President’s uncle will be released.

“In consonance with the position of the IYC we have advised the relevant persons not to offer any ransom in order to effect the release of President’s uncle because if we offer ransom we are encouraging more kidnappings.

“IYC’s position is that criminality must be erased from Ijaw land, so we have told them not to offer any ransom, though he has not been released, we are very sure in the next few days or hours we would effect his (Nitabai’s) release.

PHOTOS: Teenager Caught Having SEX With Girlfriend’s Dog Avoids Jail

The girlfriend of a 19-year-old teenager found a video of her boyfriend, Wayne Bryson having sex with her four-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier named Rudi.

Amber Hickling, 18 had carried his phone to look for for some photos of their child when she found the disturbing footage and alerted police.

The footage showed the dog “shaking in a backwards and forwards motion.”
p, but to catch him shagging my dog was wrong on a different level. He could have been doing it all along and I only caught him because he taped it. I felt dirty just knowing he touched me after he could do something like that with my dog.”

She said she had gotten rid of the dog as she could not bear to look her in the eye.

Wayne Bryson,19, was however spared jail after he admitted committing the act.

Lagos Fuel Scarcity: Getting More Uglier By The Day

The current fuel scarcity in Lagos has increased overcrowding of commuters at the bus stops of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and LAGBUS.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the scarcity resulted in about 100 percent increase in transport fares charged by commercial buses.
This forced more commuters to opt for BRT and LAGBUS services.
BRT and LAGBUS are operated by the Lagos State Government. Their fares were not increased.
Some commuters now have to stand inside the luxury buses to be able to go to or return from work.
Some commuters, who spoke to NAN at various BRT and LAGBUS bus stops, said that they opted for the buses to avoid spending much on transportation.

Mr Shina Atolagbe said: “Everybody will want to save money. I am here because yellow (commercial) buses are scarce and their fares high.”
Another commuter, Miss Bola Fasanya, also said that she decided to go for LAGBUS because of the high fares charged by the few available commercial buses.
“It takes stamina to struggle to enter commercial buses. If you are not very strong, don’t go near nowadays, particularly in the rushing hours,” he said.
An apprentice on the Iyana- Ipaja- Ikeja route, Mr Fredrick Obiora, said: “I will not mind to stand; it is not easy to get into commercial buses.”
Obiora urged that the BRT and LAGBUS should increase their services to meet commuters’ needs.
A civil servant, Mr Adeyemi Akinronbi, said that increase in transport fares made many commuters to prefer LAGBUS services.
A commuter on the Mile 12-CMS route, Alhaja Iyabo Ibrahim, told NAN he had left his car at home.
“I left my car at home to patronise BRT because of fuel scarcity, although the long queue here is a cause for concern.”
Ibrahim noted that more passengers were standing inside the luxury buses than those sitting, expressing the worry that this resulted in poor ventilation.
Another commuter on the same route, who gave her name simply as Mrs Alonge, said it is “just like ‘molue’ because passengers who are standing are more than those sitting”.
A LAGBUS captain, who preferred anonymity, said that the fuel scarcity resulted in increased number of commuters at LAGBUS bus stops.
NAN reports that fuel scarcity hit the commercial centre in February due to alleged hoarding by marketers.

NAN

Wicked Father Rapes 13-Year Old Daughter Repeatedly

This is incredulous! what’s our workd turning into that a father will derive carnal pleasure in his own BLOOD daughter’s lap . God have mercy

A 13-year-old girl is now confined to a wheelchair after her 55-year-old father repeatedly raped her.

Narrating her ordeal, the girl said her she was locked up by her father in a room where he had multiple sex with her. He then threatened her that she’d die if she ever told anyone about the incident.

She said she kept the matter to herself until her mother who was at the time of the incident separated from her father came to her aid through the intervention of the Tema Main Harbour DOVVSU division.

According to the mother of the defiled victim, Eunice Otoo, after the ordeal, her daughter can no longer walk and is now confined to a wheel chair.

She also wears diapers constantly as she has been suffering urinary incontinence since the incident took place.