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This week a team of scientists and physicians from the U.K. published news of a second HIV positive man , in London, who is in long-term (18-month) HIV remission after undergoing treatment for Hodgkins lymphoma. The unexpected success has launched a new round of discussion about a potential cure for HIV. Since 2008, scientists have been trying to replicate the treatment that cured the “Berlin patient” of HIV. At the time, many in the field of HIV research were excited to learn that this man, who tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus in Berlin and had recently undergone treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, appeared to have been cured of his HIV. Until now, success in replicating that cure has been limited. What is HIV? HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. Since the virus was first discovered in the 1980s, more than 75 million people worldwide have been infected with HIV. Today, almost 37 million people live with HIV. Of these, about 1.1 million live in the U....

Researchers say a London man appears to be free of the AIDS virus after a stem cell transplant. It's the second such success including "Berlin patient" Timothy Ray Brown. Such transplants are dangerous and have failed in other patients. The new findings were published online Monday by the journal Nature. The London patient has not been identified. He was diagnosed with HIV in 2003. He developed cancer and agreed to a stem cell transplant to treat the cancer in 2016. His doctors found a donor with a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to HIV. The transplant changed the London patient's immune system, giving him the donor's HIV resistance.

With marijuana being legalised across North America, there is a changing perception that sees people believing that weed is the safest recreational drug . However, those assumptions are now challenged in an article in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology that examine the story of a patient who developed chest pain and myocardial ischemia after consuming most of a marijuana lollipop. Speaking about it, expert Alexandra Saunders said, " Marijuana can be a useful tool for many patients, especially for pain and nausea relief. At the same time, like all other medications, it does carry risk and side effects. In a recent case, inappropriate dosing and oral consumption of marijuana by an older patient with stable cardiovascular disease resulted in distress that caused a cardiac event and subsequent reduced cardiac function." According to the report, a 70-year-old man with stable coronary artery disease, taking appropriate cardiac medications at most of a lollipop infused with...

India saw a major reduction in the number of new HIV infections , AIDS-related deaths and people living with HIV from 2010 to 2017 on the back of sustained and focussed efforts, according to a UN report which warned that the epidemic was growing in Pakistan. The Joint UN Agency on AIDS (UNAIDS) report titled 'Miles to go closing gaps, breaking barriers, righting injustices' said Asia and the Pacific regions have made strong inroads with its HIV response. Sustained and focused efforts to reach key populations have led to major reductions in HIV infections in Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam between 2010 and 2017. The report, however, warned that the global new HIV infections were not declining fast enough. It also noted that the epidemics were expanding in Pakistan and the Philippines. ALSO READ: Cipla gains 3% post USFDA approval for its generic HIV drug In India, new HIV infections dropped from 120,000 in 2010 to 88,000 in 2017, AIDS-related...