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news without borders
Bone marrow transplant suppresses AIDS in patient
BERLIN: A bone marrow
transplant using stem cells from
a donor with natural genetic
resistance to the AIDS virus has
kept an HIV patient free of infection
for nearly two years, German
researchers said on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old patient,
an American living in Berlin,
was infected with the human
immunodeficiency virus that
causes AIDS and also had
leukaemia. The best treatment for
the leukaemia was a bone marrow
Detained Taiwanese
ex-president stops eating
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s former president
Chen Shui-bian has not eaten since
being detained over a corruption
probe in protest at what he insists
is a politically-motivated investiga-
tion, his lawyer said yesterday.
Chen, whose pro-independence
stance in office set him against
Beijing, has repeatedly accused the
island’s China-friendly government of
being behind allegations of embez-
zlement, money laundering, taking
bribes and forgery.
Chen has only drunk water
since entering a detention centre
early Wednesday and has not eaten
a proper meal since last night, lawyer
Cheng Wen-long said.
“He intends to stop eating in pro-
test,” Cheng told reporters after visit-
transplant, which takes the stem
cells from a healthy donor’s
immune system to replace the
patient’s cancer-ridden cells.
Dr Gero Hutter and Thomas
Schneider of the Clinic for
Gastroenterology, Infections and
Rheumatology of the Berlin Charite
hospital said the team sought a
bone marrow donor who had a
genetic mutation known to help the
body resist AIDS infection.
The mutation affects a receptor,
a cellular doorway called CCR5,
ing the former leader, who he said
was “in an okay condition now”.
A court ordered the politician locked
up Wednesday, capping 24 hours of
high drama that saw Chen led away
in handcuffs, taken to hospital after
saying he had been beaten by police,
and then finally put behind bars.
Chen, the first former Taiwanese
leader to be arrested, faces allegations
of embezzling T$15 million (RM1.6 mil-
lion) while in office. However, he is yet
to be charged.
Other members of his family have
also been implicated in alleged corrup-
tion, among them Chen’s son-in-law,
who yesterday had his seven-year jail
term and a fine of T$30 million (RM3.2
million) for insider trading upheld by
Taiwan’s High Court. – AFP
that the AIDS virus uses to get into
the cells it infects.
The bone marrow used not only
caused the leukemia disappear, but
also the HIV.
“As of today, more than 20
months after the successful
transplant, no HIV can be detected
in the patient,” the clinic said in a
statement.
“But we cannot exclude the
possibility that it’s still there,”
Schneider told a news conference.
The researchers stressed
Nude ‘anything goes’
party in Australia
CANBERRA: An Australian resort will
hold a month-long, nude “anything goes”
party to combat an expected economic
downturn, media reports said yesterday.
“Tough economic times call for stiff
measures,” Tony Fox, the owner of the
White Cockatoo resort in Mossman, in
tropical Queensland state, told the Courier-
Mail. “It will be a hedonism resort, where
anything goes for a month,” he said, nam-
ing March as the risque party month.
The controversial “clothes optional”
resort made headlines three years ago
when police were called to end partner-
swapping parties after a swathe of public
complaints.
“You’ve got to wonder what sort of
people go and why. Where is the moral
code of behaviour and how do you stop
jealousies and fights?” Cairns Catholic
Bishop James Foley said after Fox’s
announcement.
But local regional Mayor Val Schier
that this would never become a
standard treatment for HIV. Bone
marrow stem cell transplants
are rigorous and dangerous and
require the patient to first have
his or her own bone marrow
completely destroyed.
Patients risk death from even
the most minor infections because
they have no immune system
until the stem cells can grow and
replace their own.
HIV has no cure and is always
fatal. Cocktails of drugs can keep
said she was not opposed to the event
as long as no laws were broken.
Australia’s tourism industry is being
hit hard by global economic turmoil with
figures showing a 7.6% decline in over-
seas visitors in September. – Reuters
Bomb wounds 15
in Bangkok slum
BANGKOK: At least 15 Thai market
traders were wounded yesterday
when a bomb was thrown into a camp
in Bangkok where they were staging
a protest vigil against attempts to
evict them, police said.
The explosion took place at 2am
(3am in Malaysia) at Klong Toey mar-
ket, next to the capital’s biggest slum,
where about 300 protesters were
demonstrating against new manage-
ment of the site. Two people suffered
serious injuries, Bangkok police said.
The attack did not appear to be
linked to an anti-government protest
movement that has occupied Govern-
theSun | FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14 2008
the virus suppressed, sometimes to
undetectable levels. But research
shows the virus never disappears
– it lurks in so-called reservoirs
throughout the body.
“The virus is tricky. It can
always return,” Hutter said.
The CCR5 mutation is found
in about 3% of Europeans, the
researchers said. They said the
study suggests that gene therapy,
a highly experimental technology,
might someday be used to help
treat patients with HIV. – Reuters
ment House here since late August,
where there have been a series of small
bombings in recent weeks. – AFP
US trails in chronic
illness care
WASHINGTON: Chronically ill Ameri-
cans are more likely to forgo medical
care because of high costs or experi-
ence medical errors than patients in
other affluent countries, a study released
yesterday said.
The study comparing the experiences
of patients in eight nations reflected
poorly on the US health care system as
President-elect Barack Obama and his al-
lies work on plans to rein in health costs
and extend insurance to more people.
Researchers questioned 7,500 adults
in Australia, Canada, France, Germany,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and
the US. Each had at least one of seven
chronic conditions – high blood pressure,
heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, can-
cer, arthritis and depression. – Reuters