Wonderful News to Start the Week: A Breakthrough in Treating AIDS?

Morning Jolt – March 4, 2013 By Jim Geraghty Here's your Monday Morning Jolt. Enjoy! Jim Wonderful News to Start the Week: A Breakthrough in Treating AIDS? This week begins with perhaps the very best of news . . . Doctors say they have cured an infant born with HIV for the first time by giving her a cocktail of drugs shortly after birth, a result that could point the way toward saving the lives of thousands more infected children. The baby, whose identity has been kept anonymous, began taking a regimen of AIDS drugs about 30 hours after she was born at a rural Mississippi hospital, doctors said today at medical meeting in Atlanta. At 18 months, the mother took the child off the medication. With no signs of the virus for 10 months, the infant was deemed "functionally cured," researchers said. HIV treatments can hold the disease at bay, though stopping the drugs can be a death sentence since it allows infected cells secreted within the immune system to re-emerge, spreading the virus anew. Administering the mix of drugs right after birth may have stopped the virus from forming hidden reservoirs. If confirmed in further studies, the approach could help cure some of the 300,000 children infected each year with the AIDS virus. "Some babies here in the U.S. and Western Europe, and an awful lot of babies in the developing world don't have the opportunity for prevention," said Hannah Gay, who treated the infant at the University of Mississippi in Jackson. "There would be scores of babies that would benefit if we can find a strategy for intervention that allows us to make this happen in other babies." Apparently the doctors themselves couldn't believe it at first: "My first thought was, 'oh my goodness. We have been treating an uninfected child," Gay told NBC News. "But I checked the records which confirmed she was, in fact, infected." Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, who also worked on the study, piled on with a battery of tests. Even a sensitive test called PCR, which can help find tiny bits of genetic material from a virus, couldn't detect any evidence of HIV. "What we did then was to get a group of collaborating laboratories together to apply ultra-sensitive testing and say 'can we detect any evidence of virus'," Luzuriaga says. They did eventually find pieces of genetic material from the virus. But Persaud has been unable to find any evidence of virus that can invade cells or replicate. "So the baby has remained off treatment. We are just watching and we will follow the baby and do additional testing." Now, of course, there's a catch . . . Researchers cautioned that the report on the baby girl involves just one patient, and the findings appear to have little immediate relevance to people who contract HIV as adults or adolescents and are almost always diagnosed and treated long after their initial infection. But if further study confirms that very early treatment can cure HIV-infected newborns, it could spur widespread use of such an aggressive regimen in babies born with HIV, nearly all of them in low- and middle-income countries. Shocking News: Dennis Rodman Meets with North Koreans! Also, Dennis Rodman Is Still Alive! This weekend was dominated by perhaps the very weirdest of news: In his first interview since returning to the U.S. from an unprecedented visit to North Korea last week, former NBA star Dennis Rodman said he bears a message for President Obama from the country's oppressive leader, Kim Jong Un. "He wants Obama to do one thing: Call him," Rodman told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week." "He said, 'If you can, Dennis -- I don't want [to] do war. I don't want to do war.' He said that to me." The athlete also offered Kim some diplomatic advice for potential future talks with President Obama. "[Kim] loves basketball. And I said the same thing, I said, 'Obama loves basketball.' Let's start there," Rodman said. Rodman's comments come just days after the basketball star shocked the world with an unexpected trip to Pyongyang, North Korea, becoming the first known American to publicly meet with the mysterious Kim since he assumed command of the totalitarian nation after the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il in 2011. This is one of those news stories I hate, because the news itself is so spectacularly absurd, it's almost impossible to mock. Almost. Boy, quite the "get" there, huh, George Stephanopolous? You advised Clinton and anchor Good Morning America, and now you have to treat the NBA's equivalent to Ruby Rhod like he's the second coming of Henry Kissinger. You know, back in 2008, we mocked Obama as a "celebrity." Now we've reached the point where guys who can't qualify for Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice are running around the world holding summits with the world's most dangerous men. It's enough to leave you yearning for the gravitas and seriousness of Jesse Jackson's freelance diplomacy. Next week, Scottie Pippin tries to talk down Bashar Assad, and Phil Jackson is supposed to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, because talking the Iranians out of their nuclear program will be easier than picking up the pieces of what's left of the Lakers after this year. You should have stuck it out with him, Carmen Electra! Anyone could have seen this man was going places! The entire bizarre spectacle left Bethany Mandel fuming: Upon leaving the country, Rodman promised that Kim would have a "friend for life" and declared that Kim Jong-un was an "awesome guy" and that his father and grandfather, other homicidal leaders of the country, were "great leaders." What could have prompted this effusiveness from Rodman? Despite the country's total lack of infrastructure, freedom and food supply, enormous shows and basketball matches were put together for Rodman, the Harlem Globetrotters and their entourage. It's not likely Rodman was aware of the dire situation for most North Koreans given that as he boarded his flight he tweeted about looking forward to meeting South Korean pop star Psy. Even as he was about to enter the country, Rodman couldn't differentiate between the poverty-striken North and the affluent and capitalist South. Many stories in the news media of the visit included reports of the human rights situation in the country. CNN's Wolf Blitzer declared Rodman achieved a "diplomatic triumph," however a report from his own network told a different story: It was unclear whether Rodman, who is accompanied by Globetrotters Bull Bullard, Buckets Blakes and Moose Weekes, will be taken to North Korea's countryside, where aid groups say malnutrition is rampant. According to Human Rights Watch, hundreds of thousands of people remain enslaved in prison camps, which are "notorious for horrific living conditions and abuse." It appears the North Koreans provided the group with "a feast" amidst a reported famine. She points out that the silver lining is that North Korea's brutality is back in the headlines again. One other upside? For once, we can't blame the Obama administration for going over and treating one of the world's most ruthless regimes as if they're hunky dory. Unlike some people we know . . . All in all, the trip represents an opportunity missed: Why couldn't the North Koreans keep Rodman? Finally, maybe this can all be chalked up to sleepless nights: "North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un is a new father after his wife secretly gave birth to a child that intelligence officials believe could emerge as the communist dynasty's fourth hereditary dictator." A Few Brief Recommendations of Who to Follow and Read . . . On a good day, with not too much work to do, I would find the time to read . . . Everything on NRO . . . Real Clear Politics, Weekly Standard, American Spectator, the Washington Free Beacon, and the Washington Examiner . . . The gang at Ricochet, the gang at Contentions, Erick Erickson and the gang at Red State, James Taranto,  Guy Benson and the gang at Townhall . . . Joel Pollack and the guys at Breitbart.com . . . Ace, Drew, Gabe Malor, and the rest of the gang at Ace of Spades . . . Ed Morrissey, Allahpundit, Jazz Shaw, Mary Katharine Ham, and the gang I can't link to at JustAboveWarmAir.com . . . Then check out the blogging and writing of Instapundit, Dr. Helen, Just One Minute, Q and O, Baseball Crank, Moe Lane, Mickey Kaus, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Melissa Clouthier, the secret project of Tabitha Hale that I don't know if I can talk about,  Jim Treacher, Misfit Politics, Naked DC, Legal Insurrection, Jen Rubin, Zero Hedge, Duchess Rebecca, Sister Toldjah, the Anchoress, Tony Katz, Dana Loesch, Stephen Green, Ed Driscoll, Jim Hoft, Sarah Rumpf, Andrew Malcolm, Steven Cook, Jon Gabriel, Liz Mair, Eli Lake, Maggie Thurber, Duane Lester, Ana Marie Cox,  James Pethokoukis, Toby Harnden, the guys at Protein Wisdom, Acculturated, Virginia Postrel, Kirsten Powers, Justin Hart, Revealing Politics, Bruce Carroll, Will Cain, Alexa Shrugged, The Lid, Neo-Neocon, and Frank J. . . . Listen to Jimmie Bise Jr.'s podcast, and finally get around to listening to the new one with Kristina Ribali . . . Then I would cruise around the states, checking Ralston Reports (Nevada), The Shark Tank (Florida), Bearing Drift (Virginia), Red Mass Group (Massachusetts), Save Jersey (New Jersey), Politics PA (Pennsylvania) . . . Then head onto Twitter and check out what's new with Politics of Amy, Nathan Wurtzel, Biased Girl, Dave Weigel, Cait Meisenheimer, Stevie J.West, Rick Wilson, Dina Fraioli, Katetharsis, Kurt Schlichter, Kurt Loder, Kevin Eder, AGConservative, Seton Motley, Richard Grenell, Patrick Ruffini, Sean Hackbarth, Soren Dayton, Mike Krempasky, Marshall Manson, Rob Bluey, Amelia Hamilton, Ed Frank, Ben Howe, Brittany Cohan, Chris Barron, Elizabeth "E" Crum, Lorie Byrd, BitterB, J.P. Freire, and my brother . . . . . . And believe it or not, I'm sure I'm forgetting some people. As you may guess, I don't have that many good days. ADDENDUM: Sean Trende notices, "Oh wow. Obama took a gainer in Gallup over the weekend, to 46/46. Friday's sample must've been brutal." Maybe the sequester cut his job approval by a lot more than 2 percent. Get all the latest news, 24/7, at www.NationalReview.com Save 75%... Subscribe to National Review magazine today and get 75% off the newsstand price. Click here for the print edition or here for the digital. National Review also makes a great gift! Click here to send a full-year of NR Digital or here to send the print edition to family, friends, and fellow conservatives. Conservatives – stay healthy! Get plenty of Vitamin Sea on the next National Review cruise. Visit www.NRCruise.com for complete information. National Review, Inc. Remove your email address from our list. We respect your right to privacy. View our policy. This email was sent by: National Review, Inc. 215 Lexington Avenue, 11th Floor New York, NY 10016 540