Mississippi Baby: First Successful HIV Treatment

   March 3, 2013 --- The day before Yesterday when a team of researchers lead by Dr. Deborah Persaud a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Public the details of first ever successful cured case of an infant born with HIV Positive using the standard Protocol without any surgery. Yes, Ladies and gentlemen, this is a ground breaking news if the baby stays negative for HIV virus in times to come. This is a clear indication that HIV can be (is) potentially curable in infants if proper treatment is provided at the right time.
   The cured baby, also known as 'Mississippi baby' now, was born in July 2010 in a rural hospital of Mississippi. Her mother was tested positive for HIV infection. Because her mother had not received any prenatal HIV treatment, doctors knew the child was at high risk of infection. They transferred her to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where she came under the care of Dr. Hannah Gay, a paediatric HIV specialist.
   As the risk of baby suffering from HIV was too high so Dr. Hannah Gay put the Baby girl on a cocktail of three HIV-fighting drugs - zidovudine (also known as AZT), lamivudine, and nevirapine - when she was just 30 hours old. The next day baby's blood was sent for tests for the confirmation of presence of HIV Virus which came out Positive. The baby girl was kept on the full treatment regimen afterward. Remember, In usual cases of infants suffering from HIV, newly born is only given one drug Nevirapine, unlike Mississippi baby. Researchers believe use of the more aggressive antiretroviral treatment when the child was just days old likely resulted in her cure by keeping the virus from forming hard-to-treat pools of cells known as viral reservoirs, which lie dormant and out of the reach of standard medications.
   After starting on treatment, the baby's immune system responded and tests showed diminishing levels of the virus until it was undetectable 29 days after birth. The baby received regular treatment for 18 months, but then stopped coming to appointments for a period of about 10 months, when her mother said she was not given any treatment. When the child came back under the care of Dr. Gay, she ordered standard blood tests to see how the child was faring before resuming antiviral therapy What she found was surprising. Both the blood test did not turn up any detectible levels of HIV.
   Dr. Gay was shocked with the results and she knew she was dealing with an unknown situation. So she along with her long-time colleague Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts carried out detailed and sophisticated lab tests and Results of complete cure was confirmed and made Public.
   This is a first case of a patient cured by Standard Protocol using Anti retroviral therapy/drugs. The other known case of curing HIV also exists with the name of 'Berlin Patient', a patient named Timothy Brown in 2006-07. But in that case a complicated, high risk, and expensive stem-cell transplant was done which completely cured his HIV disease without any bouncing back!
   This 'Mississippi Baby' case can and will prove helpful in coming times in treating HIV in adults by studying the different behaviours of an infant and an adult, and in stopping the Mother-to-Baby transmission as far as possible.


 --ZQ.

Love - Medical/Chemical Basis

Love - an intense, universal and immensely intriguing emotion that
knows no barriers of time, geography, race, sex and culture, is a
famous expression of profound affection, caring and attachment.
Eulogized as life’s driving force and clichéd as ‘making the world
go round’ or ‘doing strange things to people’, it is famously known
to blind those it envelops!
This mind boggling emotion is versatile too as it fits in different
contexts – As much as ‘love’ can imply fondness for an object, it
can also be used to express profound feelings in a relationship. One
can also love his fellow beings, or passionately love a cause!

Love can be Romantic, Platonic and Interpersonal.
Romantic love involves intense Physical attraction between the
lovers. Love which is devoid of romantic or sexual overtones, for
instance love between friends is considered a platonic form of love.
Interpersonal love is more like a bonding between family members or
a deep attachment between a mother and her child!

Why we love?
The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger
for bread. ~ Mother Teresa.


Chemical Basis
Hormones and Neurotransmitters controlling the Feelings of love
include Serotonin, Oxytocin, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Oxytocin, and
Vasopressin. These are released by Brain's pleasure centers which
are activated during the development of Intense feelings of love for
someone.
Other hormones like Testosterone and Estrogen have important and
central role in Lust.

Serotonin:
Chemically, the serotonin effects of being infatuated have a similar
chemical appearance to obsessive-compulsive disorder; which could
explain why people experiencing infatuation cannot think of anyone
else. For this reason some, anthropologists assert that taking SSRIs
(Compounds that increase Serotonin amount) and other antidepressants
impede one's ability to fall in love.

The Hormone of Love – Oxytocin:
Oxytocin, now dubbed as the ‘hormone of love’, or the ‘cuddle
hormone’ is a chemical produced by the hypothalamus in the brain and
released by the pituitary gland, in response to certain
environmental triggers such as stimulation of the cervix during sex,
skin to skin contact, during childbirth or even during nipple
stimulation in lactating women. The testes of men and ovaries of
women also produce this hormone.
   Oxytocin is directly responsible for ‘pair bonding’ - the bonding
between mothers and infants, or between males and females.
   Perhaps the best from oxytocin is its role in defining maternal
behaviour (Interpersonal love). Research has linked the origin of
maternal behaviour to this love hormone.

Those who thought ‘Love’ is beyond the realm of science and reason
might need to rethink. It is clear, the ‘out of the world
experience’, Love, is not beyond the human brain. Rightly, falling
in love is just a matter of chemistry!

So you still think we can't fall in Love more than once? ;)


(Article based on Famous Anthropologist Helen Fisher's Research.)