Wall Street Journal - October 21, 2003
Mark Ingebretsen

The results of the study, which appear in the journal Lancet, "Have boosted optimism that AIDS can be transformed from a killer disease into a chronic condition, like diabetes, that people could live with into old age," the Independent said.

That optimistic prognosis hails largely from treatment options called highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, that have been around since late 1996. And before HAART was widely used, about half of all patients died of the disease within 10 years.

But not all AIDS infections are alike. As the HealthDayNews article explained, the findings show: "People who catch the AIDS virus by using tainted drug needles are four times as likely to die over the next decade as those who acquire the infection through sex."

Lack of AIDS Drugs in Africa

In Africa, where access to life-saving AIDS drugs is sorely limited, the prognosis for those who contract HIV is quite different.

But drug companies recently announced that they have doubled shipments of AIDS medicines to Africa, the Straits Times said. Presently, "More than 76,300 Africans were receiving cut-price drugs from six pharmaceutical firms at the end of this June, compared to 35,500 in March last year," according to the article.

Nevertheless, that amount remains a tragic drop in the budget. The lead U.N. group spearheading the global fight against AIDS "estimates that 4.1 million Africans desperately need the treatments," the article said.

First-World Problems, Too

Even in industrialized nations that make AIDS drugs readily available, inadequate treatment of the disease can result in premature death.

In Canada, which boasts a universal health-care system, "One out of every three people who die of AIDS ... has never been treated with life-extending drugs, even though the much-touted cocktails have been available free of charge to all sufferers for more than a decade," the Globe and Mail wrote.

Molded Organs

If you let a pumpkin grow inside a mold, it will eventually fill almost all the allotted spaced and even take the shape of the mold itself. Perhaps gleaning a lesson from the pumpkin patch, scientists may someday grow human organs in a similar fashion.

MIT researchers "used a scaffold made out of a biodegradable polymer to encourage human embryonic stem cells to grow into" desired shapes, Scientific American reported.

Throughout the scaffold, the researchers also placed chemical cues intended to stimulate stem cells into differentiating into a specific cell type. "In addition, pores placed strategically within the scaffold influenced the direction in which the cells could grow," the article said.

The result was that the cells began to organize themselves into "primitive neural, cartilage or liver tissue" in the space of two weeks, the article added.

INDUSTRY VITALS

- In a development that could also lead to an effective SARS treatment, "A new drug that dampens the body's overzealous immune response to the deadliest strain of flu has shown good results in mice," the New Scientist reported.

- An implantable microchip in development may dispense medicine at required times and in the required amounts, the BBC said. The article cited practical applications for HIV patients "who have to take many different tablets at specific times each day" or for patients with dementia "who cannot remember when to take their drugs."

- Seventy percent of those responding to a recent poll said "it should be legal for Americans to buy prescription drugs outside the United States, according to an Associated Press story, which cited a CBS News-Washington Post poll. Moreover, "One in eight respondents said they or someone in their home has done just that."

- The U.S. military may be just a decade away from producing a battlefield laser weapon, according to the Oakland Tribune. "Instead of laser-guiding bullets and 'smart' bombs, the Pentagon ... could be armed with a beam weapon that is near-instantaneous, gravity-free and truly surgical, focusing to such hair-splitting accuracy that it could avoid civilians while predetonating munitions miles away."

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