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LITI VILLAGE, China – Li Xiaokai died of kidney failure on the old wooden bed in the family farmhouse, just before dawn on a drizzly Sept. 10.

Her grandmother wrapped the 9-month-old in a wool blanket. Her father handed the body to village men for burial by a muddy creek. The doctors and family never knew why she got sick. A day later, state media reported that the type of infant formula she drank had been adulterated with an industrial chemical.

Yet the deaths of Xiaokai and at least four other babies are not included in China’s official death toll from its worst food safety scare in years. The Health Ministry’s count stands at only three deaths.

The stories of these uncounted babies suggest that China’s tainted milk scandal has exacted a higher human toll than the government has so far acknowledged. Without an official verdict on the deaths, families worry they will be unable to bring lawsuits and refused compensation.

So far, nobody is suggesting large numbers of deaths are being concealed. But so many months passed before the scandal was exposed that it’s likely more babies fell sick or died than official figures reflect.

Beijing’s apparent reluctance to admit a higher toll is reinforcing perceptions that the authoritarian government cares more about tamping down criticism than helping families. Lawyers, doctors and reporters have said privately that authorities pressured them to not play up the human cost or efforts to get compensation from the government or Sanlu, the formula maker.

“It’s hard to say how the government will handle this matter,” said Zhang Xinkui, a Beijing-based lawyer amassing evidence of the contamination for a possible lawsuit. “There may be many children who perhaps died from drinking Sanlu powdered milk or perhaps from a different cause. But there’s no system in place to find out.”

In the weeks since Xiaokai’s death, her father and his older brother have talked to lawyers and beseeched health officials, with no result.

“My heart is in pain,” said her father, Li Xiaoquan, a short, taciturn farmer with hooded eyes. From a corner of his farmhouse courtyard in central China’s wheat and corn flatlands, he pulls a worn green box that once held apples and is now stuffed with empty pink wrappers of the Sanlu Infant Formula Milk Powder that Xiaokai nursed on. “We think someone, the company, should compensate us.”

In coal-mining country 450 miles to the northwest, Tian Xiaowei waits for his wife to leave the newly built house before removing five small photos of a wide-eyed baby boy from a brown plastic document folder. “She breaks down when she sees them,” Tian said. The photos are the only mementos left of year-old Tian Jin, who died in August.

“I want these people who poisoned the milk powder to receive the severest punishment under law. I want an explanation and I want consolation for my dead child,” said Tian, a broad-shouldered apple farmer and part-time truck driver. “I feel like we could die from regret. If we knew that it was contaminated, we would never have fed him that.”

Since September, when the scandal was first reported, Beijing has said that Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co., the dairy, knew as early as last year that its products were tainted with melamine and that company and local officials first tried to cover it up.

The government has promised free medical treatment to the 50,000 children sickened, and unspecified compensation to them and families of the dead. The Health Ministry, which is coordinating the government’s response, declined to answer questions about the compensation plan and whether it was investigating deaths and illnesses not yet counted by the government.

Melamine, a chemical used as a flame retardant and binding agent to make cooking utensils and industrial coatings, is rich in nitrogen. As such, it makes an attractive low-cost additive to milk and other foods; nitrogen registers as protein on many routine tests.

Though melamine is not believed harmful in tiny amounts, higher concentrations produce kidney stones, which can block the ducts that carry urine from the body, and in serious cases can cause kidney failure.

All eight babies who died were diagnosed with kidney failure, according to the families, medical records or state media accounts. All also supposedly drank Sanlu infant formula or powdered milk.

The fathers of Li Xiaokai and Tian Jin both wave inch-thick sheaves of medical reports and tests from their children’s stays in hospitals. Xiaokai, a twin older than her sister Xiaoyan by three minutes, was fed with Sanlu formula while the younger girl nursed on breast milk because their mother did not have enough for both, family members said.

An ultrasound examination of Xiaokai’s kidneys at the Zhengzhou Children’s Hospital on Aug. 21 found a stone in each kidney that was about the size of a small marble and 2 1/2 times larger than what doctors consider a critical threshold.

Tian Xiaowei, the apple farmer, sent bags of Sanlu infant formula to a government laboratory in September. The Xi’an Product Quality Supervision Institute’s report, dated Oct. 8, found melamine levels of 1,748 milligrams per kilogram, more than 800 times the government-set limit.

Then there’s Wang Siyu, the daughter of an accountant and proprietor of an Internet cafe in the central city of Shangqiu. Siyu was fed Sanlu products from birth and developed recurring kidney problems in May last year, at age 3, said her mother, Li Songmei.

Twice hospitalized, she was taken off Sanlu milk and started to recover, only to fall ill again when the family began to give her Sanlu products, Li said. Sick for a third time and swollen, she died of kidney failure at the Zhengzhou Children’s Hospital on May 2, said Li.

“Ever since she was born, she had been using Sanlu milk. Only when she felt sick and couldn’t eat did she stop taking Sanlu,” said Li.

Others among the five include an infant in far western Xinjiang province, whose story was posted on the provincial government Web site, and a 6-month-old boy in southeastern Jiangxi province, reported by the New Legal Daily. A reporter who worked on the article and would give only his surname, Liu, said the newspaper was careful not to blame Cai Cong’s death on Sanlu formula because “the local government has not yet reached a verdict.”

Medical experts say kidney stones in infants are rare. Doctors in several parts of China first noticed a rise in cases in the past two years. Pediatric urologist Feng Dongchuan tried to sound an alarm, posting an item on his blog in July about a spike in cases at his hospital in the central city of Xuzhou and in nearby Nanjing city. Feng pinpointed infant formula as the likely cause.

Feng at first refused requests for interviews, then responded in a terse e-mail: “The chance for infants or small children to come down with kidney stones is very small, and having stones that obstruct both kidneys is even more rare.”

Like the others, the Li family grew distressed when Xiaokai started to become fussy in July. With their two-acre farm in Liti Village, her parents never had much money and already had a child, a son. But they wanted a larger family, bucking the one-child family planning limits. Xiaokai was “the more active” of the twins, said her 70-year-old grandmother, Li Xuan.

By August, Xiaokai was running a high fever, unabated by ever higher doses of medicine. Alarmed after she stopped eating and urinating, the family took her to the nearby Runnan county hospital on Aug. 18. The doctors diagnosed kidney failure and rushed her overnight by ambulance to Zhengzhou Children’s Hospital, three hours away and the best in Henan province.

“They knew right away,” said the father, Li. Xiaokai was run through tests and put on intravenous solutions to try to shrink the kidney stones. Unable to stay with her or afford a hotel, Li and his mother slept on the pavement outside the hospital. After five days, the hospital said it could do no more.

“The doctors wouldn’t operate because they said ’she’s too small,’” said Li. They suggested taking Xiaokai to Beijing or Shanghai. Hospital officials declined comment and refused to make Xiaokai’s doctor available.

The hospital stay in Zhengzhou cost 7,331 yuan, or $1,070 – about a year’s cash income for the family – and they had already borrowed money to pay for Xiaokai’s care.

So Li brought Xiaokai home to die. They took her to a traditional medicine doctor in the village, who gave her an herbal medicine and confirmed the grim prognosis. “The old doctor told us ‘the child will die in 10 to 18 days,’” Li said.

Early on Sept. 10 while it was still dark, the grandmother called Li into the side room where she and Xiaokai slept. “Her stomach was puffy” – a sign of kidney failure – “and she wasn’t breathing,” he said.

In many parts of north China, the death of a child is considered a misfortune that can bring bad luck on a family and is best suppressed. Accordingly, Li Haiqin, a cousin, and three other men took Xiaokai to a creek on the far side of the village fields. They put a brick in the blanket with the body and placed it in a shallow hole under a path between rows of poplar trees. Then they walked back in silence beneath a gray dawn and a light rain. No close family members were there and none was told where the grave is.

Xiaokai’s family says Beijing had waived regular inspections of Sanlu because its quality controls were said to be excellent. “The government should shoulder its responsibility. This was a national brand, inspection-exempt products,” said Xiaokai’s uncle, Li Shenyi.

Since the death, Li Shenyi approached the Runnan county Health Bureau to classify Xiaokai’s death as caused by tainted formula. “They said the upper levels (of government) were working on it,” he said.

The county health bureau referred calls to its supervisors in Zhumadian city, who said ultimately it was up to Beijing.

“Right now, the Health Ministry has no clear explanation on how the victim’s families should be compensated,” said a Ms. Shang at the Zhumadian Health Bureau’s medical affairs office. “Nobody knows.”

Source

LONDON – Singer Rod Stewart headlined a star-studded bash for Prince Charles’ birthday party Saturday in England.

The pop star – known for songs such as “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” and “Maggie May” – performed at a party given by Charles’ wife, Camilla, at their Highgrove estate home in southwest England.

It is the third celebration in a week for the prince, who turned 60 on Friday.

His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, held a dinner party and concert at Buckingham Palace on Thursday. And on Friday, the prince was honored with a 41-gun salute in London’s Hyde Park and a celebration with young people sponsored by his charity.

Comedian Rowan Atkinson, known to most as “Mr. Bean,” was among the first guests to arrive. Others included actresses Dame Judi Dench and Joanna Lumley, as well as Camilla’s former husband, Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles.

Britain’s Press Association reported that Charles’ sons, princes William and Harry, stayed overnight at Highgrove. It said their girlfriends, Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy, also put in an appearance at the party on Saturday.      Source

NEW YORK – Climbing Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro is no weekend hike, and the “Today” show’s Ann Curry was feeling it on Saturday.

The NBC reporter was sent on assignment for the popular morning show’s “Ends of the Earth” feature, which begins Monday. The program’s four chief personalities will embark on lengthy road trips to illustrate environmental stories.

“This is like climbing a Stairmaster for six hours a day with 20 pounds on your back,” Curry said in a telephone interview from her tent following Saturday’s climb.

She’s hardly an experienced climber. The last mountain she scaled was half the size, and she did it while in college, said Curry, who turns 52 on Wednesday. She learned of the assignment only three weeks ago, giving her little time to train.

Her climb is plotted out so that if she does make it to the summit of the 19,000-plus-foot Tanzanian mountain, it will be shown during Friday’s edition of “Today.”

“To be honest with you, I’m not sure I’m going to make it to the top,” she said. “But all the pain and suffering is worth it because of the incredible vistas all around me.”

The mountain made famous in Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” was selected by “Today” because that snow is shrinking, said Jim Bell, the show’s executive producer. There’s concern that, because of environmental conditions, the mountain’s glaciers could disappear.

“I miss my family,” said Curry, whose clothes were clammy and wet from a rainstorm Saturday. “And also warm showers. And I could really use a stiff drink.”

“Today” is sending Meredith Vieira to Australia to report on drought and Al Roker to geologically active Iceland. Matt Lauer, who already globe-trotted this spring for the “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” segment, will be exploring the natural beauty of Belize.    Source

NEW YORK – The same kind of deep brain stimulation used to treat some patients for Parkinson’s disease also helped a few people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, French scientists reported.

Their study involved only 16 patients, but in four of them, symptoms nearly disappeared. However, many patients had serious side effects, including one case of bleeding in the brain.

The treatment involved an experimental brain pacemaker, and it reduced repetitive thoughts and behaviors in some of the patients – just as it blocks tremors for some Parkinson’s sufferers.

The researchers came up with the approach after noticing that two Parkinson’s patients who got the treatment also saw an improvement to their obsessive-compulsive disorders. Other small studies have targeted a different part of the brain for that disorder and depression.

In the French study, symptoms were reduced more than 25 percent, the researchers said.

The results are “very encouraging,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Luc Mallet of Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris. In an e-mail, he said the procedure should be used only in medical studies at the moment because of the possible side effects.

The findings are reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

About 2.2 million American adults have obsessive-compulsive disorder. It involves recurring, unwanted thoughts, such as a fear of germs, and people who have it engage in rituals such as repeatedly washing their hands or checking on something again and again.

Standard treatment, antidepressants and psychotherapy, doesn’t work in everyone. The patients in the French study were severe cases who didn’t respond well to treatment.

All had surgery to have the pacemaker – similar to a heart pacemaker – implanted in their chest and connected to electrodes inserted into their brains. Each patient had the pacemaker turned on for three months and turned off for three months. Neither the patients nor their doctors knew when the device was on or off.

The researchers used different tests to measure changes in symptoms. In one evaluation, after three months of stimulation, the severity of symptoms overall had dipped to 19 on a 40-point scale, compared to a score of 28 after three months of no treatment.

Eleven patients had serious side effects; one had bleeding in the brain and two had infections from the surgery. For some patients, the stimulation resulted in a mild form of mania and other problems that went away when adjustments were made.

Mallet said the area of the brain they targeted – the subthalamic nucleus – deals with motion, thinking and emotion. Previous studies for obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, focused on regions involving mood and anxiety, he said.

“We’re still not exactly sure where the sweet spot is in the brain to reduce the symptoms of OCD,” said Dr. Wayne Goodman, a psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health. “Even if you think you’re in the right neighborhood, you may be one block off. And one block off in the brain may be just 1 millimeter.”

Goodman said he was initially alarmed by the serious side effects but noted that many were temporary and others were not unexpected. He said the challenge will be deciding whether the risks are worth it for individual patients.

Another French researcher, Dr. Antoine Pelissolo, said the patients in the study, who now all have their pacemakers turned on, are still being followed. Researchers are also testing stimulating two areas of the brain at the same time, he said.

The pacemakers used in the study were bought from Medtronic Inc., which had no role but paid for the researchers’ meetings. Some of the scientists have received consulting fees and grants from Medtronic.    Source

Montecito is home to the rich and famous, but it’s not flashy. It’s exclusive, but not haughty. And it’s far enough from the sprawl of Los Angeles for comfort – while still close enough for convenience.

People who live in this enclave tucked between the Pacific Ocean and the mountains call it a paradise, one that has long drawn old money and, in recent years, flush celebrities.

Among them are Oprah Winfrey and Rob Lowe, Montecito neighbors who commiserated by phone Friday during the taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” While the homes of each had apparently escaped damage as of Friday evening, they talked at length about their friends and neighbors who weren’t so lucky.

“It started last night and so far it’s been reported that as many as 100 homes have been destroyed,” Winfrey said. “A lot of them are friends and neighbors of mine so it’s not a good morning for us. … Some of my friends left their homes with only their dogs last night as I was calling, ‘Are you all right? Are you all right?’ They said, ‘We have the dogs and the kids aren’t here so we’re OK.’”

At least part of Christopher Lloyd’s property was damaged in the fire, the Los Angeles Times reported on its real estate blog. It said a Times reporter witnessed much of the “Back to the Future” actor’s eight-acre grounds in ruins, and that he was filming on location in Vancouver but a caretaker had fled the property. Lloyd’s agent had no comment Friday when contacted by The Associated Press, and messages left with his manager were not returned.

Winfrey was at a safe distance in Chicago, but Lowe recounted a harrowing experience from the night before as the flames rushed around his home. He said he and his son were watching football when his wife, who was out running errands, alerted him to the approaching blaze with just minutes to spare.

“I’m very lucky,” he said. “My house is fine. … and I believe both of my friends’ houses survived.”

Residents extolled Montecito’s charms Friday, even as the Santa Barbara County community surrendered a swath of its multimillion-dollar homes to a brutal wildfire.

“It’s very expensive, very dramatic. It’s like the coast of Monte Carlo,” with a perfect Mediterranean climate, said longtime real estate agent Bill Vaughan, who pegged the median value of homes – despite the ongoing slump in housing prices – at $2 million.

Lush stands of oak and eucalyptus trees give a wooded accent to Montecito, Vaughan noted, as well as increase the fire danger. About 10,000 people live in the community, he said.

Families from the East Coast with industrial fortunes long ago discovered the area’s allure, to be joined later by stars who found a pocket of luxury and seclusion not far from the Los Angeles-based entertainment industry.

Jeff Bridges, Ellen DeGeneres, John Cleese and Michael Douglas are among those who live in the area or once owned homes there. Heather Locklear was driving in the area in September when she was pulled over for driving erratically and arrested. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver have purchased a 25-acre tract for $4.7 million.

“If I were an autograph hound I’d have a nice thick book,” said Debbie Ousey, owner of Tom’s Montecito Coffee Shop. But when Lowe or comedian Jonathan Winters or other famous folk stop in, they can be sure they won’t be pestered by fans, she said.

Montecito also has a sense of camaraderie and community spirit that belies its wealthy profile, she said.

“It’s really pretty special. … It’s not snobby, wealthy people,” Ousey said, adding that the town includes longtime residents who don’t have big bank accounts or lavish homes. “Everybody supports everybody.”

And that would seem to include the rich and famous. Lowe said among the evacuating neighbors he saw was filmmaker Ivan Reitman, director of “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters,” and a neighbor with whom he and Winfrey are mutual friends.

“The next door neighbor’s house, they were trapped behind their gates and could not get out,” Lowe said.

“The next door neighbors the Simmons? You mean the Simmons?,” Winfrey asked.

“The Simmons could not get out of their gate. Their daughter was lost on the property and so I had another gentleman and I pried the gates open. … We tried to comfort the Simmons, and embers were raining down. They were in our hair, they were in our shirts. The wind was easily 70 miles an hour and it was absolutely Armageddon.”                           Source

NEW YORK – Joe Jonas is tired of hearing about how he’s a bad boyfriend – and now he’s trying to defend himself.

The 19-year-old – part of dreamy teen band the Jonas Brothers with his two siblings – has gotten an avalanche of negative publicity after former girlfriend and fellow multiplatinum singer Taylor Swift dished about their recent breakup, which she says came in a 27-second phone call. She also was quoted as saying that he dumped her after meeting actress Camilla Belle.

The revelations have been hot topics on the blogs and have muddied his reputation as a clean-cut, upstanding heartthrob.

So, in a posting on the MySpace.com celebrity blog page Thursday, the singer sought to give his side of the split, though he didn’t mention the 18-year-old country star by name. (It had also been posted to the Jonas Brothers’ own MySpace page but had been removed by Friday afternoon.)

“I never cheated on a girlfriend. It might make someone feel better to assume or imply I have been unfaithful but it is simply not true,” he said. “Maybe there were reasons for a breakup. Maybe the heart moved on. Perhaps feelings changed. I am truly saddened that anything would potentially cause you to think less of me.”

As for the quick phone call, he said: “I called to discuss feelings with the other person. Those feelings were obviously not well received. I did not end the conversation. Someone else did. Phone calls can only last as long as the person on the other end of the line is willing to talk. A phone call can be pretty short when someone else ends the call. The only difference in this conversation was that I shared something the other person did not want to hear. “

Jonas said he has tried to call Swift since then and gotten no response.

He said he wishes the best for “the other person but could not sit back any longer and leave our fans with a wrong impression of the truth. Hope this helps enlighten a little.”

Swift has said Jonas inspired at least one heartbreak song on her new CD, “Fearless,” and in a recent interview with The Associated Press, she said: “If you don’t want me to write about the things that you do, then don’t do bad things for me to write about!”

But in response to Jonas’ online posting, her publicist, Paula Erickson, simply said Friday night: “Taylor has moved on.”

LONDON – An increasing number of countries worldwide are making spreading HIV a crime, according to a new report from the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Health officials fear the trend could undermine gains made in fighting the AIDS pandemic and provoke a surge in cases. Globally, about 33 million people are thought to have HIV and nearly 3 million people are newly infected every year.

“If the law is applied badly, this could set us back and do incredible damage,” said Paul de Lay, an AIDS expert at UNAIDS, who was not involved in the report.

De Lay said the laws could result in forced testing and drive the epidemic underground as people hide their HIV status, allowing the virus to spread unnoticed.

According to Planned Parenthood, 58 countries worldwide have laws that criminalize HIV or use existing laws to prosecute people for transmitting the virus. Another 33 countries are considering similar legislation.

Since 2005, seven countries in West Africa have passed HIV laws. In Benin, simply exposing others to HIV is a crime, even if transmission doesn’t occur. And in Tanzania, intentional transmission of the virus can lead to life imprisonment.

Many of the laws in Africa were passed after a meeting in Chad in 2004 sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the world’s biggest funder of AIDS programs, and attended by U.N. officials.

“The U.N. was definitely remiss to allow this to happen,” said Kevin Osborne, a senior HIV adviser at IPPF and one of the report’s authors.

De Lay said UNAIDS found out about the meeting only after it happened.

But poor countries aren’t the only ones using these laws.

In the U.S., 32 states have laws criminalizing HIV transmission. Experts estimate that thousands of people have been charged across the country with spreading HIV.

Since 2001, 16 people in the United Kingdom have been prosecuted for spreading HIV.

In 2005, a woman in Canada was charged with criminal negligence and aggravated assault for passing HIV while pregnant to her baby.

She did not tell her doctors that she had HIV and did not receive the medications necessary to prevent the virus from infecting her child. She was sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence followed by three years of probation.

In countries like Britain, Canada and the U.S., which are major donors of efforts to fight AIDS in Africa, such cases are particularly unfortunate, many experts say.

“It sets a poor example in the sense that other countries may then think this is an appropriate or desirable way to deal with HIV,” said Richard Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

While there might be exceptional cases where prosecuting people who are maliciously spreading HIV makes sense, experts said those were extreme cases.

“The criminal law is a blunt instrument,” Osborne said. “If you put everyone in prison with HIV, then you think you’ve controlled it. But you haven’t dealt with the issues around the intimate behaviors that spread HIV.”

Source

BERLIN – An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said.

While researchers – and the doctors themselves – caution that the case might be no more than a fluke, others say it may inspire a greater interest in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims 2 million lives each year. The virus has infected 33 million people worldwide.

Dr. Gero Huetter said Wedneday his 42-year-old patient, an American living in Berlin who was not identified, had been infected with the AIDS virus for more than a decade. But 20 months after undergoing a transplant of genetically selected bone marrow, he no longer shows signs of carrying the virus.

“We waited every day for a bad reading,” Huetter said.

It has not come. Researchers at Berlin’s Charite hospital and medical school say tests on his bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues have all been clean.

However, Dr. Andrew Badley, director of the HIV and immunology research lab at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said those tests have probably not been extensive enough.

“A lot more scrutiny from a lot of different biological samples would be required to say it’s not present,” Badley said.

This isn’t the first time marrow transplants have been attempted for treating AIDS or HIV infection. In 1999, an article in the journal Medical Hypotheses reviewed the results of 32 attempts reported between 1982 and 1996. In two cases, HIV was apparently eradicated, the review reported.

Huetter’s patient was under treatment at Charite for both AIDS and leukemia, which developed unrelated to HIV.

As Huetter – who is a hematologist, not an HIV specialist – prepared to treat the patient’s leukemia with a bone marrow transplant, he recalled that some people carry a genetic mutation that seems to make them resistant to HIV infection. If the mutation, called Delta 32, is inherited from both parents, it prevents HIV from attaching itself to cells by blocking CCR5, a receptor that acts as a kind of gateway.

“I read it in 1996, coincidentally,” Huetter told reporters at the medical school. “I remembered it and thought it might work.”

Roughly one in 1,000 Europeans and Americans have inherited the mutation from both parents, and Huetter set out to find one such person among donors that matched the patient’s marrow type. Out of a pool of 80 suitable donors, the 61st person tested carried the proper mutation.

Before the transplant, the patient endured powerful drugs and radiation to kill off his own infected bone marrow cells and disable his immune system – a treatment fatal to between 20 and 30 percent of recipients.

He was also taken off the potent drugs used to treat his AIDS. Huetter’s team feared that the drugs might interfere with the new marrow cells’ survival. They risked lowering his defenses in the hopes that the new, mutated cells would reject the virus on their own.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases in the U.S., said the procedure was too costly and too dangerous to employ as a firstline cure. But he said it could inspire researchers to pursue gene therapy as a means to block or suppress HIV.

“It helps prove the concept that if somehow you can block the expression of CCR5, maybe by gene therapy, you might be able to inhibit the ability of the virus to replicate,” Fauci said.

David Roth, a professor of epidemiology and international public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said gene therapy as cheap and effective as current drug treatments is in very early stages of development.

“That’s a long way down the line because there may be other negative things that go with that mutation that we don’t know about.”

Even for the patient in Berlin, the lack of a clear understanding of exactly why his AIDS has disappeared means his future is far from certain.      Source

WASHINGTON – Even as possibly hundreds of thousands of veterans suffer from a collection of symptoms commonly called Gulf War illness, the government has done too little to find treatments for their health problems nearly two decades after the war ended, a panel commissioned by Congress said.

The advisory panel of medical experts and veterans wants at least $60 million spent annually for research, calling it a “national obligation,” according to its report, obtained by The Associated Press.

The report, which goes to the Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake on Monday, said the Defense Department cut research money from $30 million in 2001 to less than $5 million in 2006. Both departments have identified some of their research as “Gulf War research” even when it did not entirely focus on the issue.

“Substantial federal Gulf War research funding has been used for studies that have little or no relevance to the health of Gulf War veterans,” the panel concluded.

Independent scientists have declared that the symptoms of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War do not constitute a single syndrome. They have pointed to pesticide, used to control insects, and pyridostigmine bromide pills, given to protect troops from nerve agents, as probable culprits for some of the varied symptoms.

Based on earlier studies, the panel estimates that between 175,000 and 210,000 veterans from the war suffer from a pattern of symptoms related to their service. It notes that about one-quarter to one-third of those who served are affected by complex symptoms at rates higher than those in the military who did not deploy. Symptoms include fatigue, memory loss, pain, headaches, and difficulty sleeping.

“Studies indicate that few veterans with Gulf War illness have recovered over time and only a small minority have substantially improved. … Few treatments have been studied and none have been shown to provide significant benefit for a substantial number of ill veterans,” the panel concluded.

“Regrettably, 17 years after the war, this research still has not provided tangible results in improving the health of ill Gulf War veterans,” according to a draft of the 450-page report.

The findings are welcome news to Bobby O’Daniel. The 39-year-old Marine veteran said he has suffered from a hyperactive immune system, joint and muscle pain in his extremities, psychological problems and other issues since he spent several months in the Persian Gulf loading cargo on ships and on land. He said he first noticed problems when he was deployed, but his health has steadily gotten worse since he came home at 21.

O’Daniel, a member of the veterans advocacy group Veterans of Modern Warfare, left the military shortly after his war duty. He said he has been discouraged over the years that more attention was not paid to help these veterans.

“We’re the forgotten warriors,” said O’Daniel, who lives in Greenville, N.C. “I just feel forgotten.”

The panel said that since 1994, the government has spent $340 million for studies associated with Gulf War research. While the research has provided valuable insights, it has not advanced understanding of the problem, the panel said.

In 2004, the VA said it would no longer pay for studies that sought to show combat stress was the primary cause of the veterans’ health problems. That decision came after the same advisory panel recommended that the department abandon stress studies and focus on toxic substances that veterans encountered during the war.

In 2006, the panel said congressional action resulted in changes in research at both agencies.

Congress allocated an additional $15 million annually for Gulf War research at VA. The University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas is using the money to identify biological abnormalities associated with Gulf War illness and working to develop tests and treatments.

Lawmakers also set aside $15 million for a research program managed by the Defense Department’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.

“Early indications suggest that development at both VA and DOD represent promising new directions in the federal Gulf War research effort,” the panel concluded. But, the panel said, it is “far below that warranted by the scope of the problem.”

Jim Bunker, the president of the National Gulf War Research Center in Kansas City, Kan., said taking care of the health of the Gulf War veterans has gotten pushed back repeatedly to the needs of veterans from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.    Source

LOS ANGELES – The NAACP says it will honor environmental activists Al Gore and Wangari Muta Maathai at its 40th Image Awards.The Feb. 12 ceremony will kick off a yearlong centennial celebration for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Gore and Maathai, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates, were chosen by NAACP Board Chairman Julian Bond to receive the chairman’s award. Nominations for the Image Awards, which honor those who promote diversity in the arts, will be announced Jan. 7.

Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for bringing attention to global warming. Maathai and the Green Belt Movement, the environmental group she founded, won the Peace Prize in 2004.                                          Source