[Nasheman news] London A decade after an American was “first” cured of HIV using stem cell transplant, a British man has experienced sustained remission from the disease for over an year, after receiving a similar transplant of virus-resistant cells raising prospects of a cure, said doctors, including one of Indian-origin.

The new “London patient” — who prefers to remain anonymous — was treated with stem cell transplants from donors with a rare genetic mutation known as CCR5-delta 32, which made him resistant to HIV, just like the first cured case of Timothy Ray Brown, better known as the “Berlin patient”.

The “London patient” has been in remission for 18 months since he stopped taking antiretroviral drugs, according to the study published in the journal Nature. 

“By achieving remission in a second patient using a similar approach, we have shown that the Berlin Patient was not an anomaly and that it really was the treatment approached that eliminated HIV in these two people,” lead author Ravindra Gupta, Professor at University College London, was quoted as saying by CNN.

The method used may not be appropriate for all patients but offers hope for new treatment strategies, including gene therapies, Gupta added. 

The London patient is under observation, as it is still too early to say that he has been cured of HIV, the report said.

Nearly one million people die annually from HIV-related causes. Treatment for HIV, known as antiretroviral therapy, involves medications that suppress the virus, which people with HIV need to take for their entire lives.

The London patient was first diagnosed with HIV infection in 2003 and began antiretroviral therapy in 2012. Later, he was also diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma — cancer of the immune system. 

After undergoing chemotherapy, he also underwent a stem cell transplant in 2016, and subsequently remained on antiretroviral drugs for 16 months.

Later, he went without drugs to test whether he was truly in HIV-1 remission. 

The London patient has now been in remission for 18 months, and doctors have confirmed that his HIV viral load remains undetectable, the report said.

Similarly, the Berlin Patient had been living with HIV and routinely using antiretroviral drugs when he was diagnosed with a different disease called acute myeloid leukemia — cancer of the blood and bone marrow. 

After two bone marrow transplants, Brown was considered cured of his HIV-1 infection. 

Traces of HIV were seen in Brown’s blood a few years after he stopped antiretroviral drugs. However, because the HIV remained undetectable, he is still considered clinically cured of his infection, according to his doctors.

Despite various attempts by scientists using the same approach, Brown had remained the only person cured of HIV until the new London patient, CNN reported.

[Nasheman news] Thiruvananthapuram Following farmer suicides in Kerala amid recovery notices being issued to them in the aftermath of the century’s worst flood last year, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday announced fresh sops for farmers, including a moratorium on repayment of loans that will be extended till December 31.

Aiming to aid the distressed Kerala agriculture sector that faced huge losses especially in Idukki and Wayanad districts where thousands of hectares of farm land was damaged, Vijayan said: “From now on in all districts of the state barring Idukki and Wayanad, loans taken by farmers till March 2014 would get the benefit of the moratorium.” 

This was earlier fixed for all loans taken till March 2011.

“Farmers in Idukki and Wayanad will get this benefit on all loans taken till August 31, 2018,” he added.

The decision came following reports of half a dozen farmer suicides in Idukki district over the past two months.

“Hitherto it was only the loans taken by farmers from the cooperative banks that got the benefit from the Kerala State Farmers’ Debt Relief Commission.

“We have now asked the Agriculture and Planning Departments to have a look into the loans taken from commercial banks and public sector banks. Moreover, the limit of the loans that get the benefit of moratorium has now been increased form Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh,” said Vijayan.

In the aftermath of last year’s floods, banks in the state have been using the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest Act, 2002, (also known as the Sarfaesi Act) to recover loans from farmers.

As part of this recovery process, notices were being sent to auction residential or commercial properties of those who default.

Close to 15,000 farmers in Idukki district alone have received recovery notices from both commercial and cooperative banks.

According to official statistics, the floods damaged around 11,000 hectares of agricultural land in Idukki leaving almost 35,000 farmers in distress.

Vijayan, on Wednesday will also preside over the meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee here and is expected to demand that the public sector and commercial banks adopt the same stand that the state government has taken.

He said the compensation for the losses suffered by farmers on cash crops has also been increased.

For every yielding areca nut tree that has been damaged, prices have been hiked from Rs 150 to Rs 300, cocoa from Rs 100 to Rs 200, coffee Rs 100 to Rs 200, pepper Rs 75 to Rs 150, nutmeg Rs 400 to Rs 800, cloves Rs 100 to Rs 200 and for cardamom it has been hiked from Rs 18,000 per hectare to Rs 25,000 per hectare.

[Nasheman news] Nagpur Australia won the toss and elected to field against India in the second One Day International here on Tuesday.

While hosts India are playing with the same team, Australia made two changes. Shaun Marsh and Nathan Lyon were included in the team for Aston Turner and Jason Behrendorff.

Teams:
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (captain), Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (w), Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.

Australia: Usman Khawaja, Aaron Finch (captain), Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (w), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa.

[Nasheman news] Bengaluru Umesh Jadhav, Karnataka’s “rebel” Congress MLA who resigned from the state Assembly, fell prey to the BJP’s ‘Operation Kamala’, party leader Siddaramaiah said on Tuesday.

“The circumstantial evidence clearly suggests that he (Jadhav) has fallen for #OperationKamala (referring to alleged poaching attempts by the BJP),” the former Chief Minister said in a series of tweets.

“People are saying that he has sold himself for money and power. If true, it is shameful on his part,” he added.

Jadhav, a two-time MLA from Chincholi constituency in Kalaburagi district, submitted his resignation to Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar on Monday without any explanation.

Hours later, G. Madhusudhan, the state spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party, told IANS that Jadhav would join the right-wing party on Wednesday at Kalaburagi where Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address a massive rally.

The Speaker is yet to accept Jadhav’s resignation.

“We had already petitioned to disqualify four MLAs, including Jadhav, as per anti-defection law for involving in anti-party activities. Resignation cannot be accepted without deciding our petition. Let us leave it to the speaker to decide,” Siddaramaiah said in another tweet on Tuesday.

Jadhav’s resignation came in the wake of the southern state’s ruling coalition partners Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress and the opposition BJP trading charges of poaching each others’ legislators since January.