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China has seen a 64% drop in AIDS-related deaths in less than a decade after the government started distributing free antiretroviral drugs to its HIV-positive population. An estimate of how long someone lives is measured in China as “person-years.” Handing out free antiretroviral drugs starting in 2002 has caused the rate of mortality among HIV-positive people to drop from 39.3 per 100 person-years in 2002 to 14.2 per 100 person-years in 2009, The New York Times reported Thursday. According to the report, 63% of those who needed AIDS medications are now receiving them. The government and United Nations AIDS estimates that approximately 740,000 people in China have HIV. Full article…

Tags: Deaths

A blood test may be able to show if an HIV-positive patient has the AIDS-defining opportunistic infection, Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, US investigators report in the July 15^th edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Pneumocystis jirovecii was formerly known as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), and is still commonly known as PCP. It is an AIDS-defining opportunistic infection and was one of the most frequent causes of death in the era before highly active antiretroviral therapy was introduced in 1996.

PCP typically develops when a patient has a CD4 cell count below 200 cells/mm³.

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Tags: Blood Test, Patient, Show If

St. Anthony Hospital officials said Monday they want to continue certain medical services at the old St. Anthony Central Hospital site in west Denver, even after the site is sold for redevelopment.

The hospital and its patients moved June 19 from the old 19-acre site near Sloan’s Lake to a new, 50-acre, $435 million campus in Lakewood. The new hospital has no “Central” in the title.

St. Anthony’s operators have hired the Romani Group to oversee the disposition of the old site, which has three buildings and a 710-car parking garage.

While there have been developers and medical groups interested in re-fitting the existing buildings, Eric Shafran, director of the Romani Group, told the Denver Business Journal earlier this month http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2011/06/16/developers-face-choices-at-old-st.html that other potential buyers have also been interested in clearing the site and doing a multi-family complex in-fill project.

But Monday, St. Ant

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Tags: Anthony Hospital, Medical Services, Site

Scientists have identified the molecular players central to an incurable brain injury common in premature babies, and have shown how such injuries might one day be treated, sparing people from lifelong conditions such as cerebral palsy.

In babies born before their lungs are fully developed, lack of oxygen can disrupt nerve cells’ ability to make a protective coating, called myelin, that makes up the brain’s ‘white matter’. Without myelin, brain cells die, leaving children vulnerable to neurological deficits such as cerebral palsy.

Some 20% of babies born before 6.5 months gestation experience lasting brain damage (see The most vulnerable brains).

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Tags: Injuries, Premature Babies