Scientists have found that a new treatment protocol for Human Immunodeficiency Virus involving antivirals and a specific antibody is effective in controlling the disease in monkeys.

Antiretroviral therapy supresses further growth of both HIV and the simian variety – Simian Immunodeficiency Virus. But, the virus growth rebounds as soon as the therapy is withdrawn. Complying with the drug regimen to keep the virus load down is challenging for patients.

Scientists from Emory University School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health in the United States and German researchers treated monkeys infected with Simian Immunodeficiency Virus with antiretroviral therapy and a specific antibody.

The Simian virus and HIV have many similarities, studies have found.

With this treatment, even after antiretroviral therapy was stopped, the viral loads in the monkeys stayed undetectable. Also, the CD4 counts that indicate immunity levels was also maintained over a period of nine months after therapy, even after stopping the antibody therapy.

This study was published in the journal Science.

Understanding childhood diarrhoea 

So far, a little more than half of childhood diarrhoea cases worldwide are not understood. But new research claims to understand nearly 90% of the pathogens that cause diarrhoea.

The study examined 10,000 archived samples from the Global Enteric Multicenter Study, and was led by the University of Maryland and seven other collaborating institutes from Asia and Africa, including Kolkata’s National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases.

Each site recruited up to 880 children with severe diarrhoea from hospitals or ambulatory facilities and matched controls in each of three age groups – 0-11 months, 12-23 months, and 24-59 months.

The pathogens found to be the biggest cause of childhood diarrhoea were rotavirus, shigella, the cryptosporidium parasite and a type of e coli bacteria, campylobacter jejuni bacteria and adenovirus.

The researchers felt that the study provides a roadmap to tackling the problem of childhood diarrhoea, by developing vaccines or new treatments for these six causes, the press note said.

Childhood diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death worldwide.

The study was published in the Lancet.

Birth defect risks in natural and assisted reproduction

The risk of birth defects is higher among women above 40 who conceive naturally as opposed to those who conceive via assisted reproduction techniques such as in-vitro fertilisation.

It is well known that the the risk of birth defects increases with maternal age among natural conceptions. However, in case of assisted reproduction, births to women below 30 have a higher risk of birth defects while births to women above 40 have lower risk of birth defects, as compared to births among women who conceive naturally.

The study was based on a comparison of data collected from all assisted reproductive technology cycles in South Australia between 1986 and 2002 and data related to birth defects collected by the government there.

The study was published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology on October 17.

The study does not speak about the success rate of infertility treatments, which, as this 2015 report shows, reduces with age. The report said advanced age is a risk factor for female infertility, pregnancy loss, foetal anomalies, still birth, and obstetric complications.