London patient becomes second adult to be cleared of HIV: A man in Britain has become the second known adult worldwide to be cleared of HIV after he received a bone marrow transplant from a virus-resistant donor, his doctors said. Almost three years after receiving bone marrow stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection – and more than 18 months after he came off antiretroviral drugs – highly sensitive tests still show no trace of the man’s previous HIV infection. “There is no virus there that we can measure. We can’t detect anything,” said Ravindra Gupta, a professor and HIV biologist who co-led a team of doctors treating the man. He described his patient as “functionally cured” and “in remission”, but cautioned: “It’s too early to say he’s cured.“ The man is being called “the London patient”, in part because his case is similar to the first known case of a functional cure of HIV, “the Berlin patient” – American Timothy Brown, who underwent similar treatment in Germany in 2007 which also cleared his HIV. He is still HIV-free.

There is economic equality in only six countries in the world, including Sweden: Ten years ago, no country in the world was judged as having achieved econimic equality. Today, six countries have done that, according to the World Bank in a new report. Sweden is one of the countries which gets full marks togheter with Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia and Luxembourg. The study looked at various factors including how it is for men and women to get to different places, what control the citizen has over his resources, working conditions, salaries and pensions, marriage conditions and the situation of children. The study covered 187 countries. On the same list that Sweden scores a perfect 100, Ghana comes in place 102 with a score of 75 - below Kenya, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire but above Nigeria which scores 68.75. Read the rest (in Swedish) and see the original report...