Here are some of the latest health and medical news
developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Dying Girl Saved by Experimental Cancer Treatment
A 6-year-old girl dying of leukemia was saved by an experimental
treatment in which disabled HIV was used to reprogram her immune
system genetically to kill cancer cells. HIV is the virus that
causes AIDS.
The procedure on Emma Whitehead was conducted at the Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia in April. She had relapsed twice after
chemotherapy and doctors could offer no more treatment options for
her acute lymphoblastic leukemia,
The New York Timesreported.
However, Emma's parents sought the experimental treatment, which
had never before been tried in a child or in anyone with Emma's
type of leukemia. She was cancer-free after the treatment and seven
months later is still in remission.
Emma is the first child and one of the first people in which
their immune system has been given the lasting ability to fight
cancer,
The Timesreported.
The doctors who treated Emma presented their results in Atlanta
Sunday and Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of
Hematology.
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South Africa's Nelson Mandela Hospitalized
Nelson Mandela, the first black president of once white-ruled
South Africa, was admitted to a military hospital Saturday for
medical tests. But the nation's president said there was "no cause
for alarm" over the 94-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner's health,
the
Associated Pressreported.
A statement issued on behalf of President Jacob Zuma said that
Mandela was doing well and was receiving medical care "consistent
for his age." The statement provided no other details, the
APsaid.
Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for fighting the racist
white rule system known as apartheid, became South Africa's first
black president in 1994 and served one five-year term. He later
retired from public life, and last made a public appearance in 2010
when South Africa hosted the World Cup soccer tournament, the news
service reported.
Mandela was hospitalized for a night in February for minor
diagnostic surgery for an abdominal complaint. In January 2011, he
was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for a respiratory
infection. He was released several days later, the
APreported.
During his years of imprisonment he contracted tuberculosis.
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