Trending News Today: Second Patient Reportedly Cured of HIV After Stem Cell Transplant

A second patient has reportedly been cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant, according to The New York Times. The patient, who had agreed to the transplant after developing Hodgkin lymphoma, received a donor with a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to HIV, the article noted. The transplant then changed the patient’s immune system by giving the donor’s mutation and HIV resistance. After 18 months off HIV treatment, the virus has not returned, according to article. Stem cell transplant therapy had been previously successful curing HIV in 1 other patient nearly 12 years ago, who is still in remission, the article reported.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, has criticized Walgreens for selling tobacco products including cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarettes to minors, The Associated Press reported. According to the article, Dr Gottlieb said inspectors with the FDA have found nearly 1800 instances since 2010 in which 1 of the company’s stores violated the law. Walgreens spokesman Jim Cohn said that the company prohibits tobacco sales to minors and welcomes a meeting with the FDA to discuss the issue, the article reported.

Another study confirmed that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine does not cause autism in children, according to a report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study included more than 650,000 children and used a population registry to evaluate whether the MMR vaccine increased the risk of autism in children born between 1999 and 2010. More than 95% of the children received the vaccine and 6517 were diagnosed with autism, with no link found between the vaccine and autism development, according to the findings.