What We're Reading: HIV Cured in Second Patient; Patients Question FDA; China Creating Ethics Committee

Researchers Report Curing HIV in Second Patient

A patient has been cured of infection with HIV only the second time since the start of the epidemic, The New York Times reported. Researchers now say they believe a cure for HIV infection is possible but remains extremely difficult. Both known cases that resulted in a cure involved bone marrow transplants, which remain unlikely to become a realistic treatment action due to long-term adverse events and the availability of strong drugs that can control the infection.

Patients Skeptical of FDA Medical Device Approval Process

As a greater number of ailments are currently being treated with medical devices and implants, thousands have reported complications to the FDA, Kaiser Health News reported. The majority of these medical devices have not been tested on humans before being offered to patients. Many devices have malfunctioned in patients’ bodies, resulting in severe injuries that have led the FDA to reevaluate how it assesses medical devices before allowing them to be sold.

China Creating National Medical Ethics Committee

Approved by President Xi Jinping, a 30-person national ethics committee has been appointed in China to oversee high-risk clinical trials, STAT News reported. The technologies that will be monitored and regulated are considered risky due to moral or safety concerns and include gene editing, cloning, cell therapy, xenotransplantation, mitochondrial replacement, and nanotechnology. Oversight of these medical technologies aims to counter the perception of weak ethics governance many believe led to the controversial “CRISPR babies” program.