Drugs keep Aids victims alive for 13 years longer

Life expectancy for people with HIV/Aids has risen by more than 13 years in the past decade, thanks to the more effective use of drugs. A study of more than 43,000 HIV-positive patients suggests use of treatment known as combination antiretroviral therapy has reduced deaths by nearly 40 per cent.

It is the largest assessment so far into the effectiveness of a cocktail of three or four drugs that can suppress HIV, which culminates in Aids. About 73,000 people in Britain are infected with HIV. Although their lifespan remains well short of the general population, a 20-year-old starting therapy in 2003-05 can now expect to live to be nearly 70, compared with 56 years in 1996-99.

This is because combination treatments have become more effective, better tolerated and simplified in terms of dosing since the drugs were introduced in 1996, the researchers say.

“These advances have transformed HIV from being a fatal disease, which was the reality for patients before the advent of combination treatment, into a long-term chronic condition,” they write in The Lancet.

Cameron mourns the loss of his stolen bike

David Cameron seemed to have taken all the necessary precautions, carefully locking his bicycle before briefly nipping into a shop (Fiona Hamilton writes).

It took only a couple of minutes for the Conservative leader to learn the same painful lesson as tens of thousands of Londoners before him, however.

Mr Cameron said that he did not expect to see his bicycle again after thieves stole it in Portobello Road, near his home in Notting Hill, on Wednesday evening. The Tory leader rode the bicycle regularly to the House of Commons.

He said: “If anyone has seen it, I would very much like it back. To me it was absolutely priceless.”

One shop worker said: “There was a man going up and down Portobello Road saying, ‘Where is my bike?’ He wasn’t panicking but he seemed shocked.”

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London and a cyclist, said last year that six bicycles had been stolen from him.

Foreign offenders still go untraced

Fewer than one third of offenders at the centre of the foreign national prisoners scandal that forced Charles Clarke to quit as Home Secretary have been deported, the Government has disclosed (Richard Ford writes).

Lin Homer, head of the UK Border Agency, also said that 105 of the 1,013 foreign citizens released from prison without being considered for deportation had still not been traced. The latest figures show that more than two years after the scandal, only 308 prisoners have been removed and 389 have been allowed to stay in the country. A further 177 cases are still going through the deportation process.

‘Suicide pill’ GP censured

A Glasgow GP who gave sleeping pills to an elderly patient so that she could commit suicide was suspended from practising for six months. Iain Kerr, 61, a member of the Euthanasia Society, said that he “regretted the circumstances” that resulted in the General Medical Council censuring him. He had faced being struck off.

Saviour killed

Corporal Jason Barnes, 25, of Exeter, who was killed on Tuesday when the ambulance he was driving was struck by a suspected Taleban bomb in the Kajaki area of Helmand province in Afghanistan, had helped to save the life of an injured colleague only moments before, his commanding officer said.

Cloned meat may be safe

Milk and meat from cloned pigs and cows are unlikely to pose a risk to humans, but the process can threaten the health of livestock, an EU report into the safety of cloning has concluded.

Harrods boss wins oil cash

Mohamed Al Fayed, the Harrods owner, was awarded 9 per cent of the £7 million income of Star Energy, which took oil from under his Surrey property for 17 years without his knowledge.

Supermarket theft jailing

Moira Bowman, 58, of Carnforth, Lancashire, was jailed for three years by Preston Crown Court after admitting the theft of £350,000 from the supermarket where she worked.

Homoeopathy hit

The number of prescriptions for homoeopathic remedies issued by family doctors fell from 83,000 in 2005 to 49,300 last year, according to the Prescription Pricing Authority. Over the same period there was an increase in the overall number of prescriptions issued from 720 million to 796 million.

Crime does pay

Almost £6,000 is paid to informants every day by Britain’s largest police force. Figures obtained by the Press Association show that Scotland Yard paid out £2,131,786 in the past financial year. Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick said that informants were an essential weapon against crime.

Lottery results

The winning numbers in Wednesday’s Lotto draw were 15, 17, 33, 35, 39, 40, bonus 49. The Thunderball numbers were 6, 8, 10, 16, 28, Thunderball 6. The Dream Number was 1, 0, 3, 1, 1, 3, 4.

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