A pure spirit: Baijiu goes organic in China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-07-30

The Luzhou Laojiao booth of the 2005 Jinan Autumn Sugar and Liquor 

Exhibition, Oct. 11, 2005. (Photo/CFP)

In the wake of a string of food and drink safety scandals in China in recent years and increasing scrutiny of food and drink products, many firms are promoting organic products in the hope of profiting from increasingly health-conscious consumers in the country, according to a report in Shanghai's National Business Daily.

Liu Ping, director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Green Food Development Center, was cited by the paper as stating that demand for organic products in China has been growing at 30% over recent years, which has fueled interest from firms eager to profit on the trend.

On July 25, Sichuan-based baijiu producer Luzhou Laojiao announced that it was forming an "organic alliance" with five other companies, Inner Mongolia Shengmu Gaoke Raising Company, Yantai Weilong Grape Wine Company, Beidahuang Qinmin Organic Food Company, Beijing-based Bainianliyuan Eco-agriculture Company and Beijing-based Xingnong Taihua Organic Farming Company, according to the paper.

The Rise of Organic Baijiu

Luzhou is located in southern Sichuan and the red sorghum that grows on the fertile purple soil there, used to make Luzhao Laojiao's liquor, contains a lot of starch, making it very glutinous.

Products can only be called organic in China if they meet rigorous national standards governing the environmental conditions of the land in which raw ingredients are grown. Luzhou Laojiao began to work towards organic sorghum planting in 2000, starting with trials and finally gaining certification.

It is now sorghum harvesting season and the head of production for Luzhou Red Sorghum Modern Agricultural Development Company Tang Youcai says it took five to six years for the sorghum to grow to head height. Luzhou Laojiao has signed contracts with farmers occupying over 3,300 hectares of sorghum fields across three counties in Luzhou. Only half of the sorghum produced ends up being certified as organic, according to Tang.

Producing organic baijiu is a relatively new field in China. One distiller tested the waters back in 2008 and the market heated up after organic baijiu stole the show at the 2010 Jinan Autumn Sugar and Liquor Exhibition.

Explosive Growth

Organic farming is already common in the wine industry. Recently the largest organic wine producer in Bordeaux teamed up with wine distributer 1919, to launch themselves on the Chinese market.

Killer of Cecil the lion was dentist from Minnesota, claim Zimbabwe officials

Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force alleges trophy hunter shot one of Africa’s most famous lions near Hwange national park

The Guardian, Ashifa Kassam and Jessica Glenza, 28 July 2015

Conservationists in Zimbabwe have accused an American man of being the alleged killer of Cecil, one of Africa’s most famous lions and the star attraction at the Hwange national park.

On Tuesday, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said the man thought to have paid $50,000 (£32,000) for the chance to kill Cecil was not a Spaniard as originally believed, but US citizen Walter Palmer, from a small town near Minneapolis. The man left the lion skinned and headless on the outskirts of the park, the ZCTF’s Johnny Rodrigues said in a statement.

The hunt took place around 6 July. “They went hunting at night with a spotlight and they spotted Cecil,” Rodrigues said. “They tied a dead animal to their vehicle to lure Cecil out of the park and they scented an area about half a kilometre from the park.”

Walt Palmer, left, and one of his many trophies.

The hunter first shot at Cecil with a bow and arrow but failed to kill the lion. “They tracked him down and found him 40 hours later when they shot him with a gun,” Rodrigues said.

A spokesman for Palmer told the Guardian that the hunter was “obviously quite upset over everything”.

“As far as I understand, Walter believes that he might have shot that lion that has been referred to as Cecil,” the spokesman said. “What he’ll tell you is that he had the proper legal permits and he had hired several professional guides, so he’s not denying that he may be the person who shot this lion. He is a big-game hunter; he hunts the world over.”

On Tuesday, Palmer - a dentist and married father of two - became a target as the Facebook page of his dental clinic was flooded with angry comments and threats. An online petition demanding justice for Cecil had gathered more than 12,000 signatures.

Palmer’s love of hunting is well-documented online. In 2009, he was interviewed by the New York Times about his slaying of an elk that was touted as a kill for the archery record books.

Noting that Palmer had learned to shoot at age five and was “capable of skewering a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow,” the article said Palmer had paid $45,000 at auction to take part in the hunt, with the proceeds being used to help fund the elk habitat. As the hunting season began, Palmer was on probation for lying to authorities over the exact location where he had killed a black bear in northern Wisconsin in 2006.

A 2008 Flickr photo album by Trophy Hunt America and Porcupine Creek Outfitters, a company that leads hunting expeditions, shows Walter Palmer posing next to avariety of slain animals, including a wood bison and a lion. In another online photo Palmer and his bow and arrow sit next to a slain rhino, the captionstating that the photo was taken in South Africa.

The same company advertises trips to Africa, under the name Safari Connection. Photographs to advertise the company’s services show hunters posed next to elephants. Other expeditions show hunters posed next to polar bears amid snowy backdrops.

Two people who accompanied the hunter on his Zimbabwe trip were identified by authorities and arrested earlier this month, including Theo Bronkhorst, the founder of Bushman Safaris Zimbabwe which is believed to have organised the hunt. Both are facing poaching charges and due to appear in court in early August.

Zimbabwe National Parks confirmed the charges. “In this case, both the professional hunter and land owner had no permit or quota to justify the offtake of the lion and therefore are liable for the illegal hunt,” it said in a statement. Bronkhorst’s hunting license has been suspended and efforts were being made to interview another employee of Bushman Safaris who was believed to have also taken part in the hunt.

The 13-year-old lion was wearing a GPS collar as part of an Oxford University research project that had been running since 1999, making it possible to trace his last movements. Rodrigues said the hunters tried to destroy the collar, but failed.

Walt Palmer and a Nevada California Bighorn.

The death of Cecil comes as Zimbabwe, like many countries in Africa, attempts to crack down on illegal hunting and poaching, said Rodrigues. “This has been going on too long. Cecil is the 23 or 24th lion that has been collared and then killed in Hwange. We have to try and stop it.”

Initially his organisation had said the whereabouts of Cecil’s head was unknown, sparking concerns that it would be sent abroad as a trophy. The fear brought conservationists and politicians together this week to call on the European Union to ban the import of lion heads, paws and skins as hunters’ trophies from African countries that cannot prove their lion populations are sustainable.

On Tuesday, Rodrigues said the head of the lion had been located in Zimbabwe and had been impounded to be used as evidence in the investigation.

The ZCTF said on Tuesday that it continued to mourn Cecil. Rodrigues pointed out that the hunter was believed to have paid just $50,000 to kill a creature that would have brought millions of dollars worth of tourism to the reserve.

Conservation authorities said they were also dealing with the likely consequences of Cecil’s death for his six cubs. “The saddest part of all is that now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho, will most likely kill all Cecil’s cubs so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females.”

Cecil was a major tourist attraction at Zimbabwe's largest game reserve in

Hwange National Park, due to his distinctive black mane (AFP Photo)

Related Articles:

Zimbabwe wants US to extradite Palmer for killing Cecil - New

Trophy hunting 'no help' to Zimbabwean people
Zimbabwe hunter given bail over death of Cecil the lion

Pakistan prepares for Saudi royal to hunt 'protected' birds

Bustard act: Saudi prince accused of slaying 2,000 near-extinct birds while on safari in Pakistan (April 24, 2014)

Hunt: Fahd bin Sultan is said to have killed

1,977 houbara bustards in just 21 days while

on holiday

Tanzania ditches plan to evict Masai for Serengeti 'wildlife corridor'

Botswana to ban wildlife hunting

Spain's King Juan Carlos poses in front of a dead elephant

on a hunting trip in Botswana, Africa. Photograph: Target

Press/Barcroft Media

Spain's king ousted as WWF honorary president
Spain's King Juan Carlos under fire over elephant hunting trip

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

Delays found in drugmakers reporting of serious adverse reactions

Yahoo – AFP, 27 July 2015

US regulations require drugmakers to report adverse events to the FDA within 

15 days, but researchers at the University of Minnesota found that they

delayed doing so in about one in 10 cases (AFP Photo/Philippe Huguen)

Washington (AFP) - Drugmakers have delayed reporting serious and unexpected "adverse events" from their drugs, including death, in nearly 10 percent of cases, a study said Monday.

US regulations require drugmakers to report such incidents to the Food and Drug Administration within 15 days, but researchers at the University of Minnesota found that they delayed doing so in about one in 10 cases.

"Strikingly, AEs (adverse events) with patient death were more likely to be delayed," the study's authors said.

"It is possible that manufacturers spend additional time in verifying reports concerning deaths, but this discretion is outside the scope of the current regulatory regime."

The study appeared in JAMA Internal Medicine, whose editor said the delays exposed other patients to serious risks.

"Such reporting delays should never occur, as they mean that more patients are exposed to potentially avoidable serious harm, including death," wrote the journal's editor, Rita Redberg.

She suggested that physicians who report on their patients' adverse reactions to drugs should do so directly to the FDA, rather than to the manufacturer.

For the study, Pinar Karaca-Mandic and her co-authors examined serious adverse event reports submitted to the FDA between January 2004 and January 2014.

They found that of 1.6 million reports, 160,383 were not received by the FDA within the 15-day time window.

Of those, 40,464 involved deaths of patients.

Besides death, reports on serious adverse events also could involve cases that were life-threatening, required hospitalization, resulted in disability or in birth defects.

A reported rise in mental illness in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands there seems to have been a rapid rise in incidents involving "mentally confused" people. The reported number of such incidents rose from 53,000 in 2013 to 60,000 last year and the Dutch are asking why.

Deutsche Welle, 27 July 2015

A phone rings and community psychiatric nurse Theo Eberson speeds to his car. The police want him to assess the mental health of someone they've just apprehended. When Eberson arrives at the police station, Brigadier Mike de Wit explains that his team has brought in an English-speaking man who banged on doors in the stairwell of an apartment block and then got into a fight with an angry resident who asked him to leave.

"We want to see if there's anything we can do for him," de Wit says. "And, if there's really nothing we can do, we have to put him back on the street."

De Wit unlocks the door of the cell and lets Eberson in. Eberson explains that he comes from the community health department and that he'd just like to talk to the man. But the man barely responds. He's lying on a bench in the cell, shivering and has difficulties keeping his eyes open.

Cases on the rise

Eberson tells the man that he's going to call an ambulance to take him to the emergency ward at the hospital. De Wit is used to this routine. He says he has seen a rise in the number of people causing public disturbances in recent years.

A symbolic picture of a board covered in
 mathematical formulas to indicate a
confused mind

The number of "confused" people is on the rise and there is less help for them in society

"My experience is that it's increasing," de Wit says. "There are more people who have to live on the streets and less help for confused people. In the end, they're on the radar and they end up here."

This kind of incident is not just common in Amsterdam. Throughout the Netherlands, police reported 60,000 incidents involving confused people in 2014, a whopping 13 percent increase from the previous year. The incidents, they say, are varied - perhaps a small house fire or a person who decided to park their car on a train or a tram line. That's the kind of slightly out of the ordinary incident that suggests that someone may have been suffering from some kind of mental disturbance. The rapid rise has sparked a national debate on what's causing the problem and how to solve it.

Cuts to mental health care

Jacobine Geel heads the mental health association GGZ Nederland and believes that one reason behind the increase in reported incidents is that the government has been making budget cuts in the field of mental health care. The Netherlands is rapidly decreasing the number of beds it has available in psychiatric units in favor of outpatient care.

"There are more people who are vulnerable and who need some form of care," Geel says. "Often these people are living in their own houses. Budget cuts mean fewer places where these people can go to have something to do or to meet people."

More problematic, Geel says, is the speed with which the system has to reorganize. Geel recognizes the need for reorganization but she is hoping the government will give health care professionals more time in which to do so.

Fred Ter Meer knows what Geel is talking about. He heads a group of mental health institutions called Yulius, based in the city of Dordrecht. The group is responsible for about 16,000 patients. Ter Meer says he's already cut 35 of 200 beds and will have to cut more.

"We've never had a waiting list, but now it's growing quite fast," Ter Meer says. "When you're on a waiting list, for sometimes three months, there's a big chance you'll find yourself in a crisis situation. Available beds for these people will continue to be cut until 2018. So, we're only halfway. And I'm very worried about how we're going to manage in the future."

Geel adds that economic problems have contributed to the increasing number of mentally confused people.

Some point to the effects of global
 financial decline as a contributing
factor to mental illness

"I think the financial crisis of the past decade has caused problems for individuals, and now those problems are really coming to light," Geel says. "For instance, suppose that you're in a partnership and you lose your job and then your partner loses his or her job and you have children. When you're vulnerable to that stress, you can sink through the ice, as we say in Dutch."

Geel says constant images of conflict and wars on television screens and mobile phones have also contributed to increased levels of stress for everyone. To find solutions, Geel says, it's important to know more about those suffering from mental confusion.

"Some of these people probably do have a history of mental illness," Geel says. "But a lot of them are probably just being crushed under the weight of a very complex society. So we have to be very aware of the complexity and diversity of this group and map it first before we start thinking about solutions and how we can help."

'They don't have solutions'

The term "mental illness" can cover a very broad range of ills, and "confused people" sounds even vaguer - so what does it really mean? On the square outside her crisis center in Utrecht, community psychiatric nurse Carina Stigter says that confused people are often in deep distress.

"Suicidal thoughts, suicidal behavior, psychotic behavior and sometimes the abuse of substances like alcohol and drugs," Stigter says. "What they all have in common is that they don't have solutions to the situation that they're dealing with. Or the people around them don't have solutions."

She thinks that part of the problem - or at least an aggravation of these people's distress - is when the police arrive to deal with what they deem a public disturbance.

"They are trained to deal with criminals and offenses," Stigter says. "And they take these people into a police cell and treat them as a suspect. It increases the suffering of these patients."

Deep distress

That happened to 19-year-old Felix, a slim and trendy young woman. At her home, she explains in a quiet voice how she walked out of hospital for reasons she prefers to keep private. Fearing that Felix might harm herself, hospital staff called the police. She had just gotten home, she says, when two police cars drew up and six officers stormed inside.

"They jumped on me, handcuffed me and put me in the car," Felix says. "I got angry. I shouted anything that came to mind - that I thought they were idiots. I panicked. I felt I was being unfairly treated in my own home. "

Because of her reaction, Felix was put into a cell.

"I had to undress completely," Felix says. "I had to take off my wig, which I wore at the time, and I found that very painful to deal with. There was no explanation."

Felix says she had to wait half an hour before people trained to work with mental health patients came to see her.

"They made me feel better and I settled down," Felix says. "I think that if it'd been the other way around - that first the crisis service would have come and then the police or no police at all - things would have been totally different."

Changing attitudes

Stigter, the community psychiatric nurse, says she is trying to ensure that possible patients receive mental health assistance before the police engage them. A year ago she set up a program under which the police will contact her crisis service if they're dealing with someone who's mentally confused before they try to handle it themselves.

"Through a structured-risk strategy, we make sure the people come here when they don't need a police cell," Stigter says. "The relationship between the mental health professionals and the police in Utrecht is very good, and that's one of the success stories of this project."

In June, Dutch Public Health Minister Edith Schippers announced that every municipality should have a similar system in place by the end of this year. Despite this move, Eberson, the nurse in Amsterdam, thinks that the Netherlands will have to accept that mental illnesses will become more visible on the streets in to the future.

"Now we're closing down beds, which means there are more outpatients and more people with psychiatric problems on the streets," Eberson says. "The community has to get used to it and will get used to it."

Ter Meer, of Yulius, says that would mean a big change for the Dutch, who are generally accustomed to a relatively calm and quiet society.

"You see a lot more confused people on the streets of Paris or London," Ter Meer says. "But we're not used to it. So this is a big change for Dutch society."

The change is slowly altering Dutch attitudes to mental health in general - which is perhaps fortunate because, until there is an integrated strategy to tackle this problem, the reported rise in "mentally confused" patients could just keep rising.

Related Article:

Health minister calls for ‘dementia-friendly’ society

New York plans $15 minimum wage at fast-food chains

Yahoo – AFP, 23 July 2015

Low wage workers, many in the fast-food industry, join with supporters in front 

of a McDonald's to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour, on April 15, 

2015 in New York (AFP Photo/Spencer Platt)

New York (AFP) - New York state was poised Wednesday to raise the minimum wage to $15 in the fast-food sector, a key victory in a long-running workers campaign for liveable wages.

A three-person panel appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state's current minimum wage of $8.75 an hour should be increased to $15, a raise of more than 71 percent.

Cuomo had indicated he would follow the panel's recommendation.

"What a great, great day!" Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a news conference with the leaders of the $15 campaign.

Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to labor 

leaders, workers and activists at a rally for

 a $15 minimum hourly wage on July 22, 

2015 in New York (AFP Photo/Spencer

Platt)

The wage increase will be phased in, starting with fast-food chain restaurants operating in New York City. They are due to meet the new minimum wage by 2018, while elsewhere in the state fast-food restaurants will have until 2021 to comply.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but states and municipalities can set their own. Some 29 states and Washington, DC, have minimum wages above the federal minimum.

"We're getting $15 before every other state," said Eric Schneiderman, New York attorney general.

"It's a victory you have all built," he said, thanking the labor leaders and Cuomo. "This is a victory for all men and women who work hard."

Activists have been pushing for several years to get the $15 minimum wage in the fast-food sector, notorious for low pay that workers say does not keep them out of poverty.

Under pressure from unions, McDonald's announced in April a pay hike for 90,000 employees in company-owned restaurants, though that does not affect the majority of its restaurants, which are owned by franchisees.

From July 1 the starting wages for full and part-time workers in its own restaurants were raised by one dollar above the local minimum wage.

The move followed similar wage increases announced by Wal-Mart Stores, Gap and others, all under pressure from labor and social groups over low pay.

Cuomo said that New York state's $15 minimum wage decision would "radiate" across the country.

"If it's right in New York, it's right in California," he said.

In May, Los Angeles, the second biggest US city, passed an increase in its minimum wage from $9 to $15 an hour by 2020. That followed a similar move by Seattle one year ago.

Other states and communities have also passed, or are weighing increases to, statutory minimum pay, after years in which inflation eroded the spending power of US workers.

But only a few have moved toward the $15 target that worker groups are calling for.

According to US labor data, workers in the food preparation and serving-related occupations comprise 22 percent of US employees who make at or below the minimum wage. Workers such as waiters can earn less than the minimum wage if they make up the gap in tips.

Related Article:

Utrecht city council to begin experiments with a basic income

Why Should We Support the Idea of Universal Basic Income?

Bionic eye helps UK pensioner see in world first

Yahoo – AFP, 22 July 2015

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) sufferer Ray Flynn pictured wearing a

 "bionic eye" at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital in Manchester, central England

on July 22, 2015 (AFP Photo)

London (AFP) - A partially sighted British pensioner has had most of his vision restored thanks to a "bionic eye" -- a device that converts video images from a miniature camera installed in his glasses to his brain.

The University of Manchester announced the success of the operation on retired engineer Ray Flynn in a statement on Wednesday, saying it was a world first for the 80-year-old's particular condition.

Flynn has age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition which affects over 500,000 people in Britain and is the most common cause of blindness in people aged over 50 in developing countries.

The condition means that his vision is impaired and he cannot see things directly in front of him. This prevents him from reading or driving and makes it difficult for him to recognise faces.

The statement said Flynn was now looking forward to watching his beloved Manchester United football team play and doing the gardening.

"Mr Flynn's progress is truly remarkable... He is seeing the outline of people and objects very effectively," said Professor Paulo Stanga, who led the four-hour operation.

"The dry form of AMD is a common, but untreatable condition. In the Western world, it is the leading cause of sight loss. Unfortunately, with an ageing population, it is becoming more common," he said.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) sufferer Ray Flynn shows the 

mechanism connected to his "bionic eye" at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital 

in Manchester, central England on July 22, 2015 (AFP Photo)

The device was fitted in June and activated on July 1.

Retinal degenerative diseases like AMD affect more than 30 million people around the world, according to the US-based Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB).

Bionic retinas are no longer restricted to the realm of science fiction and already help blind or partially blind people affected by other conditions.

The technology has already been used on dozens of people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

The technology turns images captured by the camera into small electrical pulses, which are transmitted wirelessly to electrodes on the retina surface.

The electrodes then stimulate the remaining cells and replicate patterns of light for the brain, which will eventually be interpreted fully by Flynn, allowing him to regain vision.

Teen in remission from HIV 12 yrs after stopping meds: researchers

Yahoo – AFP, Deborah Jones, 20 July 2015

A French teenager born with HIV has been in remission for 12 years after stopping 

her medication, a world-first that renews hope for the prospect of early treatment, 

researchers said (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

Vancouver (AFP) - A French teenager born with HIV has been in remission for 12 years after stopping her medication, a world-first that renews hope for the prospect of early treatment, researchers said Monday.

The young woman, now 18, is not considered cured, but is doing perfectly well off treatment, said the research led by Asier Saez-Cirion of the HIV, Inflammation and Persistence Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

Never before have scientists known of a case in which an HIV-infected child goes into long-term remission, said the research presented at the International AIDS Society meeting in this western Canadian city.

"We can detect HIV in the cells, but what we cannot detect is viral replication in the plasma," Saez-Cirion told AFP in an interview.

"We don't know yet why this girl was able to control the infection," he added.

The girl does not have the genetic factors associated with natural control of infection, which has been seen in a rare group of patients.

"Most likely she has been in virological remission for so long because she received a combination of antiretrovirals very soon after infection," said the report.

The young woman, whose identity was not revealed, was infected with HIV either in utero or during childbirth.

When she was five, her family dropped out of the treatment program for unknown reasons. When they returned her to medical care one year later, she "was found to have an undetectable viral load," said the report.

Doctors decided not to resume antiretroviral treatment for the child, but monitored her.

Researchers said the unconventional case bolsters growing evidence in adults that starting treatment is essential immediately after HIV infection.

Her case "suggests that long-term remission after early treatment is possible in children infected by HIV," said the report.

Researchers said the unconventional case bolsters growing evidence in adults that

starting treatment is essential immediately after HIV infection (AFP Photo/Florian Schuh)

Single case

"This case is going to be inspiring for people living with HIV and working in the field," said scientist Sharon Lewin, who co-chaired a symposium earlier this week on finding a cure for HIV.

"My reservations are, it's a single case," Lewin told AFP.

"It's also uncertain whether the teen would have controlled (her HIV infection) without any treatment. We know one percent of people who become infected naturally control the virus and don't require treatment."

The girl's case may not be unique, but it is the first identified by researchers, said Saez-Cirion.

"I'm sure there will be others in the future," he said, noting there are still relatively few studies of children infected at birth who are now young adults and have been monitored for their entire lives.

Lewin cautioned that no one should become complacent about finding a cure in the face of growing evidence showing it is possible to treat HIV.

"The reality is there are still two million new infections and 1.5 million deaths a year from HIV and 35 million living with HIV," said Lewin.

"Whether we can really fund that, sustain and keep people in lifelong care is unclear."

Saez-Cirion said the findings offer direction for future research.

The case "shows that remission is possible, but rare. We need to understand why it's not common, and which mechanisms are (involved) so that we can treat a larger population."

Related Article:

"The Triad - The Three parts of Human Consciousness" - May 10, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version) - New

"..  The Three Parts - More to Consider Than You Think

There are three parts to the brain of the Human Being, but you are only aware of two of them. We’re going to give you the third part tonight. The second brain of the Human Being, which is processed by the synaptical part (the brain box), is the pineal. This is responsible for creative thinking, intuition and intellectual awareness. Intuition is starting to grow with humanity, and it comes from that which is your innate inside the body. It's getting smarter and is passing more to your brain to process at a greater frequency and strength as you evolve. It also is starting to give you Akashic information (past-life remembrances). You might say your pineal ’net is getting faster, and your brain is processing it. You are feeling that you are becoming more intuitively aware of things.

The bridge between Human consciousness and the smart body, the innate, is starting to mature and grow up. You are getting out of pure survival mode and many are starting to awaken to a greater truth. This is all being enhanced in the Human Being to a point where Humans will think, "The brain is doing better!" It isn’t. The brain remains the brain and will process a better intuition from the pineal. The brain remains a stellar survival organ, but intuition is going to get stronger and stronger. Again, your spiritual Internet is getting faster.

In this very 3D energy, you only see the one organ that you feel is responsible for everything you do, but there are actually three. The evolved Human Being has the potential to create light [awareness energy]. I just gave you something we can study later – information that is new. There’s a perception of spirituality being white light. It’s everywhere. You’ve seen it everywhere. There is the story of Moses and the burning bush. This was a flame that did not consume itself, but if you could really see it in reality, it was a white light. For him, it was a higher consciousness than he had ever seen before, an angelic energy coming through his pineal, projecting to him.

When you have a near-death experience, you go to the light. This is more than metaphoric. You start to create something we will call divinity and mastery. White light coming from you is the higher consciousness you. The more your DNA efficiency is increased, the whiter the light gets. This is a metaphor, but there is truth often behind all mythology, and this is one of those. Dear ones, you are becoming more angelic when you start to understand the third part.

The Third Brain

We have told you before that there is a mystery going on that involves the Human heart. The Human heart, dear ones, is the third part of the brain. Science has never understood why the heart has such a tremendous magnetic field. It is actually larger than any other organ, including the brain with all of its synaptic activity. The heart overshadows it in so many ways, yet examination of the heart in a corporeal way will give information that is seemingly very ordinary. The heart simply pumps blood in a specific rhythm as sent by signals from the brain. Yet there is far more.

When we started, we gave you instructions to connect the dots, and here is your chance. When a spinal cord is severed in an accident, the heart continues pumping. Brain signals that supposedly control timing and rhythm are disconnected. The signals are gone, yet the heart keeps pumping. Not only that, but digestion continues, liver function continues, pancreas and others continue, even reproduction continues! All without the brain.

There is a third element of consciousness that is centered within the Human heart. You have identified the heart metaphorically as the symbol of love, and you’re right. These three parts to Human consciousness go way beyond the brain as an organ. It’s the trilogy of survival. It’s also represented by the three energy [in numerology] that you see everywhere in spiritual history. It's the three horses that pulled the ascension chariot, the Merkabah of Elijah. It's the trilogy Godhead of many churches [Father, Son, Holy Spirit]. In your body, it's the pineal [creator intuition], the brain [survival] and the heart [compassion].

The masters of this planet had all three working well, but in an older energy, you have not. In an older energy, you were only in survival mode. What is happening is that you are evolving, and the innate of the body is getting stronger. DNA is starting to become more efficient, and these parts are starting to finally connect. Dear ones, what separates a Human Being in survival from a master is intuitive compassion. Compassion is generated from the heart and it’s not a metaphor. It is part of the heart-brain.

There are things going on in this trilogy that you should understand. Connect the dots and start using science to find out and recognize that there are things that are not visible in any spectrum you can yet measure. But simply because you are blind to it at the moment doesn't mean it's not happening. You simply have not discovered everything yet, but the advancement in multidimensional physics will help. Listen, as new physics inventions come to you, you must involve biology, too! Don't separate the two sciences [as they are now]. You will have a far better idea of the truth of all of this when you can quantum-map emotion, thinking and Human behavior. It will show itself immediately.

The brain is responsible for facilitating [coordinating] all three of these parts, but be aware that the other two are doing a great deal of the work. Intuition and compassion will always seem to come directly from the brain, just like to the ancient when the magic came from the box. Connect yourself to a bigger picture, dear ones. The triad of Human consciousness is the beginning of the realization of mastery.

That’s all we want to tell you now. It's something for you to digest into your logic and spirituality, is it not? Think about it and ask your own intuition, "Is it true. Could it be that the Human brain is only a facilitator for something bigger?" This information starts to explain some measurements you never could explain before with conventional biological beliefs. It starts to explain why it is when a Human Being makes certain kinds of decisions, suddenly the brain seems to control the body better. Why is it that corporeal health can suddenly change, heal itself, ask for other kinds of foods, and have biological wisdom? What causes spontaneous remission? Dear ones, unless you were connected, you wouldn’t have any of this. Think: It isn't the brain that gave any of that to you. It was the brain that simply facilitated the connection from that little wire – the Creative Source, the white light.

There have been metaphors given tonight and things for you to examine, which also mean other things. It is the way that we begin the teaching of profound things. We will do it again and again, then elaborate on and on, and talk endlessly about it – all so that you will get it. It’s time you knew the grander picture of the triad, the trilogy of creation inside the Human Being.

I am Kryon, in love with humanity and for good reason.

And so it is.

KRYON

"The Physics of Consciousness - The Future Revealed" - June 29, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"THE INNATE REVEALED" - Nov 22, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)