Hepatitis C vaccine: Oxford researchers' trial 'promising' BBC Report

The scientists devised a vaccine which would target the "inner engine" rather than the surface

An early clinical trial of a hepatitis C vaccine has shown "promising" results, according to researchers at Oxford University.

Designing a vaccine has been difficult as the virus changes its appearance, making it hard to find something to target.

Writing in Science Translational Medicine, researchers say their trial on 41 patients shows it is possible.

The Hepatitis C Trust said the findings were very promising.

The virus can go unnoticed for years, but during this time it can cause considerable liver damage.

In the UK, up to 500,000 people may be infected with the virus. The World Health Organization believes the global figure could be as high as 170 million people.

It spreads through blood-to-blood contact such as sharing needles. While infection can be controlled with antiviral drugs, the Oxford University researchers say a vaccine "would be a major step forward".

Shifting target

They attempted to target the inner workings of the virus, rather than the variable surface markings.

One of the researchers, Prof Paul Klenerman, said: "That's where the engine of the virus is, where we may be able to successfully target many of the crucial pieces of machinery."

Cold viruses were modified with genetic material from the hepatitis C virus in order to prime the immune system to attack the hepatitis C virus.

The aim of the Phase I trial was to determine whether the treatment was safe and to help plan future trials.

Forty-one healthy patients were given the vaccine. Scientists said it produced a "very strong" immune response which lasted for at least a year and had no major side-effects.

Prof Klenerman said: "The immune responses we've seen are exciting and we are beginning the next stage of trials. While we are hopeful, it could be a long road to any vaccine that protects people against hepatitis C."

The next step will be to give the vaccine to people at-risk of hepatitis C infection to see whether it protects against the virus.

Charles Gore, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said: "This is very promising research.

"There has been rapid development in drugs to treat hepatitis C, but vaccine development has lagged behind. Yet, if we only treat existing infections, we will always be behind the curve.

"We badly need to improve prevention and this is an excellent step in that direction."

Calories, not protein, boost body fat: study

WASHINGTON: People who eat too much of a high-calorie, low-protein diet tend to gain more body fat than people who overeat high amounts of protein, US researchers said Tuesday.

A study published in the January 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association included 25 people in Louisiana who agreed to live as in-patients in a weight-gain experiment for a 56-day period.

Over the course of about two months, they were overfed by about 1,000 calories per day.

Some were fed a diet that was five percent protein, some ate 15 percent protein -- considered a normal level -- and others ate 25 percent protein, or a high amount.

The researchers' aim was to uncover how different levels of protein might affect overall weight gain, body fat and energy expenditure.

They found that people on the low-protein diet gained less weight overall, but that more of their extra energy was stored as fat than people on the mid-level and high-protein diets.

Low-protein eaters gained about half as much as the others -- putting on an average of 3.16 kilograms (seven pounds) during the study compared to 6.05 kg in the normal protein group and 6.51 kg in the high-protein group.

But a lot of that extra weight was in the form of lean body mass, which people on the mid- and high-level protein diets gained while those on the low-protein regime lost.

Ninety percent of the extra energy consumed by people on the low-protein diet was stored as fat, compared to about 50 percent in the other two groups.

"The key finding of this study is that calories are more important than protein while consuming excess amounts of energy with respect to increases in body fat," said the research, led by George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (AFP) 
AFP

Stephen Lawrence murder: Dobson and Norris found guilty BBC Report

Doreen Lawrence: "How can I celebrate when my son lies buried?"

Two men have been convicted of the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, 18 years after he was stabbed to death near a south London bus stop.

Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty by an Old Bailey jury after a trial based on forensic evidence.

Scientists found a tiny bloodstain on Dobson's jacket that could only have come from Mr Lawrence.

They also found a single hair belonging to the teenager on Norris's jeans. Sentencing will be on Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Panorama, Stephen's mother Doreen Lawrence said: "I don't forgive the boys who killed Stephen. They don't think they have done anything wrong.

"They took away Stephen's life and there is nothing in their behaviour or anything to show they regret what their actions have done and the pain it has caused us as a family."

In a statement read by his lawyer outside the Old Bailey, Stephen's father, Neville Lawrence, said the convictions were a moment of joy and relief - but he could not rest until all of those who killed his son were brought to justice. He described the investigation and preparation of the case as "faultless".

Duwayne Brooks, Stephen's best friend who had been with him on the night of the murder,tweeted: "Some justice at last"

Gary Dobson and David Norris: Denied murder

'Prime suspects'

The original failed investigation into the murder led to the Metropolitan Police being branded as institutionally racist.

Stephen Lawrence was 18 when he was stabbed to death near a bus stop in Eltham, south London, in April 1993.

By that time, there had already been a catalogue of police errors and two failed prosecutions, one brought by Stephen's parents.Police identified five men who were later named in a damning public inquiry as the "prime suspects".

But in a four-year-long cold case review, a fresh team of forensic scientists uncovered microscopic evidence linking two of the five men to the murder - evidence that the police had held all along.

The material - bloodstains, clothing fibres and a single hair belonging to the teenager - were recovered from the clothes of the suspects which had been seized in 1993.

Scientists recovered the material using advanced techniques which were not available to the original case scientists.

Dobson, 36, and Norris, 35, denied the murder. They said their clothing had been contaminated as police mixed up evidence over the years. Detectives spent months establishing the movements and handling of the exhibits since 1993 - and the jury were told that contamination was implausible.

Dobson was jailed for five years in 2010 for drugs trafficking. He is among a small number of men to have been tried twice for the same crime after the Court of Appeal quashed his 1996 acquittal for the murder.

Norris was convicted in 2002 of a separate allegation of racially threatening behaviour.

In mitigation, ahead of sentencing on Wednesday, counsel for Dobson said there was no evidence he had been the leader or prime motivator of the group that attacked the teenager.

Eyewitness

Matt ProdgerHome affairs correspondent

The courtroom was completely silent as the jury delivered their verdicts.

It was only afterwards, as the implications sank in, that people began to react.

Stephen Lawrence's mother remained composed, as she did throughout the trial. She wept a little, but also smiled at her solicitor. She was comforted by Stephen's brother Stuart. Stephen's father, Neville, wiped a tear from his eye as he left court.

Above, in the public gallery, Pauline Dobson, the mother of Gary Dobson, began to sob loudly, before crying out: "He did not kill that man."

As he was led away with his co-defendant David Norris, Dobson turned to the jury and shouted: "You have condemned an innocent man here today."

• The Lawrences' road to justice

Panorama follows Stephen Lawrence's mother, Doreen, as she returns to her son's grave in Jamaica

Norris's counsel repeated his client's pleas of innocence - and revealed his client had been beaten up while on remand at Belmarsh prison, suffering a broken nose and four broken ribs.

Mr Justice Treacy discharged the jury and thanked them for their "dedicated service". He told them the public owed them a debt of gratitude.

As the defendants left the dock, Dobson told his family not to worry, and Norris waved to the gallery. Members of both men's families shouted back.

'Unique case'

Continue reading the main storyActing Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, who ordered the 2006 cold case review that led to the convictions, said the case had been extremely important for the Lawrence family, the Metropolitan Police and society at large.

She said: "It's a matter of huge regret to the Met that it has taken 18 years to get to this point.

"It has been a unique case in policing. Firstly the horrible, horrible nature of the attack on the night, the time in which it has taken to bring anybody to justice, and the tireless campaigning of the Lawrences.

"There is no comparable case. All homicide cases are terrible, but for us it is a very important case.

"Most importantly, we wanted to be able to bring people to justice for the killing and try to give Doreen and Neville Lawrence and their family some sense of justice."

18 YEARS ON: THE EVIDENCE

• Tiny bloodstain on Dobson's jacket
• Scientists found DNA and matched it to Stephen
• Clothing fibres matched victim's clothes
• Single 2mm hair found on Norris's jeans matched to teenager

• Find out more: The Forensic evidence that caught the killers

Kenya recalls 'faulty' South Korean HIV kits BBC Report

There has been a sharp increase in the number of Kenyans who go for HIV testsKenya has recalled one million HIV testing kits because of fears about their accuracy, a health official has said.

The WHO had raised an alert about the kit after finding half the test results could be wrong, said Shahnaz Sharif.

But there was no reason to panic as the South Korean-manufactured kit was one of several used to diagnose the HIV status of people, Dr Sharif said.

Kenya, like most of Africa, is trying to contain the HIV/Aids pandemic.

International aids charity Avert says HIV testing has increased sharply in the past decade in the East African state, following a government-backed campaign to create more awareness about the illness.

In 2000, Kenya had only three voluntary testing and counselling sites, but the number had risen to nearly 1,000 by 2007, it says.

'Tie-breaker test'

Dr Sharif, Kenya's director of Public Health and Sanitation, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the Standard Diagnostic Bioline (SDB) kit, manufactured by a South Korean company, had wrongly diagnosed people.

"The discrepancy rate was about 50% and the WHO [World Health Organisation] has asked all countries to put on hold use of Bioline," he said.

"About 50% of positives may have been reported as negative and 50% of negatives as positive."

The WHO had detected the unreliability of SDB, which was widely used by countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Dr Sharif said.

But Kenyans should not be alarmed because the SDB test is one of three tests that health officials carry out on people to make sure their HIV status is correctly diagnosed, he said.

"People are really worried and asking if it is going to affect them. The answer is no," Dr Sharif said, adding that a "tie-breaker" test was normally conducted if there were conflicting results.

More than one million Kenyans are HIV-positive.

Syria unrest: Arab League calls for end to shooting BBC Report

The Arab League secretary general has called for an end to shootings in Syria, warning snipers remain a threat

Protesters are frustrated with the Arab League's efforts

Nabil al-Arabi said "all signs of military presence" had left the cities, with tanks and artillery removed.

Some 60 Arab League monitors are checking compliance with a peace plan, but correspondents say protesters are frustrated they cannot stop killings.

The UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed in a crackdown on anti-government protests since March.

There has been no let-up in violence, and activists say 390 people have been killed since the observers arrived last week.

Activist group the Local Co-ordination Committees said 15 people were killed on Monday, 10 of them in the flashpoint city of Homs.

Meanwhile in northern Idlib province, mutinous troops killed, wounded or captured a number of government soldiers in attacks on three checkpoints, London-based opposition group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

There has also been criticism of the head of the monitoring team, Sudanese Gen Mustafa al-Dabi - who is regarded by some as biased towards the Syrian government.

And on Sunday, the Arab Parliament, an advisory body to the league, said the observers should be withdrawn because of the continuing violence.

Rooftop snipers

At a news conference at the league's headquarters in Cairo, Mr Arabi said the mission needed more time to complete its work.

The league would then report on the monitors' activities and decide if more work was needed, he added.

He said the military had withdrawn heavy weapons from residential areas and was on the outskirts of cities, but the violence had not ended.

"All signs of military presence have been withdrawn from the cities; tanks and cannons have been removed ... and are now away from residential areas," he said.

"The observer mission was able to take food supplies into some cities, specially Homs. It also managed to bring out corpses.

"I have spoken with the head of mission and yes, shots are still being fired and there are still snipers in action. We want all these signs of violence to disappear."

He added that it was difficult to tell who was firing on whom.

Mr Arabi added that the government had released about 3,500 prisoners since the mission arrived.

The Arab League had asked the opposition to provide it with a list of those they think are still in custody, he said.

The removal of heavy weaponry and freeing of political prisoners are two key points of the Arab League plan, and this will enable the Syrian government to say it is in compliance, says the BBC's Jon Donnison.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad says it is fighting armed groups and that 2,000 security forces personnel have died.

Casualty figures and other information are hard to verify as most foreign media are barred from reporting freely in Syria.