Baby gene therapy study offers hope for fatal muscle disease

Baby gene therapy study offers hope for fatal muscle disease

WASHINGTON

A first attempt at gene therapy for a disease that leaves babies unable to move, swallow and, eventually, breathe has extended the tots’ lives, and some began to roll over, sit and stand on their own, researchers reported Wednesday.

Only 15 babies with spinal muscular atrophy received the experimental gene therapy, but researchers in Ohio credited the preliminary and promising results to replacing the infants’ defective gene early – in the first few months of life, before the neuromuscular disease destroyed too many key nerve cells.

Mendell cautioned that much more study is needed to prove the gene therapy works and is safe. Nor is it clear whether the replacement gene’s effects would wane over time.

Drought may have aided storm that walloped Northeast

PORTLAND, Maine

Drought conditions, recent rainfall and an unusual storm path in Maine may have contributed to the large numbers of trees that toppled during a storm that walloped the Northeast this week, officials said.

The storm cut power to nearly 1.5 million homes and businesses in the region at its peak. It left more Mainers in the dark than even the infamous 1998 ice storm, but the long-term effects likely will be much different.

Because of dry conditions, the trees’ roots weren’t healthy, and ground conditions and foliage that remained on the trees made them more susceptible to wind, said Peter Rogers, acting director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

Trump opioid panel wants drug courts, training for doctors

President Donald Trump’s commission on the opioid crisis called Wednesday for more drug courts, more training for doctors and penalties for insurers that dodge covering addiction treatment.

The panel’s final report stopped short, however, of calling for new dollars to address the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. Instead, the commission asked Congress for “sufficient funds” and suggested giving the White House drug czar’s office the ability to review federal spending on the problem.

But adding a new layer of oversight was met with skepticism from addiction treatment advocates. The Office of National Drug Control Policy, known as the drug czar’s office, “is not a watchdog agency,” said Andrew Kessler, a behavioral health consultant in Washington, D.C.

7-year-old girl sneaks onto plane at Geneva airport

GENEVA

A runaway 7-year-old girl slipped through security checks at Geneva’s airport and onto a plane without a ticket before being spotted by a crew member and handed over to police, officials said Wednesday.

Acknowledging an “eminently regrettable” incident that could have ended badly, Geneva Airport spokesman Bertrand Stampfli said authorities were enhancing measures to make sure children are accompanied by adults when passing through security checks.

In the incident Sunday, the girl, who was not identified, initially slipped away from her parents at Geneva’s main railway station and traveled by train to the small airport on the French border.

The child repeatedly “took advantage of her small size” and employed a “ruse” to make it look like she was traveling with adults ahead or behind her, Stampfli said.

Associated Press