THE Department of Health (DOH) revealed an increase of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) being treated at Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC). Dr. Maria Lorena Santos, BGHMC chair of HIV and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Core Team, said that there are now 72 HIV cases recorded from 2006 until May of this year. These cases were recorded at BGHMC. She said the hospital had three cases each in 2006 and 2007 while six cases each in 2008 and 2009. Five patients were found HIV positive in 2010 at BGHMC. However, the number increased in 2011 wherein the hospital had 16 HIV positive patients. The number continues to increase in 2012 with 17...

Doctors are warning that a drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea could be more deadly than AIDS, and are urging members of US Congress to spend $54 million for the development of a drug that would fight it. "This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly," Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, told CNBC. The new strain of gonorrhea, H041, was first discovered in 2009 after a sex worker fell victim to the superbug in Japan. Medical officials reported that the medication-resilient ‘sex superbug’ was discovered in Hawaii in May 2011, and has since spread to California and Norway, the International...

MANILA, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino III wasn't the only person of Filipino descent in this year's TIME 100 Most Influential People list. Filipino-American Katherine Luzuriaga, one of the 3 scientists who reported the first ever recorded "functional cure" in an infant with HIV, was also honored by the magazine in its annual list. Luzuriaga, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was cited by the magazine under its "Pioneers" list, along with fellow doctors Deborah Persaud and Hannah Gay, for their breakthrough in HIV/AIDS research. She has been one of the world's leading scientists dealing with pediatric...

The overwhelming evidence of the curative powers of marijuana and cannabinoids leaves little doubt that the pharmaceutical industry is behind marijuana prohibition laws. The amount of research now validating the truly remarkable nature of this healing plant is simply enormous. According to new findings published in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers have now discovered that marijuana-like chemicals trigger receptors in on human immune cells that can directly inhibit a type of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) found in late-stage AIDS. The U.S. Patent 6630507 was specifically initiated when researchers found that cannabinoids had specific antioxidant properties making them useful in the...