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First haemophiliac with Aids in UK died without realising he had it

The first haemophiliac to contract Aids in Britain died in 1985 without realising he had caught the virus, an inquiry has heard. 

Kevin Slater, from Cwmbran, south Wales, was treated with imported blood products in the 1980s and later tested positive for HIV, the Infected Blood Inquiry was told.  

He was not told he had been diagnosed with Aids in 1983 and died 18 months later, with his sister-law insisting he died without ever realising he had the condition.  

Mr Slater died of Aids in 1985, and records show it was recommended that the diagnosis be kept from him. 

Thousands of Britons were infected with HIV and hepatitis in the 1970s and 1980s after being treated with blood products imported from America. 

The inquiry is looking into what has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

The contaminated blood scandal has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS amid claims of a government cover-up.

The current inquiry comes after two previous ones were branded whitewashes. 

Haemophilia is a condition which affects the clotting of blood in those affected.

It is usually treated with blood products, however the ones used to treat patients in the 1980s were in infected with HIV. 

Mr Slater's sister-in-law Linda Maule told the inquiry: 'He was treated disgustingly. There was no care, nothing. 

'The way he was treated - put in a separate room, meals being passed through the door.

'This guy towards the end was being fed by his parents because he couldn't get out of bed, he couldn't physically get out of bed.

'I don't think he was ever told, that's my honest opinion. I don't remember ever hearing Kevin say ''Oh you know this is the score then mum'' or his Mum actually looking up and saying ''we've found out what's up''.'

Mr Slater's brother Paul was also a haemophiliac who died of Aids in 1991 after also being given infected blood.

His sister-in-law said the inquiry had been difficult to listen to and added: 'Hearing it all again today brought it all back,' she said. 'I can see this guy there, crying out for help and not getting it.'

The inquiry also heard that consultant Prof Arthur Bloom did not immediately inform the haemophiliac community that he was treating a patient with a confirmed case of Aids. 

For several months Prof Bloom described the case to haemophiliac groups and officials in terms such as 'possible' and 'suspected'.

This was despite Aids being marked as probable on Mr Slater's medical records.  

Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff described the descriptions as 'difficult to reconcile'.  

Kent variant mutating to mimic South African strain - and scientists warn it may already be endemic

The Kent variant is mutating to mimic the South African variant, officials have found, amid warnings it may already be endemic in the UK.

Genomic sequencing has found multiple cases of a mutation to the spike protein called E484K, which renders current vaccines less effective.

It comes the day after the government announced door-to-door testing to contain outbreaks of the South Africa variant, believed to have entered the country via an asymptomatic carrier.

Here is where there are known cases.

However, separately from this, the E484K mutation is now occurring naturally within the UK variant of the virus that swept the country in December, according to a leading member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Professor Calum Semple told Today on Radio 4: "The mutation of most concern, which we call E484K, has also occurred spontaneously in the new Kent strain in parts of the country too.”

A recent briefing document from Public Health England found that the spike protein mutation E484K had been detected in 11 sequences of the UK or “Kent” variant, a timeline of which can be seen below.

So far, laboratory studies have indicated that the UK variant is similarly reactive to the current crop of vaccines as the original strain, but the South African variant less so.

However, if the UK variant increasingly displays the E484K mutation - in common with the South African variant - it is likely to be more resistant, making vaccines only 60 per cent effective.

Professor Robin Shattock, an expert in infection and immunity at Imperial College London, said mRNA vaccines, such as the Prizer-BioNTech jab, would be the quickest to repurpose to combat new variants.

He added that adnovirus technology, used by Oxford-AstraZeneca, could also be altered swiftly.

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Tony Bennett, 94, reveals Alzheimer's Disease diagnosis

Tony Bennett has Alzheimer's and has secretly been living with the disease since 2016.

The American jazz singer, 94, announced he was diagnosed four years ago and has been battling the condition ever since in an article with AARP magazine, published on Monday. 

Tony said 'life is a gift, even with Alzheimer's', and thanked his wife Susan Crow, 54, and his family for their continued support.

'Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer's. Thank you to [his wife] Susan and my family for their support, and AARP the Magazine for telling my story', he wrote on Twitter. 

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die.

Although he was diagnosed four years ago, the article reveals that Tony began show real signs of decline two years later, while he was recording the Cheek to Cheek album with Lady Gaga - a follow up to which will be released in the spring.

His third wife Susan told the publication: 'There's a lot about him that I miss. Because he's not the old Tony anymore … But when he sings, he's the old Tony.'

Tony first aired concerns over his health in 2015 when he admitted he was struggling to remember the names of his fellow musicians.

© Provided by Daily Mail Statement: The iconic American singer, 94, has announced that he was diagnosed with the condition in 2016 and has been living with the disease ever since during an article with AARP magazine on Monday

Although his wife Susan tried to assist by writing a list of names to keep on his piano, Tony insisted that he needed to see a doctor.

A neurologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City confirmed the diagnosis in 2016.

Dr. Gayatri Devi, who diagnosed the star, told the magazine: 'He is doing so many things, at 94, that many people without dementia cannot do, He really is the symbol of hope for someone with a cognitive disorder.'

He also admitted that he was 'humbled' by his wife's devotion to him.

According to his team of neurologists, Tony still has twice weekly singing sessions which they believe are stimulating his brain in a positive way.

It appears the advice has so far had a positive impact, as the report claimed Tony has so far been 'spared' some of the disease's symptoms which include disorientation, episodes of rage, depression and a detachment from reality.

It also stated that Tony may never develop these symptoms.

The article did offer an insight into Tony's condition, as it stated: 'His expression had a masklike impassivity that changed only slightly to dim awareness when Susan placed a hand on his shoulder.'

Tony's condition has also reportedly been aided by his Mediterranean diet and exercise regimen, which are aided by his wife Susan. Both have been proven to delay the progression of memory loss.

Tony and Susan began dating in the late 1980s, after his 1983 divorce from his second wife, Susan Grant.

They finally tied the knot in June, 2007, when she took the celebrity's real last name, Benedetto.

Susan told CBS This Morning that Tony isn't in any pain with his condition and due to this factor doesn't believe that anything is wrong with him.  

She said: 'You know, he works out five times a week. He sings twice a week with a pianist that comes over. He only understands if something is an ouch, you know, then there's a problem.

'He knows all his kids, absolutely. And he knows me. When you''re somebody''s caregiver 24/7, it goes a long way if they still know you.   

'You know, every night when we go to bed, he says, ''I love you, Susan.'' And every morning when he wakes up he says, ''I love you''.'

He continues to live at home with his wife Susan in their New York apartment, while he is managed by his son Danny.

Tony is also father to three other children, Dae, Antonia and Joanna. 

Susan admitted that she wasn't sure whether Tony would be able to record his first album with Gaga at New York's Electric Lady Studios.

She recalled telling Tony's manager and son Danny that they would 'try'. 

Gaga collaborated with Tony on the 2014 jazz album which featured old but not forgotten standard tunes such as Anything Goes. 

The artist previously told how collaborating with Tony 'saved her life,' reinvigorated her musical passion and causing her to want to 'take a lot more time before I have kids and settle down.'

During an interview with Parade in 2014, she discussed being in a dark place following the relative low sales and media scrutiny of her album, released in November 2013.

'Six months ago I didn't even want to sing anymore,' the Applause singer told the publication.  

'Tony said, 'I've ­never once in my career not wanted to do this.' It stung. Six months ago I didn't feel that way. 

'I tell Tony every day that he saved my life. I was so sad. I couldn't sleep. I felt dead. And then I spent a lot of time with Tony. He wanted nothing but my friendship and my voice.'

Throughout his career, Tony has been awarded 19 Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 2001, and two Emmy Awards. 

He is believed to have sold around 50 million records worldwide.

As well as his close working and personal relationship with Gaga, Tony has also performed iconic duets with the late Frank Sinatra and Amy Winehouse.

TONY BENNETT'S AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS 

Tony Bennett has won 19 Grammy Awards along with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2001) and two Emmy Awards (1996 and 2007).

The jazz star has also been recognised with an award for the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award and Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a Kennedy Center Honoree.

Tony's name is featured on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame 

The American artiste has received honorary doctorates from several institutions, such as the Berklee College of Music, The Art Institute of Boston, the George Washington University and the Juilliard School.

Reference: daily mail: Charlotte Dean For Mailonline  4 hrs ago

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Spanish study describes ‘Covid tongue’ as coronavirus symptom

When the coronavirus pandemic hit Spanish hospitals in the spring of 2020, many operating theaters had to be closed to make space for Covid-19 patients in need of intensive care. With her operations on skin tumors cancelled, dermatologist Almudena Nuño González, from La Paz hospital in Madrid, decided to volunteer at the field hospital for coronavirus patients set up in Madrid’s Ifema convention center. This hospital, which was quickly assembled at the end of March, treated hundreds of Covid-19 patients during the first wave of the pandemic. The doctor could not help but see these patients through the eyes of a dermatologist, and she began to note striking symptoms, like the so-called “Covid tongue.”

“We found changes in the tongue that until then had not been linked to Covid: the tongue is enlarged, it appears swollen, the teeth marks can be seen and it can also be depapillated, with small indentations in the back where the taste buds are flattened. It looks like a tongue with red markings,” explains Nuño González, whose team announced the findings of the research in a press release on Tuesday. 

The dermatologist and her colleagues studied 666 Covid patients who were admitted to the Ifema field hospital between April 10 and 25 in 2020. The average age of the patient was around 56 and nearly half were of Latin American origin. All had minor or moderate cases of pneumonia. The study from the doctors found that more than 25% of the patients also presented changes in the oral mucosa (the mucous membrane lining the inside of the mouth) such as transient lingual papillitis (11%), which is a kind of blemish on the tongue, mouth ulcers (7%), tongue inflammation with teeth indentations (7%), burning sensation (5%) and tongue inflammation with patchy depapillation or loss of lingual papillae (4%), according to the results, which were published last September in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Nuño González explains that other factors could explain some of these symptoms, such as medications or oxygen ventilation, which dries out the mouth and could irritate the tongue. “The depapillated tongue is 100% due to Covid, because this is not caused by any other circumstance or treatment,” she says. “It is a finding that could help with diagnosis, like the loss of smell and taste. They are very characteristic symptoms,” she adds.

The dermatologists also detected alterations in the skin of a patient’s hand and feet in almost 40% of cases, in particular, peeling (25%), red or purple discolored skin (15%) and a burning sensation known as erythrodysesthesia (7%). In total, nearly half the patients studied in Ifema had symptoms in either their skin or oral mucosa.

Many experts have been warning about these possible symptoms since the first wave of the pandemic. In May, for example, Carmen Martín Carreras-Oresas, from the European University in Madrid, published three cases of mouth ulcers or blisters allegedly associated with Covid-19. In July, the odontologist Milagros Díaz Rodríguez, from the same university, described another three cases of symptoms in the oral cavity linked to coronavirus, such as a burning sensation and loss of lingual papillae. Nuño González says that these early reports were received with skepticism, as they only dealt with a few cases. “By studying such a large number of patients, we have been able to show that these symptoms are related to Covid,” she says.

The British epidemiologist Tim Spector, from King’s College in London, also said recently that he has been receiving dozens of reports of tongue problems via the app ZOE, which is used by Covid-19 patients to describe their symptoms. “Spector has corroborated in the general population with minor Covid-19 cases, who stayed at home, the same things that we have seen in patients admitted with pneumonia,” says Nuño González.

A delight- My mail is full of tongues each morning from people who had tongue problems that coincided with Covid symptoms like fever and fatigue - but baffled doctors. Happy to share so we all become experts... pic.twitter.com/y2CEUpZz8o

— Tim Spector (@timspector) January 22, 202

But there has been more research into the skin symptoms associated with the coronavirus. Last April, the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology published a study of the most common skin manifestations of Covid-19, such as chilblain-type inflammation and blistering. Nuño González believes that symptoms affecting the mouth went undetected at the beginning of the pandemic due to the initial chaos. “At the end of March and in early April, there was a lot of fear of the disease. Patients were made to wear a face mask for as much time as possible, and often their mucosas were not examined,” she explains.

Reference; El Pais: Manuel Ansede  10 hrs ago