MIAMI – South Florida specialists have restored vision to a young boy who was legally blind.
Dr. Alfonso Sabater and his colleagues at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute used gene therapy to treat a rare condition which left 14-year-old Antonio Vento able to see little more than blurry shapes.
“It actually took a long time to recover, about three or four months, before Antonio could start noticing an important difference in his vision, but he was probably around seven or eight months when he was close to having perfect vision,” said Sabater, who is the Medical Director of the Ocular Surface Program and Director of the Corneal Innovation Lab at Bascom-Palmer.
Photos reveal the condition of Vento’s eyes before and after the procedure.
The treatment used eye drops containing a missing gene to help skin cells make collagen and prevent blistering wounds.
The same therapy had been successfully used in a clinical trial to treat a skin disorder related to Vento’s disease.
That success led Sabater to seek and receive FDA compassionate-use approval for the teen’s eyes.
STATIN MAY BENEFIT PEOPLE WITH HIV
And people with HIV may have a new tool to help their heart against the virus.
According to a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Pitavastatin could reduce heart complications by up to 35 percent.
The findings are based on more than 7,700 HIV-positive people between 40 and 75 years old, who were taking anti-retroviral medication..
The drug is used to lower high cholesterol. It appears to provide protection from issues, including heart attacks, heart failure and strokes.