Health officials seek to eliminate AIDS in infants

Public health officials are saying that AIDS among infants is close to being eliminated in the US.
A New York Times report is crediting better drugs and more aggressive education and testing. The news comes just a decade after AIDS was blamed in the deaths of hundreds of babies each year.
Figures listed show that 2,000 babies were born infected with HIV in 1990. That number has since dropped to just over 200 a year. In New York City alone, 321 babies were born with the virus — but that number fell to just five in 2003.
One health official calls the changes in New York “absolutely a success story,” but warns that more work must be done on a global scale.

School tries reward system for parents

Maybe it’s the free appliances that are the reason so many kids go to class at one Arizona elementary school.
The school is giving prizes away to the parents. The prizes include big-ticket items as refrigerators, computers, T-V’s, washers and dryers. All the items are either brand new or lightly used and are donated by volunteers.
Davidson Elementary School boasts an almost 93 percent attendance rate. That’s up just one percent from last year, but the program started the last quarter of the last school year, so any resulting improved attendance hasn’t been noticed yet.
However, there is a down side.
The program may have prompted some parents to send their children to school when the kids were sick. One staff member says that’s not good.

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