Weird news - Baby born with abnormality, called 'plastic skin'

The joy of human birth, of the arrival of a new life, can sometimes be marred by some problem that has occurred during the development phase of the baby. Genetics and the chance mutation of one or more genes can cause weird conditions to happen; and sometimes these conditions are so rare that they are unknown to many doctors and reference to journals would be required. It can be very painful for parents who joy is suddenly marred due to fear and uncertainty, such as in this case.
Imagine a baby who is born with a condition where the skin looks like a yellow or shiny film which then peels off at regular intervals, which makes it painful.
The disease is relatively rare, happening only once in every six hundred thousand babies (link to article):

Ever heard about a "plastic baby" who looks like a rubber doll and sheds skin like that of reptile scales. A plastic baby born in Amritsar has become the centre of attraction in the region as birth of such babies is rare and occurs once among six lakh newborns. The plastic newborns are scientifically known as collodion babies. He said that plastic babies develop cracks in their skin after birth and baby's membrane gets peeled off automatically within a period of 15 to 30 days. In some cases, the plastic coating-like skin makes the life of the child miserable. The baby remains under constant threat of infection when the body sheds skin. This threat remains all life. Collodion babies, who are often premature, are also known as plastic babies. They are born encased in a skin that resembles a yellow, tight and shiny film or dried collodion (sausage skin). The collodion membrane undergoes desquamation or peeling, which is very painful.

Weird news - Children as young as 11 in the US can now order condoms over email

In a development that seems necessary for the transmission of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, the US city of Philadelphia seems to have gone in for something very new and different. The rate of sexual activity among high school students is very high, and out of them, a number of them do not use any form of sexual prevention, around 37%, and as a result of this, the rate of STD among this population is very high. To enable more of this at-risk population to get sexual protection, the city has decided to allow girls in this age group to get sexual protection mailed to them without anyone knowing (and this includes the parents of the children). This program seems to meet approval of activists, but parents are concerned by this action (link to article):

"Playing it safe just got easier. If you live in Philadelphia and are between the ages of 11 and 19, you can now have condoms mailed directly to you for FREE. Maybe it's difficult for you to stop by one of our sites to pick up condoms. Or maybe you're just shy or feeling weird about picking up condoms," the website TakeControlPhilly.org reads. "Every girl is different. Figure out what position works for you. You can stand with one foot on a chair, sit on the edge of a chair, lie down, squat, or for fun, have your partner help you out," it says.
The website that asks visitors to the city to use condoms "each and every time", also provides an option where users can order free male condoms to be mailed directly to their homes. Recent national data shows that Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of STDs among comparable cities, with African-Americans and adolescents being disproportionately affected, officials said.

Weird news - Maid has it as her mission to spread AIDS to all, through unprotected sex

Getting AIDS can cause a huge amount of emotional turmoil to the people afflicted with it. Earlier, getting AIDS was a certain death sentence, but now, with a number of medicines available, it is possible to live a healthy life for long periods of time. However, at the same time, there are a lot of laws in place that criminalize the wilful passing on of AIDS to other people, so passing on of the virus from one to another is a crime if done without the knowledge of the other person.
But, if a person has been given the virus by somebody else, it can cause a huge amount of anger and lead to a desire for revenge, which seems to have been the case here, where a lady was given the AIDS virus by her husband, and in her quest for revenge, she spread it to a number of other people (link to article):

A doctor treating HIV-positive patients has claimed that one of his patients has indulged in sexual relations with more than 100 partners "to take revenge" for her condition. While counselling her, the doctor learnt that she not only has multiple partners, but hunts for them with a vengeance to spread the virus she contracted through her husband.
"She was brought to us by her sister, who herself is HIV positive," said Gilada. "We found out that she had learnt of her husband's HIV-positive status in 2005, and that he had transmitted the disease to her as well. Although she divorced him, she couldn't come to terms with the fact that he had knowingly passed on the virus to her," he said.
Gilada said that during the counselling sessions, the woman, who works as a maid, claimed she has had more than 300 sexual encounters with 100 men over the past three years. "She admitted to frequent encounters with men ranging from her employers and their relatives, to the liftman and students - all of whom have had unprotected sex with her," said Gilada.

Superbug kills man at an extremely fast speed

Once in a while you hear about bacteria or viruses that can kill a person inspite of the best efforts of doctors, and you wonder about how there can be diseases that can kill people like this; and then you remember about hearing of some diseases such as Ebola where the rate of death is more than 80% of those infected, where the disease actually ends because it has killed too many people before the disease could spread to more people. But how many times have you heard of a bug that could kill people in an incredibly short period of time ? Well, read on (link to article):

A flesh-eating superbug claimed the life of a British father just four hours after he was hospitalised with leg pains. The Daily Mail reports Richard Johnson, 54, died from a rare infection known as necrotising fasciitis in November last year.
The infection moved through Mr Johnson's body so quickly that doctors could actually see it spreading up from his leg to his abdomen as they operated, an inquest into his death was told. The rare infection occurs in the deeper layers of skin and is typically caused by many types of bacteria entering an open wound, especially after major surgery. While commonly known as a flesh-eating bug, the bacteria don't actually eat tissue, instead destroying skin and muscle by releasing toxins.

How horrific it must be to know that you have a condition that will not allow you to last through the day, and how horrible it must be for doctors and for family members to know that you are going down, and there is nothing that they can do.