Toddler Is Cured of HIV, in Aggressive After Birth Therapy

A 2 year-old female has reportedly been cured of HIV, the first case of its kind reported by scientists — globally. She was aggressively treated with antiretroviral drugs, immediately after her birth, and traces of the virus disappeared from her blood — months later, before scientists announced the development at a conference of retrovirus and opportunistic infections in Atlanta, US — this week. The Doctor taking care of the child, Hannah Gay, told The Guardian of UK that it was the first functional cure. She said, “Now, after at least one year of taking no medicine, this child’s blood remains free of virus even on the most sensitive tests available. We expect that this baby has great chances for a long, healthy life. We are certainly hoping that this approach could lead to the same outcome in many other high-risk babies.” She said the mother of the baby did not know she was infected until she was in labour, “She was too near delivery to give even the dose of medicine that we routinely use in labour. So the baby’s risk of infection was significantly higher than we usually see.” Deborah Persaud, a clinician at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, who was involved in tests that confirmed the baby was cured, also said that, “Prompt antiviral therapy in newborns that begins within days of exposure may help infants clear the virus and achieve long-term remission without lifelong treatment by preventing such viral hideouts from forming in the first place. Our next step is to find out if this is a highly unusual response to very early antiretroviral therapy or something we can actually replicate in other high-risk newborns.”