US HIV baby ‘cured’ by early drug treatment
BBC - Monday, March 4th, 2013 at 1:41 PM
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the immune system
A baby girl in the US born with HIV appears to have been cured after very early treatment with standard drug therapy, doctors say.
The Mississippi child is now two-and-a-half years old and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.
More testing needs to be done to see if the treatment – given within hours of birth – would work for others.
If the girl stays healthy, it would be the world’s second reported ‘cure’.
Dr Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, presented the findings at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.
“This is a proof of concept that HIV can be potentially curable in infants,” she said.
Cocktail of drugs
In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown became the first person in the world believed to have recovered from HIV.
His infection was eradicated through an elaborate treatment for leukaemia that involved the destruction of his immune system and a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection.
In contrast, the case of the Mississippi baby involved a cocktail of widely available drugs, known as antiretroviral therapy, already used to treat HIV infection in infants.
It suggests the swift treatment wiped out HIV before it could form hideouts in the body.
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Wow!
Just goes to show you that miracles do happen! In 1985, there appeared to be no hope in finding a cure.
This is truly wonderful news!
@ Confucius…
There is money to be made in the treatment of HIV, not curing it.
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