Baby cured of HIV

Doctors in Mississippi had a remarkable event occur Sunday when they discovered a baby that had contracted HIV at birth had no sign of the deadly virus.  Dr. Hannah Gay from the University of Mississippi Medical Center said, “We have perhaps inadvertently but in fact cured the child.” This is the first case in history of a baby being cured of HIV.

This case is special in many ways.  The mother had no prior knowledge of having HIV while pregnant so she did not receive the usual prenatal care that reduces the chances of infection in the child.  Due to the child’s high infection risk, doctors treated the infant only 30 hours after birth with three aggressive retroactive drugs to attack the HIV virus. This is a drastic measure that had never been taken before on someone so young.  Usually there is a six-month waiting period before the use of retroactive drugs to see if the child had contracted the virus or just held antibodies from the infected mother at birth.  In this particular case, the doctors kept the child on treatment and tested weekly for the virus. On three occasions the infant tested positive for the virus however, after 29 days of treatment the child had no sign of the virus. For 18 months they continued treatment but unfortunately the mother started missing appointments until nearly a month and a half later.  Expecting the treatment to have failed and the child to have tremendous growth in the infection the scientists were baffled to find no trace of HIV.  At first doctors’ speculations were that they were treating a child that had not been infected; but after numerous testing and help partnering with Johns Hopkins University they concluded that the child did in fact carry the virus. Scientists believe that the aggressive actions taken at only hours old prevented the growth a replication of HIV. After two and a half years the child still has no sign of the virus and no longer requires medicine. Doctors are still hopeful that the virus stays gone and that replication of this treatment can be implemented.

Every year more than 300,000 children are infected with HIV. If this is not a one in a million occurrence and future research shows that this is an effective treatment, thousands of lives can be saved each year.

Dr. Hannah Gay still gives the infant check-ups ever month and said, "I just check for the virus and keep praying that is stays gone." 

References:

Pollack, A. McNeil Jr., D. (2013). In medical first, a baby with HIV is deemed cured.

            Retrieved March 5, 2013 from

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/health/for-first-time-baby-cured-of-hiv-doctors-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Castellano, A. (2013). Mississippi baby born with HIV “functionally cured.” Doctors     

          say. Retrieved March 5, 2013 from

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mississippi-baby-born-hiv-functionally-cured-doctors/story?id=18645410