HIV Virus Returns In Baby Thought To Be Cured since 2010

Forum 9 years ago

HIV Virus Returns In Baby Thought To Be Cured since 2010

(not Actually The said Baby)

A toddler born with the AIDS virus, who scientists thought had been cured after she received aggressive drug treatment within the first 30 hours of life, has shown signs of infection again.

The Mississippi child’s stunning story, first disclosed in March 2013, was the first account of an HIV-infected infant achieving what appeared to be a cure after receiving the aggressive drug treatment. Her case raised hopes that more of the roughly 250,000 children who are born each year infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, might have a shot at a cure.
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Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed when the child’s doctors discovered last week that the HIV virus had begun replicating. A second test confirmed the return of the HIV, and according to WallStreetJournal, she was put back on drugs and is now doing well. Levels of HIV in her blood now receded as a result of resumed drug treatment.

The girl, now 4 years old, was born prematurely in a Mississippi clinic in 2010 to an HIV-infected mother who had received no prenatal care. After her birth, the child was rushed to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where Dr Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist, decided to take aggressive action, offering the newborn a three-drug cocktail of powerful HIV medications. Normally, children suspected of HIV infection are given a milder course of treatments until tests can confirm the infection.