Baby Born With AIDS Cured

By Cynthia Herbert :: 1:42 AM

A Mississippi baby, born with the virus that causes AIDS, has likely been cured, doctors from University of Mississippi announced at an AIDS conference in Atlanta yesterday.

The child, a 2 1/2 year old who was born with the disease, has been off of medication for about one year, with no signs of infection yet.

Doctors prescribed a faster and stronger treatment than usual for the baby, starting a three-drug infusion within a day of the baby’s birth, before tests had even confirmed that the child was infected. It was assumed that the child was at least at risk of infection, due to the mother having HIV at the child’s birth.

The fast action by doctors apparently eliminated HIV from the baby’s bloodstream before it could find a place to hide and take root in the body. A team of doctors from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Maryland conducted an investigation that deemed the child “functionally cured” of HIV.

According to published statistics, roughly 300,000 children were born with HIV in 2011, mostly in poor countries where many infected mothers do not receive treatment that can help them from passing the virus on to their babies. In the U.S., such births are rare because HIV testing and treatment are part of routine prenatal care.

[Photo above, Dr. Hannah Gay, University of Mississippi Medical Center pediatrician who likely cured the baby as an infant]