It has now been more than three decades since the world came to know about HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS. About 30 million people have fallen prey to this
killer disease and 7,000 people a day are infected with HIV around the world.
 |
| 2-year-old Baby Cured from HIV/AIDS Infection |
Most
recently; a potentially ground-breaking case could offer insights on how to
eradicate HIV infection in its youngest victims.
Two-and-a-half year old baby girl, who was born with HIV, has
been cured after very early treatment with standard drug therapy, researchers
say. The Mississippi girl has been off HIV drugs for
about a year with no signs of infection.
Although there is an important technical tone: researchers insist on
calling it a “functional cure” rather than a complete cure; but still the development is a bright ray of hope that could help improve
treatment of babies infected at birth.
During the medical
conference at Atlanta, doctors say that the girl has only trace
amounts of HIV in her bloodstream and has been able to keep the virus that causes AIDS in check without the help of
medication.
Further
testing yet to be done to establish that whether the treatment would have the
same effect on other children or this case has some exceptions; but undoubtedly
it could transform the way high-risk babies are treated and possibly lead to a
cure for children with HIV, which causes AIDS.
"This is
a proof of concept that HIV can be potentially curable in infants," said
Dr Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns
Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore.
Attempting to replicate the results in other HIV-positive infants is
"our next step," said Dr. Persaud further, who described the
Mississippi patient at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. She and
others are to make a formal presentation during the conference's scientific
program later today (Monday).
The only fully cured AIDS patient recognized worldwide is the so-called
“Berlin patient,” American
Timothy Brown. He is considered cured of HIV and leukemia five years after
receiving bone marrow transplants from a rare donor naturally resistant to HIV.
The marrow transplant was aimed at treating his leukemia.
