Mississippi: Toddler in full "remission" of HIV after aggressive treatment at birth

A toddler, now three years old, seems to be in full remission after being born HIV positive.


The results seem to come from immediate aggressive therapy upon birth, when it was discovered the child's mother was HIV positive.

From Huffington Post:

Most HIV-infected moms in the U.S. get AIDS medicines during pregnancy, which greatly cuts the chances they will pass the virus to their babies. But the Mississippi mom got no prenatal care and her HIV was discovered during labor. Doctors considered the baby to be at such high risk that they started the child on three powerful medicines 30 hours after birth, rather than waiting for a test to confirm infection as is usually done.

Within a month, the baby's virus fell to undetectable levels. She remained on treatment until she was 18 months old when doctors lost contact with her. Ten months later when she returned, they could find no sign of infection even though the mom had stopped giving the child AIDS medicines.

Doctors are wary of calling the child "cured" as they don't really have a "definition" of what a cure looks like in reference to HIV, as opposed to some cancers where at the five year mark some patients are declared cured.

A new study will begin in January 2014 with HIV infected new-borns to see if the results can be replicated.

(source)