US HIV baby “functionally cured” through radical treatment

A baby born with HIV is now two-and-a-half years old with no signs of infection

14:35 05 March 2013

Scientists are extremely happy to report that they are steps closer in fighting AIDS as they successfully “cured” an infant who was born with HIV through radical treatment. This is the first documented HIV cure case. 

 

Doctors who were treating the infant, who is now two-and-a-half yearsold from Mississippi, gave the patient a three-drug infusion 30 hours after she was born. Yesterday, scientists were happy to confirm that the child hasn’t received medication for HIV for over a year and is believed to be functionally cured from the disease.  

 

Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said: "You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we've seen.”

 

While the results of the radical treatments were obviously exciting, scientists said that they are not definitive cure for HIV. They believe that the intensity and the speed of action were the ones responsible for knocking out the HIV from the infant’s blood before it could form hideouts in the body. 

 

They also made it clear that the treatment will not work for adults, as the HIV virus will have already infected the cells.