Some amazing news in the realms of healthcare this morning as scientists believe that a little girl born with HIV has been cured of the infection.
According to reports, this is the first child and only the second person in the entire world that is known to have been cured of the virus.
As it stands, doctors are not releasing the child’s name however we do know that she was born in Mississippi and is two-and-a-half years old and healthy.
The child’s amazing story came to light when scientists presented details of her case yesterday at a major AIDS conference in Atlanta.
As it stands, an estimated 330,000 children around the world get infected with HIV at birth every year, with the most cases being found in sub-Saharan Africa. While many countries are striving to prevent mother-to-child infections, thousands of children will still get infected.
Until now, children who have been passed the infection by their mothers have been considered “permanently infected.” Specialists believed that these children needed lifelong antiviral drugs to enable them to lead a normal life.
The little girl from Mississippi and her amazing cure could be a signal of hope for thousands of people around the globe.
Scientists and doctors are describing the girl’s case as a “functional cure” from HIV
According to doctors, the little girl’s cure came from happenstance and the quick thinking of a pediatric infectious disease specialist named Hannah Gay.
“The child came to our attention as a high-risk exposure to maternal HIV,” said Ms Gay.
The girl tested positive for HIV during the first 30 hours of her life which led Ms Gay and her colleagues to believe that she had been infected in utero.
However, Ms Gay decided to start treating the child with antivirals immediately – this is unusual and specialists believe that the fact the child was treated within 31 hours of birth is one factor that led to her cure.
As well as treating the girl quickly, Ms Gay gave her higher than average “therapeutic” doses of three powerful HIV drugs rather than the “prophylactic” doses that are usually given.
As the months passed, the little girl thrived and tests confirmed that she did not have the virus in her blood. She has now been deemed “functionally cured.”
While there is no guarantee that the child will remain healthy, her case is being considered a medical breakthrough and could help thousands of infected children in the future.
“You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we’ve seen,” said Dr Anthony Fauci from the National Institute of Health.
Scientists believe that the fact that the child was treated so quickly could have knocked out HIV in the baby’s blood before it could form “hideouts” in the body, where cells hide and then reinfect after medication is stopped.
“We can’t promise to cure babies who are infected. We can promise to prevent the vast majority of transmissions if the moms are tested during every pregnancy,” said Ms Gay.
Ms Gay is giving the child check ups every few months and says that every time she looks for the virus in the little girl’s blood she “keeps praying” that it stays gone.
