Girl who was declared 'functionally cured' of HIV now has active virus
Source: LA Times
An infant who was seemingly cured of HIV following aggressive drug therapy just hours after her birth was recently discovered to be infected with the virus that causes AIDS after all, doctors announced Thursday.
The so-called Mississippi Baby, now nearly 4 years old, had raised hopes of a potential cure for babies infected with HIV when it was first described at an AIDS conference last year. The girl's case also provided the foundation for an upcoming clinical trial.
The discovery recently that the 46-month-old child had actually carried the virus at undetectable levels for almost two years before it rebounded suddenly came as a blow to health officials and HIV experts.
“It felt very much like a punch to the gut,” said Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson who had treated the girl.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-hiv-baby-mississippi-functional-cure-sick-20140710-story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
very sad for the little girl
perhaps the drugs simply would have kept the virus at an undetectable level though
The child remained free of drugs and of detectable HIV for two years. However, during a routine screening this month, doctors detected the virus in her blood, as well as a drop in her immune cells. After sequencing the virus, doctors determined it was identical to the one that had infected her mother — a finding that confirmed that the baby had HIV at birth.
Had the child been put back on the medication after those five months without it? Whose idea was it to discontinue it -- was the mother "premature" as well? Maybe the virus would have reappeared anyway, but I would think that a five-month interruption in treatment renders the whole thing inconclusive.
rocktivity
