Child Thought Cured of HIV Tests Positive for the Virus

Photo Credit: NIAIDThe Mississippi girl born with HIV who was believed to be cured after aggressive early treatment has tested positive for the virus, a disappointing setback for HIV/AIDS research.

The child, who had not been on anti-retroviral therapy for 27 months, was believed to be the first person to have the virus completely eliminated through drugs, and scientists had hoped to be able to replicate her regimen to treat other babies infected at birth.

“It felt very much like a punch to the gut,” Hannah Gay, a physician who treated the baby, said during a press conference Thursday.

The child, whose name has not been revealed, was at high risk for infection because her mother was HIV-positive and had not received any treatment during pregnancy. Doctors typically do not treat infants with the drugs until at least six weeks after birth when they can be certain the babies are infected. But in a highly unusual move, doctors at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson began administering an aggressive triple-drug treatment 30 hours after the baby was born prematurely in 2010.

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