A Mississippi child who made national headlines last year after being cured of HIV was found to be still carrying the virus, after going 2-years without anti-retroviral therapy.
The child was born to an HIV-positive mother in 2012. The child’s mother had received no prenatal care, so her infection was not discovered until she was in labor. Doctors administered an aggressive combination of drugs to the baby following her birth in hopes of preventing the infection.
Normally, HIV-infected babies stay on antivirals for life, but the mother stopped bringing the child to the clinic after 18 months. When the child’s mother finally did bring her into the clinic, she explained that she had long since stopped giving the baby her medicine. However, blood tests showed no signs of the HIV infection and “Baby Mississippi” had continued to show no signs of the virus for more than 2-years thereafter.
The remission is a setback for the child and medical studies surrounding her case. What seemed to be a promising new treatment for infants born with HIV is now complicated by the discovery.
“Ever since we discovered this case in 2012, we knew this could happen.” said Hannah Gay, who had treated the child at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
During a briefing, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the child’s case supported researchers’ belief that a cure is possible:
“If you can get somebody treated before the reservoir of virus forms in the body, and before the immune system has been damaged by months or years of viral replication. Health care workers accidentally exposed to HIV, for example, receive preventive therapy, which is invariably effective. Most adults, however, are infected for many months or years before even being diagnosed.”
Yet cures remain rare and exceptional. However, researchers believe that the child’s case has aided in the process for finding a cure and don’t consider it to be a total setback.
Baby Mississippi, now 4-years-old, is on triple therapy and is expected to continue treatment for life.
SOURCE: NPR | VIDEO SOURCE: News Inc
