A two-and-a-half year old girl from Mississippi born with HIV, appears to have been cured of the disease. After being free of medication for nearly one year, the infant has shown no sign of infection, indicating that HIV may be curable in infants. The child was placed on antiretroviral therapy, which is an established method of treating HIV that utilizes a assortment of a variety of available drugs. Within 30 hours of her birth, three different drug combinations were implemented for 18 months. Five months after stopping the treatment, doctors were surprised to find that the child had not relapsed. The child's health is being carefully monitored, and more tests must still be done to determine whether the treatment will be effective in other infants. There is currently no cure for HIV, though if the child remains healthy, she will be the second cured case of HIV. While the results seem promising, researchers stress that this treatment would likely only be effective in infants, thus prevention is still the most efficient method of battling HIV.
Reference:Roberts, Michelle. "US HIV baby "cured"by early drug treatment." BBC News (2013).BBC. Web. 11 Mar 2013.
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