First Ever Baby Cured Of HIV Still In Remission 18 Months Later
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online
An HIV case first documented in a Mississippi baby 18 months ago is still proving that an antiviral treatment early on is effective in not only treating the virus that causes AIDS, but also curing it.
Earlier this year, researchers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) reported that a child born with HIV and treated with a series of antiviral drugs showed signs of remission within days of initial treatment. The child was administered antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the next 18 months before ultimately being taken off the drugs.
The researchers, led by Deborah Persaud, MD, of JHU, conducted a follow-up in late 2012 when the child was 23 months of age and found that, after conducting a battery of tests, the infant was in full remission with no visible signs of HIV in the body. They presented their findings at the 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, Georgia.
REMISSION CONTINUES
Now, more than 6 months later, the same researchers have conducted another follow-up and are happy to report that the child, now 3 years old, is still free of active infection 18 months after all treatment ceased. A new report on the case has been published in the Oct. 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Our findings suggest that this childs remission is not a mere fluke but the likely result of aggressive and very early therapy that may have prevented the virus from taking a hold in the childs immune cells, says Dr. Persaud, a virologist and pediatric HIV expert at Johns Hopkins Childrens Center (JHCC), who has been handling the case since the child was born.
Persaud has worked on this case with immunologist Katherine Luzuriaga, MD, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and pediatrician Hannah Gay, MD, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, who identified and treated the baby and continues to see the child.
Were thrilled that the child remains off medication and has no detectable virus replicating, Gay says. Weve continued to follow the child, obviously, and she continues to do very well. There is no sign of the return of HIV, and we will continue to follow her for the long term.
The child was born to an HIV-infected mother and was administered ART within 30 hours of birth. A series of tests in the subsequent days and weeks showed the ART was continuing to diminish the overall presence of the virus in the childs blood, until it reached undetectable levels 29 days after birth. At 18 months of age, the child was lost to follow-up for nearly five months, and ART stopped; but when checked after another five months, testing could still not detect virus in the bloodstream.
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First Ever Baby Cured Of HIV Still In Remission 18 Months Later