2nd baby born with HIV may be cured
A second baby born with HIV may have had her infection sent into remission and possibly cured, doctors say.
The case was revealed Wednesday at an AIDS conference in Boston. The child was born last April in suburban Los Angeles, and was treated four hours after being delivered.
A host of sophisticated tests at multiple times suggest the LA baby has completely cleared the virus, said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a Johns Hopkins University physician who led the testing. The baby’s signs are different from what doctors see in patients whose infections are merely suppressed by successful treatment, she said.
“We don’t know if the baby is in remission … but it looks like that,” said Dr. Yvonne Bryson, an infectious disease specialist at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA who consulted on the girl’s care.
Doctors are cautious about suggesting she has been cured, “but that’s obviously our hope,” Bryson said.
The first case of a medical “curing” of an HIV-infected baby was announced last March. The Mississippi-born baby is now 3 1/2 years old and appears to be free of the virus despite receiving no treatment in the past 2 years.
The case, a medical first, led doctors worldwide to rethink how fast and how aggressive to treat infants born with HIV. Most mothers in the country who are found to carry the virus receive AIDS medicines during pregnancy, greatly reducing the chances they will pass the virus to their babies.
Doctors are continuing to provide treatment for the second child.
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