Setback for HIV cure discovery, HIV resurfaces in treated girl

Hopes that early treatment with drugs may reverse HIV permanent infection, especially in new borns, dimmed recently when the virus resurfaced in a baby girl in the US born with the virus. She was given very early treatment at the point of her birth but two years after, the viruses have made a comeback.

 

She had appeared free of HIV as recently as March, without receiving treatment for nearly two years. There had been high hopes that the baby would live an HIV-free life.

The news is a major setback in the search for a cure for the dreaded virus.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told US media the new results were "obviously disappointing" and had possible implications on an upcoming federal HIV study. We're going to take a good hard look at the study and see if it needs any modifications," he said.

Antiretroviral drugs are known to suppress the virus in th bloodstream but it has been discovered that the virus had hiding places in the body – the gut and th brain. These part of the body are known as reservoirs. The viruses emerge from their reservoirs if treatment stop, and they begin fresh assault on the system.

Doctors had hoped that starting drug treatment within hours of birth would prevent the reservoirs forming.

 

BBC News Health report said that: The "Mississippi baby", was started on a powerful HIV treatment just hour after her mother’s labour. She continued to receive treatment until 18 months old, when doctors could not locate her. When she returned 10 months later, no sign of infection was evident though her mother had not given her HIV medication in the interim. Repeated tests showed no detectable HIV virus until last week. Doctors do not yet know why the virus re-emerged.

The report continued that “A second child with HIV was given early treatment just hours after birth in Los Angeles in April 2013. Subsequent tests indicate she completely cleared the virus, but that child also received ongoing treatment. Only one adult is currently believed to have been cured of HIV. In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown received a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV. He has shown no signs of infection for more than five years.