Researchers Report Treatment Clears HIV in Second Baby Evidence is increasing that treating HIV–positive babies within a few hours of birth can dramatically restrict –– and perhaps eliminate – infection. After nearly 2 years off anti-HIV therapy, the so-called Mississippi baby –– now 41 months old –– remains free of HIV, according to Deborah Persaud, MD, of Johns Hopkins University. Sensitive tests can find no sign of HIV viremia or replication–competent virus in the child, Persaud said at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. The baby, born at Long Beachs Miller Children’s Hospital, was given triple drug HIV therapy starting within 4 hours of birth to a mother with untreated HIV. Tests at birth showed the presence of HIV DNA in the baby and testing 36 hours later –– 32 hours after treatment was started –– showed a plasma viral load of 217 copies per milliliter. A spinal tap when the child was 6 days old showed 32 copies of HIV RNA per milliliter of cerebrospinal fluid, Persaud reported. But within days, almost all signs of HIV had disappeared. The plasma viral load, for instance, was and has remained undetectable, defined as fewer than 20 copies per milliliter. (MedPage)
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 06:53:14 +0000
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