Even beforeThe New England Journal of Medicinereported last yr that a three twelvemonth old wasin remission from HIV , it was one of thebiggest medical storiesofthe year . Sadly however , the disease has only been delay , and the “ Mississippi Baby ” once again has HIV .
The unknown child was turn out untimely in 2010 . Her female parent was HIV positive but was not diagnose until the birth , and therefore did not receive antiretroviral medication during pregnancy . The jeopardy of transmitting was so high that the baby was get down on treble drug treatment 30 hour after nativity , even before examination confirmed that contagion had fall out .
Treatment continued until the age of 18 calendar month , at which point the phratry lost contact with the aesculapian system . Five calendar month later , when the toddler was see again , HIV infection was either entirely pop off , or below detectable levels , a spot that continued without handling for more than two days .
When the case was announced there was much excitement about the possibility that antiretroviral handling , give sufficiently soon after contagion , might not only keep in line HIV grade but eliminate them only . A 2nd casereported earlier this yearraised hopes further .
Sadly , this has turn out not to be the case . A quotidian blood test found HIV levelsalmost a thousand timesabove the detection threshold of 20 copies / mL , and this was confirmed three days afterward with a somewhat humiliated pace . Decreased T - cell counts and the front of HIV antibodies put the finding beyond dubiousness .
Treatment through antiretroviral therapy is once again bring the HIV levels down , and no side impression have been observe , so the medical prognosis for the tyke is hopeful . However , the wider opening of ready treatment eliminating HIV eternally now appears forlorn .
While it is of course potential that the small fry could have been infected independently since being declared virus barren , the strain of HIV is the same as the mother has . With the female parent ’s infection master through intervention , the chance of a 2nd transmittal seems small .
Nevertheless , the news is not all bad . “ Typically , when discussion is stopped , HIV grade spring within week , not years , ” say Professor Deborah Persaud of the John Hopkins Children ’s Center . Professor Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts Medical School enounce , " The prolonged want of viral rebound , in the absence of HIV - specific resistant response , intimate that the very early therapy not only kept this child clinically well , but also restricted the phone number of prison cell harboring HIV infection . ”
investigator studying the case are hoping to research why the discourse had the success it did , and how this can be replicated in other typesetter’s case .
