A 2-year old girl from Mississippi was the first child to be functionally cured of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which was announced last Sunday (March 3) in the US. The infant was treated with antiretroviral drugs in her early life which according to research that early intervention where in the case of the child was 30 hours after birth that she was given three anti-viral drugs.
The child was born prematurely last July 2010 from an HIV-infected mother who hasn’t received any prenatal care or the antiretroviral drugs according to the reports. After 30 hours, the baby was given a liquid antiretroviral treatment that lasted until 18 months. During the treatment, the baby’s viral load had fallen to less than 50 copies of HIV per millimeter of blood following a month and continues to decline until the blood samples indicated undetectable HIV levels at less than 20 copies per millimeter.
Meanwhile with the term functionally cured means the presence of the virus is so small, lifelong treatment is not necessary and standard clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the blood. With this kind of breakthrough, the case of passing of the virus from the mother to her child can now be prevented with the early age prevention. This will be a milestone in the quest to stop the spread of virus and find cure.
