In July 2010 a baby girl was born in a rural Mississippi hospital.  After bloodwork came back from her mother after the birth and found her HIV positive, doctors quickly checked the baby to see if she came up positive as well.  When she did they sent the child tothe University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.  Becuase the mother had nor recieved any prenatal treatment for HIV the doctors quickly put the child on threeHIV-fighting drugs - zidovudine (also known as AZT), lamivudine, and nevirapine.  She was only 30 hours old when they began the treatment.  Usually only one drug is given to the infant but becuase she had recieved no prenatal drugs, she was put on all three.  only 29 days after birth the child showed signs of improvement and the virus became undetectable.  The child continued recieving treatment for 18 months but after that the mother stopped coming for an unknown reason for 10 months.  After this period when the doctors did tests almost all came up negative except the RNA which the doctors only found one strand of the virus in two samples.  This was the first child to recieve a functional cure. 

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/u-s-baby-s-hiv-infection-cured-through-very-early-treatment
Laura Renzi
3/8/2013 02:00:29 am

This is great that they are another step closer towards a cure for aids. It's amazing that this small baby was able to be cured of the deadly disease. Hopefully they have found something that might be able to help over people who are HIV positive. I think this may also cause doctors to take bloodwork from soon to be mothers so they will be able to be proactive for kids who may have future problems with blood diseases.

Reply
Kate Ramundo
3/11/2013 12:21:27 am

This is a great step in modern medicine! Because they put her on three drugs as opposed to one shouldn't the start treating all HIV patients with this course of treatment? I just hope there is no long-term impact or negative side effect as a result of such an aggressive treatment.

Reply



Leave a Reply.