The first case of successful HIV treatment was reported by American doctors who cured a 2-year-old child born with the dreadful virus. The outstanding medical performance was revealed during the 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Dr Hannah Gay, the pediatrician who initially took care of the child at the University of Mississippi medical centre,said that this is the first case of “functional cure” of an HIV-infected child. Functional cure of HIV means that standard tests are negative for the virus, but it is likely that a small amount linger in the body.
“Now, after at least one year of taking no medicine, this child’s blood remains free of virus even on the most sensitive tests available,” Gay said.
“We expect that this baby has great chances for a long, healthy life. We are certainly hoping that this approach could lead to the same outcome in many other high-risk babies,” she added.
The baby began treatment 30 hours after the birth. Doctors gave the child 3 antiretroviral drugs, fed as liquids through a syringe. To restrain virus transmission following the birth, only one antiretroviral drug is usually used but this time medics chose a more aggressive medication because the mother had not received any when pregnant.
Preliminary tests carried out before treatment proved that the baby had been infected, most likely briefly before birth and the doctors went on with the drugs administration without expecting stunning results.
A month after the therapy was begun, the HIV virus in the child’s blood dropped to nearly undetectable levels.
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“We did not see this child at all for a period of about five months,” said Dr. Gay. “When they did return to care aged 23 months, I fully expected that the baby would have a high viral load.”
When the mother and child checked in at the clinic, and doctors was amazed to see that several HIV tests turned negative.
The situation was so puzzling that prompted Dr Gay to contact Katherine Luzuriaga, an immunologist at Massachusetts Medical School, who with another scientist, Deborah Persaud at Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre in Baltimore, performed even more sensitive blood tests. They verified child’s blood and discovered traces of HIV, but no viruses capable of multiplying.
Studies on this HIV case were supported by a grant awarded to Dr. Persaud and Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts in September 2012 and the funding helped Persaud and Luzuriaga set a research collaboration to analyze and document possible pediatric HIV treatable cases.
“The child’s pediatrician in Mississippi knew about our work here, and informed our scientists as soon as child’s case draw her attention,” said Dr. Rowena Johnston, amfAR vice president and director of research. “Because the collaboration was already in place, the researchers were able to mobilize immediately and run tests needed to determine if this was in fact a case of a child being cured.”
According to Dr. Persaud, detailed tests have confirmed beyond doubt that both mother and child were HIV positive shortly after child’s birth, and today no signs of HIV infection in the child can be detected by the most sensitive means available.
The only other known case of an HIV cure to date is that of Timothy Brown, the so-called “Berlin patient.” Brown was diagnosed with leukemia while on treatment for HIV back in 2006. His doctor managed to cure his leukemia with a stem-cell transplant from an individual who was born with a genetic mutation causing immunity to HIV. After the transplant, Brown could stop HIV treatment without facing a comeback of his HIV disease.
Sources: ScienceDaily and TheGuardian