HIV/AIDS Cure 2017: 9-Year-Old Child in Remission Without Taking Medication
A 9-year-old child from South Africa who was born with human immunodeficiency virus has been in remission from the disease for eight and a half years. Doctors said the unnamed child showed no active symptoms of the virus even without the benefit of medication or treatment.
The child caught HIV from the mother during the birth in 2007. According to reports, doctors found high levels of HIV in their blood streams.
Immediately after the birth, doctors administered antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the child during a clinical trial involving 143 other babies with HIV. The treatment ended after 40 weeks and experts kept track of the babies' progress. Since then, however, the particular child has shown no traces of the virus.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Doctors presented the case during the ninth International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Science in Paris. They, however, could not easily conclude that ART can solely be an HIV/AIDS cure since the child's case is rare. Nor do the experts recommend children under treatment for HIV stop ART but perhaps early intervention can make a big difference in achieving remission.
"This new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease," Dr. Anthony S. Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said. He recommended further studies on the subject.
This case is the third medically recorded case of a child with HIV who achieved remission without treatment or medication.
The first well-known case, discovered in 2010 and referred to as the Mississippi Baby, also involved a child with HIV since birth who received therapy until the 18th month. The virus, however, returned after a few years, hence the Mississippi Baby started ART treatments again.
Another case, recorded in 2015, involved a French child with HIV who received treatment for three months. The child continues to live HIV-free without medicines.
