14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, researchers announced that HIV made a comeback in the world-famous “Mississippi baby,” a child whom doctors believed was cured and had no traces of the virus in its body.
The infant was born about 4 years ago in a clinic in Mississippi, US, to a mother carrying HIV in her body. At the time she got pregnant, the woman had no idea she was infected.
Consequently, she was not administered any kind of antiretroviral treatment while she was carrying her baby. Because of this, she passed the virus to her unborn child, specialists explain.
As detailed in the case report documenting this birth, the woman only discovered she was infected with HIV close to the delivery term. By that time, it was already too late for doctors to put her on antiretroviral drugs.
30 hours after birth, the woman's child was put on a liquid, triple-drug antiretroviral treatment. Despite the fact that a few days following delivery HIV was detected in its body, the child eventually showed signs of having shaken off the virus.
As detailed in a press release on the official website for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, the infant was administered the antiretroviral treatment until it turned 18 months old.
After this, doctors lost contact with his family, and the child no longer received any medication. However, five months later, when doctors finally managed to locate it and examine it, no detectable HIV levels were documented in its body.
Despite not being administered any kind of treatment for another 2 years, the child remained HIV-free. Hence, researchers proudly announced to the world that the infant was successfully cured.
Unfortunately, things soon took a turn for the worse. In a nutshell, it was earlier this month that doctors found that HIV had made a comeback in this child. Specifically, detectable virus levels were documented in its blood.
Further investigations confirmed this discovery. What's more, researchers say that, according to evidence at hand, the virus appears to be replicating in the child's body. The toddler is now back on antiretroviral drugs.
Scientists say that, although the virus did eventually return, the fact that this child somehow remained HIV-free for a considerable period of time is not to be ignored. On the contrary, this indicates that the doctors who treated the infant must have done something right.
“The fact that this child was able to remain off antiretroviral treatment for two years and maintain quiescent virus for that length of time is unprecedented. Typically, when treatment is stopped, HIV levels rebound within weeks, not years,” says Deborah Persaud, M.D., Professor of Infectious Diseases at the John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.
“Now we must direct our attention to understanding why that is and determining whether the period of sustained remission in the absence of therapy can be prolonged even further,” adds Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.