In an unprecedented case a baby born with the HIV has made medical history by being the very first child to be functionally cured.
The child, who the hospital has not named, needs no medication for HIV and is expected to have a normal life expectancy. Doctors also believe that the child is highly unlikely to be infections to others.
Dr. Hannah Gay, from the University of Mississippi medical center told The Guardian the patient is functionally cured of HIV when standard tests are negative for the AIDS virus.
"Now after at least one year of taking no medicine, this child's blood remains free of the virus even on the most sensitive tests available," said Gay.
In this case, the mother was unaware she had HIV until a standard test came back positive while she was in labor. Women with HIV are given antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy to minimize the mount of virus in the blood, and because the woman was unaware she had HIV, the doctors where unable to treat her ahead of time.
Doctors began treating the baby 30 hours after birth, and several days later testing showed that the baby had contracted HIV and was infected.
Then the mother stopped bringing the baby in for check ups and the hospital lost track of the mother and child. When they did see them again a year had passed. The mother told the doctors she had stopped giving the medication to the baby. After testing, the doctors were shocked that the baby showed no sighs of the AIDS virus.
"My first thought was to panic, I thought, 'Oh my goodness I have been treating a child that is not actually infected,'" said Gay
The Jackson hospital rechecked their lab work and they found no mistake.
The mother's HIV is being controlled with medication and she is "quite excited for her child," Gay told the Associated Press.
Comments