{UAH} Uganda: U.S. Baby Functionally Cured of Aids Virus

Uganda: U.S. Baby Functionally Cured of Aids Virus

BY DIANA NABIRUMA, 12 MARCH 2014

A girl born with HIV in California was functionally cured of HIV (her blood was cleared of the virus) following immediate treatment after she was found to be HIV-positive.

A paeditrician, Dr Audra Deveikis, treated her with drugs including AZT, 3TC and nevirapine soon after her birth and following tests, it was found that the baby had no viruses capable of replicating.

Though health care professionals are being careful in labelling the baby girl, who is now nine months old, as having been cured, virologist Dr Deborah Persaud, who has run ultrasensitive tests, which can force the body to spit dormant HIV hiding in reservoirs, of the baby in her laboratory at Johns Hopkins Children's Centre in Baltimore, says the baby's sero-status reverted to negative.

This is the second baby to be functionally cured of HIV after being started on treatment immediately after birth. The first baby to be "cured" was from Mississippi and is now three years old. She received aggressive treatment (a higher dosage than is given while trying to prevent HIV) 30 hours after birth and HIV was cleared from her blood.

Ultrasensitive tests that have been done by Persaud on her have not shown any viruses. It has been reported that about five babies in Canada and three in South Africa might also have been functionally cured.

Is this the awaited step ahead of elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV?

An HIV paediatric doctor in Uganda says although they have also successfully registered functional cures, they are waiting to truly cure a baby before they can celebrate.

"There are some exciting findings in paediatric HIV; the field is revolving but before we cure a baby - and I don't mean functionally curing a baby - we will not broadcast anything.

We have noted cases where children who were started on ARVs cleared the virus from their blood but those children are still HIV-positive. The virus hides and can replicate should drugs be discontinued, and so we advise that infected babies continue taking their drugs," the doctor, who requested anonymity, says.

Though healthcare professionals are being cautious, it has been reported that a clinical trial of 60 children born with HIV in the USA is set to start soon; these children will be given treatment within 48 hours of birth.

Should they be "cured", this intervention might be used worldwide to cure babies born with HIV. The children part of the trial will have to be followed for several years to determine that they have really been cured.

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is responsible for about 15,000 new infections in Uganda (2012 figures); only heterosexual sex is responsible for a higher number of new infections

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower