Children who were born with H.I.V. have apparently been cured because of early treatments.
According to The New York Times, new revelations at an AIDs conference on Wednesday announced that a second baby has been cured of H.I.V. after aggressive drug treatments shortly after her birth.
This came a year after the first child was deemed clean of the disease but with much doubt from observers claiming the child was not infected at all. However, this time around little doubt is being given with a leading researcher claiming that there could be five more similar cases in Canada and three in South Africa.
The baby was born last April in Long Beach at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA where she also underwent the treatments, NBC Bay Area reports.
The mother of the child was known for having AIDs through a previous pregnancy and was apparently not taking her medication. The doctors were concerned with her passing it along to her daughter and they soon realized she had been infected.
Four hours after her birth, they began undergoing treatments. Six days later, it seemed as if the disease was gone.
Nearly a year later, doctor’s say the baby is in foster care and will continue the treatments until the age of two.
“We don’t know if the baby is in remission… but it looks like that,” Dr. Yvonne Bryson, an infectious disease specialist at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, said.
The conference also stated that a clinical trial is going to soon take place in which 60 infected babies will be medicated within 48 hours of their birth is going to happen soon.
They will follow the children for several years to see if the treatments will end up working.
“This could lead to major changes for two reasons,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci said. “Both for the welfare of the child and because it is a huge proof of concept that you can cure someone if you can treat them early enough.”