Mississippi Baby: First Successful HIV Treatment

   March 3, 2013 --- The day before Yesterday when a team of researchers lead by Dr. Deborah Persaud a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Public the details of first ever successful cured case of an infant born with HIV Positive using the standard Protocol without any surgery. Yes, Ladies and gentlemen, this is a ground breaking news if the baby stays negative for HIV virus in times to come. This is a clear indication that HIV can be (is) potentially curable in infants if proper treatment is provided at the right time.
   The cured baby, also known as 'Mississippi baby' now, was born in July 2010 in a rural hospital of Mississippi. Her mother was tested positive for HIV infection. Because her mother had not received any prenatal HIV treatment, doctors knew the child was at high risk of infection. They transferred her to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where she came under the care of Dr. Hannah Gay, a paediatric HIV specialist.
   As the risk of baby suffering from HIV was too high so Dr. Hannah Gay put the Baby girl on a cocktail of three HIV-fighting drugs - zidovudine (also known as AZT), lamivudine, and nevirapine - when she was just 30 hours old. The next day baby's blood was sent for tests for the confirmation of presence of HIV Virus which came out Positive. The baby girl was kept on the full treatment regimen afterward. Remember, In usual cases of infants suffering from HIV, newly born is only given one drug Nevirapine, unlike Mississippi baby. Researchers believe use of the more aggressive antiretroviral treatment when the child was just days old likely resulted in her cure by keeping the virus from forming hard-to-treat pools of cells known as viral reservoirs, which lie dormant and out of the reach of standard medications.
   After starting on treatment, the baby's immune system responded and tests showed diminishing levels of the virus until it was undetectable 29 days after birth. The baby received regular treatment for 18 months, but then stopped coming to appointments for a period of about 10 months, when her mother said she was not given any treatment. When the child came back under the care of Dr. Gay, she ordered standard blood tests to see how the child was faring before resuming antiviral therapy What she found was surprising. Both the blood test did not turn up any detectible levels of HIV.
   Dr. Gay was shocked with the results and she knew she was dealing with an unknown situation. So she along with her long-time colleague Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts carried out detailed and sophisticated lab tests and Results of complete cure was confirmed and made Public.
   This is a first case of a patient cured by Standard Protocol using Anti retroviral therapy/drugs. The other known case of curing HIV also exists with the name of 'Berlin Patient', a patient named Timothy Brown in 2006-07. But in that case a complicated, high risk, and expensive stem-cell transplant was done which completely cured his HIV disease without any bouncing back!
   This 'Mississippi Baby' case can and will prove helpful in coming times in treating HIV in adults by studying the different behaviours of an infant and an adult, and in stopping the Mother-to-Baby transmission as far as possible.


 --ZQ.