For First Time, Baby Is Cured of H.I.V., Doctors Say

Doctors announced on Sunday that a baby had been cured of an H.I.V. infection for the first time, a startling development that could lead to more aggressive treatment of babies infected at birth and a sharp reduction in the number of children living with the virus that causes AIDS.

The baby, born in rural Mississippi, was treated with antiretroviral drugs starting around 30 hours after birth, something that is not usually done. If further study shows this works in other babies, it will almost certainly change the way newborns of infected mothers are treated all over the world. The United Nations estimates that 330,000 babies were newly infected in 2011, the most recent year for which there is data, and that more than 3 million children globally are living with H. I. V,

If the report is confirmed, the child born in Mississippi would be only the second well-documented case of a cure in the world, giving a boost to research aimed at a cure, something that only a few years ago was thought to be virtually impossible.

The first person cured was Timothy Brown, known as the “Berlin patient,'’ a middle-aged man with leukemia who received a bone-marrow transplant from a donor genetically resistant to H.I.V. infection.

More at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/health/for-first-time-baby-cured-of-hiv-doctors-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0