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Rowdyboy

(22,057 posts)
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 07:50 PM Mar 2013

Mississippi hospital announces cure of infant with HIV..

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130303/NEWS01/130303013/UMC-doctor-makes-history-by-curing-HIV-positive-baby

The infant underwent remission of the HIV infection after receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) within 30 hours of birth — Zidovudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine. A series of tests showed progressively diminishing viral presence in the infant’s blood until it reached undetectable levels 29 days after birth. Gay switched Nevirapine with Kaletra for long term therapy.


The infant remained on antiviral drugs until 18 months of age, then became hard to follow up with for a while and stopped treatment. Ten months after discontinuation of treatment, the child underwent repeated standard blood tests, none of which detected HIV presence in the blood.


“At that point the mom admitted that she had not been giving the medicine for several months, and I expected the baby’s viral load to have gone back up,” Gay said. “But, when we drew the test we got back still an undetectable viral load. That was a surprise to me.”


The child is now 2 1/2 years old and healthy with a normal immune system because the HIV virus has not returned. Dr. Gay and a team of researchers presented the case Sunday at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.


What an incredible potential breakthrough!
















































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Amimnoch

(4,558 posts)
1. Incredible, and incredulous, wonderful and appalling.
Mon Mar 4, 2013, 08:19 AM
Mar 2013

Wonderful about the potential breakthrough! Wonderful for the life of the kid!

The mother admitted she withheld what would normally be life saving medicine from her 2 year old child????!!!

This woman should be charged with child endangerment, and have that child taken away from her! Was she aware the risk she was putting her child in??? We're not talking simple antibiotics here.. if that child had developed viral immunity to the "cocktail" he was taken, it could very well have meant an early death for him.

I'll rec the article because of the great medical potential, but that mother's actions are atrocious.

Rowdyboy

(22,057 posts)
2. Amazing, isn't it, how you can have two such contradictory responses to the same news...
Wed Mar 6, 2013, 02:42 AM
Mar 2013

Overall, it is incredibly wonderful, a potential breakthrough that could save the lives of thousands of babies almost instantly. But the mother? Beneath contempt....How could you do that to your baby? To not bother with seeing that your child had care that could be instrumental in keeping it alive is just unreal.

You must remember, though, here in Mississippi there is no backup support system for women like the mother. Her family could have stepped in if she'd had close relatives but apparently she didn't. The child was at the mercy of an HIV infected unfit mother. Thats the horrifically bad news.

The good news is that, against ALL odds, apparently the child was cured. And who knows where this could lead? The potential, at least for infants, is enormous. And my doctor at University Medical Center in Jackson is on the team that made the discovery. Can't wait to see her at my July appointment.

 

closeupready

(29,503 posts)
3. She may not have been able to afford the medications.
Wed Mar 6, 2013, 01:23 PM
Mar 2013

I don't find that appalling, I find that infuriating that anyone with HIV finds treatment unaffordable.

Meanwhile, Bobby Jindal in Louisianna is attempting to cut state assistance to those who are poor and HIV+, from the recent story I read.

Don't condemn the poor for being poor.

 

Amimnoch

(4,558 posts)
5. You know, I think you're right, and what's more...
Thu Mar 7, 2013, 08:15 AM
Mar 2013

I think my comment above was quite (unintentionally) misogynistic. Reading back over it, I did something that irritates the hell out of me when others do it, which is to blame the mother, and not even give consideration or responsibility to the father.

Thanks for pointing it out.

pinto

(106,886 posts)
4. Kudos. Apparently antiviral treatment within days after the child's birth was a key here.
Wed Mar 6, 2013, 01:47 PM
Mar 2013

Typically HIV+ pregnant women are offered antiviral treatment, when available, prior to giving birth to limit the risks of transmission. It's been shown to work. Here's a case of early medical intervention post birth that succeeded. Very, very good news.

My understanding is that a newborn's individual immune response is still developing. It's the immune response itself that is the Achilles heel in treatment of HIV in adults. The immune response becomes the vector for viral replication and the progression to HIV related complications.



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