How long can an infected child remain HIV-free after an initial course of treatment? That important question was further explored in a reported case of a nine year old South African child who has remained HIV-free years after receiving initial treatment at the age of six months. The baby was found to be HIV positive at 32 days and received HIV medications for a 10 month period only. Remarkably, the child was found to be relatively free of the virus eight and half years after receiving the course of treatment.

Scientists are excited by these developments presented at the International AIDS society conference in Paris, because it raises fresh possibility of a cure for HIV/AIDS. The case report formed part of a clinical trial for children born with HIV known as ‘HIV Early Antiretroviral Therapy (CHER) clinical trial.’’

“To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of sustained control of HIV in a child enrolled in a randomized trial of antiretroviral therapy (ART) interruption following treatment early in infancy,” said one of the investigators, Dr Violari in a statement released to Sciencedaily.


Source: http://www.healthx24.com/south-african-child-remains-hiv-free/

However, this will be the third case of medication induced remission in children with born with HIV.

The first case was of a child popularly referred to as ‘’Mississippi Baby’’ born with HIV in 2010. The baby was HIV-free for 2 years and 3 months. By 2013, the child was declared cured of HIV. Sadly, HIV re-emerged in 2014 to the disappointment of the child’s parents medical staff and scientific community.

The second case involved a French child who was also born with HIV in 1996. The therapy was initiated at 3 months, continued for about 6 years before stopping. The child has remained HIV free for 11 years now, the longest documented period of HIV remission without drugs.

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It is important to note that persons with undetected levels of HIV may still be HIV positive in the future. So, it is difficult to declare that such ones have been cured. One reason is that HIV hides in places that are difficult to detect. For instance, the South African child still had pockets of Human Immunodefiency virus (HIV) and some immune response to the virus was found. However, the presence of HIV could not be detected by standard methods.

According to Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in an interview said

“Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term HIV remission in infected babies. However, this new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease.

Interestingly, the child lacked genetic factors that protect persons from HIV, making scientist conclude that the remission achieved can be attributed to the medications and other factors. This unusual case of the South African child may improve our understanding of factors other than drugs that contribute to successful control of HIV in infected persons. What seems certain is that early treatment of infants with HIV, improves the long term outcome and likelihood of survival.

Read More: Frequently asked Questions about living with HIV/AIDS



Reference:

A Violari et al. Viral and host characteristics of a child with perinatal HIV-1 following a prolonged period after ART cessation in the CHER trial. 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science, Paris (2017).


http://www.healthx24.com/south-african-child-remains-hiv-free/