Leroy N. Soetoro
2014-03-14 01:42:11 UTC
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/06/health/hiv-baby-cured/
(CNN) -- The first time, it happened almost by accident.
Just hours after delivery, a baby born with HIV in Mississippi was given
high doses of three antiretroviral drugs. More than three years later,
doctors say the little girl has no evidence of the life-threatening
disease in her blood, despite being off medication for nearly two years.
Now doctors say another child born with the virus appears to be free of
HIV after receiving similar treatment. The case report was presented at
the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in
Boston this week.
The girl was delivered at Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach,
California, last summer to a mother with AIDS. Doctors gave the baby high
doses of antiretroviral drugs -- AZT, 3TC and Nevirapine -- four hours
after birth. Eleven days later, the virus was undetectable in her body and
remained undetectable nine months later.
The California baby is still on antiretroviral treatment, so it's too soon
to tell if the child is actually in remission.
"Taking kids off antiretroviral therapy intentionally is not standard of
care," said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a virologist with Johns Hopkins
Children's Center who has been involved in both cases. "At this time,
there is no plan to stop treatment."
While doctors around the world are trying to duplicate the Mississippi
case, more research needs to be done before new standards are implemented
for treating babies born with HIV.
"This has to be done in a clinical trial setting, because really the only
way we can prove that we've accomplished remission in these cases is by
taking them off treatment, and that's not without risks," Persaud said
during her presentation at the conference.
A clinical trial designed to test the effectiveness of this early
treatment technique on infants born with HIV is set to begin in the next
couple of months, she said.
The results could be a game changer in the fight against AIDS.
The Mississippi baby
The child in Mississippi was born to a mother who received no prenatal
care and was not diagnosed as HIV-positive herself until just before
delivery, according to a case report published in October in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers: Toddler cured of HIV
"We didn't have the opportunity to treat the mom during the pregnancy as
we would like to be able to do, to prevent transmission to the baby," said
Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of
Mississippi Medical Center.
Doctors administered the antiretroviral drugs 30 hours after the girl was
born in hopes of controlling the virus. Within a couple of days, Gay
confirmed the child was HIV-positive. She said the baby had probably been
infected in the womb. The child remained on antiretroviral drugs for
approximately 15 months. Her mother then stopped administering the drug
for some reason, Gay said.
In March 2013, researchers announced that the girl was the first child to
be "functionally cured" of HIV. A "functional cure" is when the presence
of the virus is so small, lifelong treatment is not necessary and standard
clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the blood.
Gay told CNN the timing of intervention -- before the baby's HIV diagnosis
-- may deserve "more emphasis than the particular drugs or number of drugs
used."
The researchers believe "the very early therapy is blocking the spread of
HIV into viral reservoirs that hold the virus for a lifetime," Persaud
explained.
High-risk exposure
Researchers have long known that treating HIV-positive mothers early on is
important, because they pass antibodies on to their babies.
All HIV-positive moms will pass on those antibodies, but only 30% will
transmit the actual virus, said Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, an immunologist
at the University of Massachusetts who worked closely with Gay. And HIV-
positive mothers who are given appropriate treatment pass on the virus in
less than 2% of cases.
"So all babies are born antibody-positive, but only a fraction of babies
born to HIV-positive women will actually get the virus, and that fraction
depends on whether the mom and baby are getting antiviral prophylaxis
(preventive treatment) or not."
Newborns are considered high-risk if their mothers' HIV infections are not
under control or if the mothers are found to be HIV-positive when they're
close to delivering.
Usually, these infants would get antiviral drugs at preventive doses for
six weeks to prevent infection, then start antiretroviral therapy, or ART,
if HIV is diagnosed.
ART is a combination of at least three drugs used to suppress the virus
and stop the progression of the disease.
But they do not kill the virus. Tests showed the virus in the Mississippi
baby's blood continued to decrease and reached undetectable levels within
29 days of the initial treatment.
HIV may be 'functionally cured' in some
The 'Berlin patient'
Researchers say the only other documented case of an HIV cure is that of
Timothy Brown, known as the "Berlin patient." In 2007, Brown, an HIV-
positive American living in Germany, was battling both leukemia and HIV
when he underwent a bone marrow transplant that cured not only his cancer
but his HIV.
In an interview last year, Brown told Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief
medical correspondent, that he was still HIV-free.
"I've been tested everywhere possible," said Brown, who now lives in San
Francisco. "My blood's been tested by many, many agencies. I've had two
colonoscopies to test to see if they could find HIV in my colon, and they
haven't been able to find any."
But Brown's case is apparently unique.
And the procedure, which is extremely dangerous, won't work in most
patients because the bone marrow he received had a special genetic
mutation that made the stem cells in it naturally resistant to the virus.
Researchers tell CNN only 1% of Caucasians -- mostly Northern Europeans --
and no African-Americans or Asians have this particular mutation.
In June, five years after he was "cured," reports surfaced that "traces"
of the virus had been found in Brown's blood.
Even then, some HIV experts said that doesn't matter, that he's been
cured. In fact, many AIDS experts said they believe Brown has experienced
what's called a "sterilizing" cure, meaning the virus has been eliminated
from the body entirely.
In July, Boston researchers said two HIV patients showed no sign of the
virus in their blood following bone marrow transplants. However,
researcher Dr. Timothy Henrich said in December that the virus had
returned.
--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.
Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.
Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.
Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.
Obama backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt prior to their removal for
failing to represent the people and constitutional violations.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ***@netfront.net ---
(CNN) -- The first time, it happened almost by accident.
Just hours after delivery, a baby born with HIV in Mississippi was given
high doses of three antiretroviral drugs. More than three years later,
doctors say the little girl has no evidence of the life-threatening
disease in her blood, despite being off medication for nearly two years.
Now doctors say another child born with the virus appears to be free of
HIV after receiving similar treatment. The case report was presented at
the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in
Boston this week.
The girl was delivered at Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach,
California, last summer to a mother with AIDS. Doctors gave the baby high
doses of antiretroviral drugs -- AZT, 3TC and Nevirapine -- four hours
after birth. Eleven days later, the virus was undetectable in her body and
remained undetectable nine months later.
The California baby is still on antiretroviral treatment, so it's too soon
to tell if the child is actually in remission.
"Taking kids off antiretroviral therapy intentionally is not standard of
care," said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a virologist with Johns Hopkins
Children's Center who has been involved in both cases. "At this time,
there is no plan to stop treatment."
While doctors around the world are trying to duplicate the Mississippi
case, more research needs to be done before new standards are implemented
for treating babies born with HIV.
"This has to be done in a clinical trial setting, because really the only
way we can prove that we've accomplished remission in these cases is by
taking them off treatment, and that's not without risks," Persaud said
during her presentation at the conference.
A clinical trial designed to test the effectiveness of this early
treatment technique on infants born with HIV is set to begin in the next
couple of months, she said.
The results could be a game changer in the fight against AIDS.
The Mississippi baby
The child in Mississippi was born to a mother who received no prenatal
care and was not diagnosed as HIV-positive herself until just before
delivery, according to a case report published in October in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers: Toddler cured of HIV
"We didn't have the opportunity to treat the mom during the pregnancy as
we would like to be able to do, to prevent transmission to the baby," said
Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of
Mississippi Medical Center.
Doctors administered the antiretroviral drugs 30 hours after the girl was
born in hopes of controlling the virus. Within a couple of days, Gay
confirmed the child was HIV-positive. She said the baby had probably been
infected in the womb. The child remained on antiretroviral drugs for
approximately 15 months. Her mother then stopped administering the drug
for some reason, Gay said.
In March 2013, researchers announced that the girl was the first child to
be "functionally cured" of HIV. A "functional cure" is when the presence
of the virus is so small, lifelong treatment is not necessary and standard
clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the blood.
Gay told CNN the timing of intervention -- before the baby's HIV diagnosis
-- may deserve "more emphasis than the particular drugs or number of drugs
used."
The researchers believe "the very early therapy is blocking the spread of
HIV into viral reservoirs that hold the virus for a lifetime," Persaud
explained.
High-risk exposure
Researchers have long known that treating HIV-positive mothers early on is
important, because they pass antibodies on to their babies.
All HIV-positive moms will pass on those antibodies, but only 30% will
transmit the actual virus, said Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, an immunologist
at the University of Massachusetts who worked closely with Gay. And HIV-
positive mothers who are given appropriate treatment pass on the virus in
less than 2% of cases.
"So all babies are born antibody-positive, but only a fraction of babies
born to HIV-positive women will actually get the virus, and that fraction
depends on whether the mom and baby are getting antiviral prophylaxis
(preventive treatment) or not."
Newborns are considered high-risk if their mothers' HIV infections are not
under control or if the mothers are found to be HIV-positive when they're
close to delivering.
Usually, these infants would get antiviral drugs at preventive doses for
six weeks to prevent infection, then start antiretroviral therapy, or ART,
if HIV is diagnosed.
ART is a combination of at least three drugs used to suppress the virus
and stop the progression of the disease.
But they do not kill the virus. Tests showed the virus in the Mississippi
baby's blood continued to decrease and reached undetectable levels within
29 days of the initial treatment.
HIV may be 'functionally cured' in some
The 'Berlin patient'
Researchers say the only other documented case of an HIV cure is that of
Timothy Brown, known as the "Berlin patient." In 2007, Brown, an HIV-
positive American living in Germany, was battling both leukemia and HIV
when he underwent a bone marrow transplant that cured not only his cancer
but his HIV.
In an interview last year, Brown told Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief
medical correspondent, that he was still HIV-free.
"I've been tested everywhere possible," said Brown, who now lives in San
Francisco. "My blood's been tested by many, many agencies. I've had two
colonoscopies to test to see if they could find HIV in my colon, and they
haven't been able to find any."
But Brown's case is apparently unique.
And the procedure, which is extremely dangerous, won't work in most
patients because the bone marrow he received had a special genetic
mutation that made the stem cells in it naturally resistant to the virus.
Researchers tell CNN only 1% of Caucasians -- mostly Northern Europeans --
and no African-Americans or Asians have this particular mutation.
In June, five years after he was "cured," reports surfaced that "traces"
of the virus had been found in Brown's blood.
Even then, some HIV experts said that doesn't matter, that he's been
cured. In fact, many AIDS experts said they believe Brown has experienced
what's called a "sterilizing" cure, meaning the virus has been eliminated
from the body entirely.
In July, Boston researchers said two HIV patients showed no sign of the
virus in their blood following bone marrow transplants. However,
researcher Dr. Timothy Henrich said in December that the virus had
returned.
--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.
Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.
Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.
Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.
Obama backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt prior to their removal for
failing to represent the people and constitutional violations.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ***@netfront.net ---