A child's HIV is in remission without drugs in a miraculous case included in a presentation at the 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Paris this week.
Scientists say the case strengthens the hope that children infected by HIV could be spared the burden of life–long therapy.
The 9-year-old South African child was diagnosed with HIV infection a month after birth and received anti-HIV treatment during infancy as part of a clinical trial funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.
According to scientists, the child has been able to suppress the virus without anti-HIV drugs for the last eight and a half years.
According to the NIH, the South African child presented very high levels of HIV in the blood before treatment, however, the virus has been supressed to undetectable levels.
“Investigators halted treatment after 40 weeks and closely monitored the infant’s immune health, and the child has remained in good health during years of follow-up examinations,” read a release by the NIH.
“Although it was not standard practice in South Africa to monitor viral load in people who were not on ART, recent analyses of stored blood samples taken during follow-up showed that the child has maintained an undetectable level of HIV.”
Presenting the case at the 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Paris, Dr. Avy Violari, who co-led the study, stated:
“To our knowledge, this was the first reported case of sustained control of HIV in a child enrolled in a randomized trial of ART interruption following treatment early in infancy.”
Caroline Tiemessen, head of cell biology at the Centre of HIV and STIs of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, South Africa, added:
“We believe there may have been other factors in addition to early ART that contributed to HIV remission in this child. By further studying the child, we may expand our understanding of how the immune system controls HIV replication.”
According to WebMD, children in Mississippi and France have also been documented as having suppressed the virus for periods of time, also.
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