HIV Cure Possible: In "Functionally Cured" Child Born With Disease, Aggressive Treatment And Medication Stopped Spread Of HIV

A child in Mississippi born with the HIV virus has been the recipient of a functional HIV cure, according to doctors.

The HIV-cured child, who remains unnamed, was born to a mother who did not receive any prenatal care or under go any treatment for her HIV. When the child was born, the doctors at the University of Mississippi took an extreme step and began to aggressively treat the newborn with HIV medications.

Over the course of several months, the child was treated with HIV medications and responded well. Then the baby's mother stopped bringing the child to see her doctor, Hanna Gay.

Gay told NPR.org, "the baby's mom was having some life changes, that's about all I can say." Gay reported, "I saw her at 18 months, and then after that did not see her for several months. And we were unable to locate her for a while."

When the child and the mother were located, the mother informed Dr. Gay that she had stopped giving her baby the medication.

When the doctor ran tests on the child's blood she was expecting to see the HIV was still apparent in the blood. To her surprise there was no sign of the virus.

After more tests and second opinions from other doctors, they determined that the child did have HIV, but the disease was not replicating and the child was "functionally cured."

HIV is the precursor to AIDS disease. The child is the first to be even functionally cured of the HIV disease.

Only one other case of  an HIV cure is recorded.

In 1995 Timothy Brown, a leukemia patient, was diagnosed with HIV. He received a stem cell transplant to treat his leukemia.

The stem cells came from a donor who had a CCR5 mutation, which makes you immune to HIV. Once he had the transplant Brown was able to stop his HIV treatments and currently lives an HIV-free life.

The cure for the child is by no means a universal one. Doctors and researchers into the disease still have a lot of work a head of them.

However, the data collected and measures taken to cure the child will help in finding a cure for all afflicted with HIV.