Mississippi doctors “functionally cure” a toddler of HIV

[JeffHCross]

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/03/mississippi-doctors-functionally-cure-a-toddler-of-hiv/


Mississippi doctors are reporting they have "functionally cured" a two-year-old child of HIV, according to findings presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) today. "Functionally cured" in this scenario means the child is now without detectable levels of virus and has not demonstrated any signs of the disease after 10 months without antiretroviral therapy. It's the first well-documented case of such results in an infant and only the second person overall documented with a cure. The first occurred in 2012 as Timothy Brown, later known as "the Berlin Patient," was cured through a bone marrow stem transplant.

[bdoughty]

Sadly, for this child, the news might not be so great. There is no cure for being born into a shitty family.

From another article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/03/us-doctors-cure-child-born-hiv)


The mother and baby continued regular clinic visits to the clinic for the next year, but then began to miss appointments, and eventually stopped attending all together. The child had no medication from the age of 18 months, and did not see doctors again until it was nearly two years old.

"We did not see this child at all for a period of about five months," *** told the Guardian. "When they did return to care aged 23 months, I fully expected that the baby would have a high viral load."


Mother of the year, she is not.

[JeffHCross]

There is no cure for being born into a shitty family.Very true.

On the upside, this "cure" may have more positives, long-term, for more than just this single life.