MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti) - A 2-year-old girl from the US state of Mississippi born with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the first child to have been “functionally cured” of it, American media reported Sunday.
CNN quoted researchers as saying this became possible through early intervention, within 30 hours of birth, with three antiviral drugs.
A "functional cure" means that the virus presence is so insignificant that standard clinical tests cannot detect the virus, and lifelong treatment becomes unnecessary.
Researchers announced the finding at the 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta. Dr. Deborah Persaud, a virologist with Johns Hopkins Children's Center, was the report’s lead author.
According to researchers, the only other documented case when HIV was cured is that of Timothy Brown, known as the “Berlin patient.” In 2007, Brown underwent a bone marrow transplant that cured both his leukemia and HIV.
Updated with recast lead.
