A 3-year-old boy who was previously believed to be cured of HIV three years ago had relapse of the infection. The case is one of the latest developments suggesting that early and aggressive treatment among infants might not be able to cure the disease once and for all.
In 2009, an HIV-positive mother gave birth to a baby boy who also tested positive of the virus. Doctors started giving him anti-AIDS treatment within the first 12 hours from birth. After three years, no signs of the virus were found in his system, and the doctors decided to halt the treatment as requested by the mother. But, within two weeks from stopping the treatment, the baby tested positive again of the virus.
The recent case is not the first as there was an earlier case involving a Mississippi baby who underwent continuous treatment for two years. The baby girl stopped the treatment when she turned 2 and suffered from relapse at 4.
"What we've learned here is if you have an HIV-infected child who started treatment early, the fact that you have negative tests does not signify that the child has been cured or that they can be taken off treatment," said John Hopkins Children's Center's Dr. Deborah Persaud to WebMD News.
These cases attested that early and aggressive treatment might not be enough in preventing HIV from attacking the immune system again. The treatment might be able to drive away the infection for a while, but it's not successful in destroying the reservoirs that it has established in the body.
"Even with apparent clearance of the virus, HIV was not eradicated," study leader Mario Clerici from the University of Milano told Businessweek. "The search for an HIV cure continues."
The doctors are currently monitoring a third HIV-positive baby from Los Angeles who was given HIV treatment within four hours. The baby is currently on his ninth month of continuous treatment.
Further details of the study were published in the Oct. 4 issue of The Lancet.
