HIV infection returns in 'Mississippi baby' thought cured

Updated July 11, 2014 13:34:00

The search for a cure for HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, has suffered a major setback. A child in the US, thought to have been cured of HIV, now has detectable levels of the virus.

Source: The World Today | Duration: 4min 37sec

Topics: aids-and-hiv, united-states


TANYA NOLAN: The search for a cure for HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, has suffered a major setback.


The case of the "Mississippi baby" was heralded as the most significant breakthrough in HIV research and was declared as "proof of principle that HIV can be cured".

But after more than two years without antiretroviral therapy, the girl, now four years old, is HIV-positive.

Louise Crealy reports.

LOUISE CREALY: It was seen as a major medical breakthrough.

A baby, born with HIV thought to have been cured.

(News theme music)

NEWS REPORTER: Doctors in Mississippi and Boston discovered a baby born with HIV was cured almost by accident.

LOUISE CREALY: But doctors in US have just confirmed that the child, now four years old, has come out of remission from the virus.

They say it's a disappointing outcome, with the medical world heralding the case in 2012 as potentially the first case of a child with HIV being cured.

Dr Tony Fauci is the director the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US.

TONY FAUCI: Well, as it turns out, unfortunately after now 27 months of no therapy and no detectable virus, it was found that the rebound had actually occurred and the virus had resurfaced in the baby and was clearly detectable.

LOUISE CREALY: Known as the Mississippi baby, the girl was born prematurely to an HIV infected mother.

Treatment during pregnancy reduces the risk of transmission from mother to baby from 30 per cent to less than 1 per cent. This woman received no prenatal care.

After being given anti-AIDS therapy for her first 18 months, the girl and her mother disappeared for five months during which time the baby received no drugs.

Dr Fauci says when she was eventually found, doctors were shocked to learn the girl appeared HIV free.

TONY FAUCHI: The surprise was that there was no virus detected in the baby even though the baby hadn't been on drugs for the last five months. Usually when you stop drug, the virus rebounds pretty quickly, so the decision was made to follow the baby very closely and not reinstitute therapy.

LOUISE CREALY: Dr Hannah Gay, Paediatric HIV specialist from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, has been closely involved in the child's care since birth, and says she's deeply saddened by the turn of events.

HANNAH GAY: It felt very much like a punch to the gut. Yes, it was extremely disappointing, both from the scientific standpoint we had been very hopeful that this would lead to bigger and better things but mainly for the sake of the child who now is back on medicine and expected to stay on medicine for a very long time.

LOUISE CREALY: Despite the setback, those working on the case, including Professor Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, remain hopeful.

DEBORAH PERSUAD: But the duration that this child has been off treatment really needs to be remembered here. So there's really no hope that a very early treatment strategy for perinatal infection could achieve longer remissions in other perinatal infected infants.

LOUISE CREALY: Professor Sharon Lewin is the head of infectious diseases at the Alfred Hospital and Monash University in Melbourne, and local co-chair of this year's International AIDS Conference.

She says the surprising results will now help direct new research questions.

SHARON LEWIN: Every case such as the Mississippi baby gives us more clues to where the science needs to go. This does not mean the end to cure research. This means the beginning really. It means that we have many more questions to answer.

What this case has taught us is that you can have tiny amounts of virus that persists for a very long time and what we now need to know is why did the baby go so long, because usually when you stop treatment the virus reappears in one to four weeks, so to have it undetectable for years is quite unusual.

So the big question is why did the baby go for so long without any virus detected and then why did it come back at two and a half years. Can we improve our tests to measure very small amounts of virus?

LOUISE CREALY: Professor Lewin says details of four Canadian babies who received treatment very early on and now have low or undetectable levels of the HIV virus in their blood will be discussed at the AIDS 2014 conference in July.

TANYA NOLAN: Louise Crealy reporting.