The child was given anti-retroviral therapy within hours of birth following concerns from doctors that the child was at high risk, as her mother did not receive prenatal HIV treatment.
Now Doctors have tried to search her for signs of the virus and have found none.
However this does not necessarily bring us closer to finding a cure. The circumstances of this case are not at all typical of people with HIV. Due to the nature of the virus many people do not realise that they are infected until it has already been established. It seems to be that in this case it has only been so effective because of how quickly intervention began to fight the virus from taking hold.
Although there is currently no actual cure for the virus, this is seen to be an encouraging start.
This is certainly a huge step forward in terms of finding ways to beat the virus. It's already known that someone receiving anti-retroviral therapy reduces the chance of passing on the virus by 96%. But can we completely eradicate HIV?
there are many ongoing experimental methods which are detailed in this article by the BBC. It also informs us that HIV transmission can be prevented using very simple methods such as caesarian sections, not breastfeeding, drugs and protected sex. Surely these prevention methods should be viewed as more beneficial than searching for a cure which although seemingly possible, is still nowhere in sight.
- Jess
Information on how HIV reproduces inside white blood cells:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Education-resources/Education-and-learning/animations/viral-diseases/wtdv026676.htm
Image credit:
http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/fb/b9/c1a2ff7859133adfc61945619c90.jpg
