9-Year-Old Child in South Africa ‘Virtually Cured’ Of HIV Infection

The family is said to be “really delighted”.

For the first time in the fight against AIDS, more than half of all people living with the HIV virus now have access to treatment while deaths caused by AIDS had been reduced by almost 50% since 2005, according to the report.

At the moment, the researchers are unable to make it clear why the trial proved to be successful for the girl but failed for 410 other children who were part of the trial. His mother had very high level of HIV in the blood at the time. Early trial data from 309 patients showed jabs every one or two months worked as well as daily pills – which is how antiretroviral therapy (ART) is now taken.

More efforts are needed, but continuing this kind of research and identifying how the child’s immune system fought against the virus may even pave the way for the development of a cure on the long term. It comes amid reports that a South African girl has shown no signs of the virus rebounding despite being taken off drugs years ago. The guidance “represents an global consensus” addressing the “top priority questions” related to HIV testing, treatment, and service delivery for HIV-positive children and adolescents.

“The introduction of single-tablet medication represented a leap forward in ART dosing, and long-active anti-retroviral injections may represent the next revolution in HIV therapy by providing an option that circumvents the burden of daily dosing”, said study oc-author David Margo lis of Vi Iv Healthcare, a pharmaceutical company involved in developing the injectable drug.

The interesting thing about this latest child, however, is that it does not share the same genetic markers as these immune people, suggesting that there is some other form of immunity that is occurring.

Last year, there was believed to be 30,000 people living with HIV in Jamaica. However, whatever the child has is different to anything that has been seen before.

Meanwhile, researchers also said they had identified a promising vaccine candidate that would be evaluated in a proof-of-concept efficacy study among those at risk of HIV.

When the child was nine and a half years old, investigators detected a reservoir of virus integrated into a tiny proportion of immune cells, but otherwise found no evidence of HIV infection. Children and adolescents have lower HIV testing and treatment rates compared with their adult counterparts. Additional support was provided by the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, the Departments of Health of the Western Cape and Gauteng in South Africa, and ViiV Healthcare.

“HIV is still a massive problem around the world and we mustn’t put all our eyes on to one phenomenon like this, as opposed to looking at the bigger issues for Africa”. According to UNAIDS, there were about 36.7 million HIV-infected individuals in 2016, up slightly from 36.1 million the year before.

Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: ‘We have to be careful we don’t assume that things that work in cancer are going to work in HIV.