HIV returns in girl once considered cured of the infection

A child born with HIV, treated and then considered cured, now has detectable levels of the virus, shown here in yellow within a T-cell (blue).

NIH

By Science News Staff

July 10, 2014 at 6:09 pm

Guest post by Nsikan Akpan

HIV has reemerged in a child who was previously considered cured of the viral infection. Despite previous reports, a bevy of retroviral medications given a day after birth until 18 months of age wasn’t enough to quash the infection, which was detected in the girl’s blood during a routine checkup earlier this month. The infant had lived without antiretroviral treatment for a little more than two years, a length of time that doctors from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases described as “unprecedented” in a July 10 press release.