{"id":404666,"date":"2017-07-24T12:12:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T12:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/07\/24\/south-african-child-virtually-cured-of-hiv\/"},"modified":"2017-07-24T12:12:57","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T12:12:57","slug":"south-african-child-virtually-cured-of-hiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/24\/south-african-child-virtually-cured-of-hiv\/","title":{"rendered":"South African child ‘virtually cured’ of HIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A nine-year-old infected with HIV at birth has spent most of their life without needing any treatment, say doctors in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The child, whose identity is being protected, was given a burst of treatment shortly after birth.<\/p>\n

They have since been off drugs for eight-and-a-half years without symptoms or signs of active virus.<\/p>\n

The family is said to be \u201creally delighted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Most people need treatment every day to prevent HIV destroying the immune system and causing Aids.<\/p>\n

Understanding how the child is protected could lead to new drugs or a vaccine for stopping HIV.<\/p>\n

The child caught the infection from their mother around the time of birth in 2007. They had very high levels of HIV in the blood.<\/p>\n

Early antiretroviral therapy was not standard practice at the time, but was given to the child from nine weeks old as part of a clinical trial.<\/p>\n

Levels of the virus became undetectable, treatment was stopped after 40 weeks and unlike anybody else on the study \u2013 the virus has not returned.<\/p>\n

Early therapy which attacks the virus before it has a chance to fully establish itself has been implicated in child \u201ccure\u201d cases twice before.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMississippi Baby\u201d was put on treatment\u00a0within 30 hours of birth and went 27 months without treatment before HIV re-emerged in her blood.<\/p>\n

There was also a case in France with a patient who has now gone more than 11 years without drugs.<\/p>\n

Dr Avy Violari, the head of paediatric research at the Perinal HIV Research Unit in Johannesburg, said: \u201cWe don\u2019t believe that antiretroviral therapy alone can lead to remission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really know what\u2019s the reason why this child has achieved remission \u2013 we believe it\u2019s either genetic or immune system-related.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Virtual cure\u2019<\/p>\n

Some people are naturally better at dealing with an HIV infection \u2013 so-called \u201celite controllers\u201d. However, whatever the child has is different to anything that has been seen before.<\/p>\n

Replicating it as a new form of therapy \u2013 a drug, antibody or vaccine \u2013 would have the potential to help other patients.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that while there is no active HIV in the child\u2019s body, the virus has been detected in the child\u2019s immune cells.<\/p>\n

HIV can hide inside them \u2013 called latent HIV \u2013 for long periods of time, so there is still a danger the child could need drug treatment in the future.<\/p>\n

The team in Johannesburg performed the study alongside the UK\u2019s MRC Clinical Trials Unit.<\/p>\n

\u2018One child\u2019<\/p>\n

Prof Diana Gibb, who is based in London, told the BBC News website: \u201cIt captures the imagination because you\u2019ve got a virtual cure and it is exciting to see cases like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is important to remember it is one child.<\/p>\n

\u201cHIV is still a massive problem around the world and we mustn\u2019t put all our eyes on to one phenomenon like this, as opposed to looking at the bigger issues for Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worldwide, 36.7 million people are living with HIV and only 53% of them are receiving antiretroviral therapy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nine-year-old infected with HIV at birth has spent most of their life without needing any treatment, say doctors in South Africa. The child, whose identity is being protected, was given a burst of treatment shortly after birth. They have since been off drugs for eight-and-a-half years without symptoms or signs of active virus. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":396899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\nSouth African child 'virtually cured' of HIV - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/24\/south-african-child-virtually-cured-of-hiv\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"South African child 'virtually cured' of HIV - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"A nine-year-old infected with HIV at birth has spent most of their life without needing any treatment, say doctors in South Africa. 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