Another Baby Born With HIV 'Cured'

Another baby born with HIV appears to be free of the disease thanks to an aggressive early treatment regimen that began just four hours after she was born, reports the Guardian. The baby was born in LA and is still getting AIDS medicines because doctors aren't entirely confident yet, the AP reports. But after a battery of sophisticated tests, her readings are different from patients whose infections have been merely suppressed by drugs. "We don't know if the baby is in remission ... but it looks like that," one specialist said. Doctors want to be careful about saying the baby is cured, "but that's obviously our hope."

The first child to receive the treatment is now 3 1/2, and appears to be HIV-free despite two years without treatment. That baby had no prenatal care, and the infection was discovered during labor. But in the LA case, "we knew this mother from a previous pregnancy," and knew she wasn't taking her HIV medicine, one doctor said. The mother was thus given AIDS drugs during labor to try to prevent transmission. Soon after birth, tests revealed the baby had indeed been infected. But now, nearly a year later, that doesn't seem to be the case, and she's "looking very healthy." (More HIV stories.)