A South African girl born with the AIDS virus has kept her infection suppressed for more than eight years after stopping anti-HIV medicines -- more evidence that early treatment can occasionally cause a long remission that, if it lasts, would be a form of cure.

Her case was revealed Monday at an AIDS conference in Paris, where researchers also gave encouraging results from tests of shots every month or two instead of daily pills to treat HIV.

"That's very promising" to help people stay on treatment, the U.S.'s top AIDS scientist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said of the prospects for long-acting drugs.

Raising awareness of pill that can stop spread of HIV

Current treatments keep HIV under control but must be taken lifelong.

Only one person is thought to be cured -- the so-called Berlin patient, a man who had a bone marrow transplant in 2007 from a donor with natural resistance to HIV.

But transplants are risky and impractical to try to cure the millions already infected. So some researchers have been aiming for the next best thing -- long-term remission, when the immune system can control HIV without drugs even if signs of the virus remain.

Aggressive treatment soon after infection might enable that in some cases, and the South African girl is the third child who achieved a long remission after that approach.

She was in a study sponsored by the agency Fauci heads, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that previously found that early versus delayed treatment helped babies survive.

The girl, who researchers did not identify, started on HIV drugs when she was 2 months old and stopped 40 weeks later. Tests when she was 9 1/2 years old found signs of virus in a small number of immune system cells, but none capable of reproducing. The girl does not have a gene mutation that gives natural resistance to HIV infection, Fauci said, so her remission seems likely due to the early treatment.

"Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term HIV remission in infected babies," Fauci said in a statement. "However, this new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease."

The previous cases:

-A French teen who was born with HIV and is now around 20 has had her infection under control despite no HIV medicines since she was roughly 6 years old.

-A Mississippi baby born with HIV in 2010 suppressed her infection for 27 months after stopping treatment before it reappeared in her blood. She was able to get the virus under control again after treatment resumed.

At least a dozen adults also have had remissions lasting for years after stopping HIV medicines.

HIV/AIDS, 36 years later

A study underway now is testing whether treating HIV-infected newborns within two days of birth can control the virus later after treatment stops. It started in 2014 in South America, Haiti, Africa and the United States, and some of the earliest participants might be able to try stopping treatment later this year.

Treatment might get easier if two large studies underway now confirm results reported Monday from a study testing a long-acting combo of two HIV drugs: Janssen's rilpivirine and ViiV Healthcare's cabotegravir.

Cabotegravir is experimental; rilpivirine is sold now as Edurant and used in combination with other drugs for treating certain types of HIV patients.

After initial treatment to get their virus under control, about 300 study participants were given either daily combination therapy pills or a shot every four or eight weeks of the long-acting drug duo to maintain control.

After nearly two years, 94 percent on eight-week shots, 87 percent on four-week shots and 84 percent on daily pills had their infections suppressed, with similar rates of side effects.

"The results were good regardless of whether people came monthly or every two months for their treatment. This has important policy implications," said Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and a co-leader of the conference.

The study was sponsored by the drugmakers. Results were published in the British medical journal Lancet.

Two large studies aimed at winning approval to sell the treatment are testing the monthly shots. Janssen said in a statement that good results from eight-week shots warrant reconsidering the longer approach.

If it works, "this will have a huge impact on how we manage that very important group of people who are not able to access and take drugs on a day-to-day basis," such as those with mental health or drug abuse problems, said Dr. Steven Deeks, an AIDS specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.</s>A child in South Africa who was born with HIV has been virtually free of the virus for nearly nine years now and didn't take anti-HIV drugs for most of that time, according to a new report of the case.

The child was treated with HIV medications early in life, but has not received anti-HIV drugs for eight and a half years, according to the researchers, who reported the case today (July 24) at an international AIDS conference in Paris.

The researchers hope that by studying this child, they may gain a better understanding of how a person's body can, in some cases, control HIV without the use of daily drugs. Such further research may potentially lead to new, long-acting treatments for the disease. [27 Devastating Infectious Diseases]

"Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term HIV remission in infected babies," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said in a statement. "However, this new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy" and the health consequences of long-term HIV infection, Fauci said.

The South African child was diagnosed with HIV in 2007 at 32 days old. The child was enrolled in a study, funded by NIAID, that aimed to test the effects of early HIV treatment. Children in the study were randomly assigned to receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs either immediately after their HIV diagnosis, or only once they showed symptoms of the disease.

The child in the new report received ART drugs immediately after diagnosis and continued receiving them for 40 weeks. After the treatment stopped, the researchers could no longer detect HIV in the child's blood; and follow-up tests showed that the child remained healthy and HIV-free in the years following the treatment.

When the child was nine and a half years old, the researchers conducted rigorous testing to determine if HIV was present anywhere in the child's body. They used very sensitive test, and found that a tiny proportion of the child's immune cells contained the virus, but the virus was dormant. The researchers otherwise found no evidence of HIV — standard tests could not detect the virus and the child had no symptoms.

This isn't the first time that early HIV treatment has led to apparent remission in a child. In 2013, researchers reported the case of a baby born with HIV in Mississippi who was treated with anti-HIV drugs just 30 hours after birth. In that case, the baby remained apparently HIV-free for more than two years without drug treatment, until the virus reappeared in her blood. In 2015, researchers in France reported the case of an HIV-positive child who began treatment at 3 months of age, but later stopped treatment and remained HIV-free more than 11 years later.

It's not exactly clear why some children may be able to live so long without needing ongoing HIV treatment. It's thought that early treatment with anti-HIV drugs may prevent the virus from establishing reservoirs, or "hiding places," in the body, which allow the virus to reemerge when treatment stops.

It's also likely that the South African child has other, innate factors that contributed to that person's HIV remission, the researchers said. Among the 143 infants who received the same treatment — 40 weeks of ART immediately after diagnosis — the average length of remission was about 30 weeks, according to the Washington Post. Some children in the study were in remission for more than two years, but no others went as long as the 8.5 years that was seen in the current case.

"By further studying the child, we may expand our understanding of how the immune system controls HIV replication," said study co-author Caroline Tiemessen, head of cell biology at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health is currently conducting a trial to test whether giving ART to HIV-infected babies within 48 hours of birth leads to long-term control of the virus after treatment is stopped.</s>A 9-year-old child born with the AIDS virus was treated briefly with antiretroviral medication as a baby and is now reported to be free of the infection. The rare but stunning case of wiping out the virus that causes AIDS for years after treatment holds promise for all patients with HIV, infectious disease experts said Monday.

The case of the South African child, whose gender and identity were kept secret, was one of the highlights of the opening day at the international AIDS conference in Paris. Eight-and-a-half years after treatment, the child shows no signs of infection, adding another piece to the puzzle of eliminating human immunodeficiency virus.

“The fact that you can go so long without a rebound shows that it is possible to suppress the virus. It gives us hope that we may be able to do the same in more than just children,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health told NBC News in an interview from Paris, where he is attending the conference.

The current standard of care is to start HIV-infected babies on antiretroviral drugs, known as ART, as early as their diagnosis and treat them for the rest of their lives. Doctors have long known that while HIV-treatment is life-saving in these children, there are concerns about the side-effects and health impacts of lifelong therapy with these powerful drugs.

The child at the center of Monday's announcement was one of 377 HIV-infected children in a research trial that investigated the possibility of treating children with ART and then stopping the treatments for extended periods.

Related: Study Shows HIV Epidemic Starting Spreading in New York in 1970

As a 32-day old infant diagnosed with HIV, the South African baby received medication that stops the AIDS virus from replicating. By 40 weeks, the baby’s immune system was in good shape with no symptoms of the disease. Dr. Mark Cotton, professor of pediatrics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, who co-led the study says most importantly doctors found no evidence of an inactive HIV infection.

“Our team has been keeping an eye on the viral loads and we’re seeing that there’s no detectable virus in the child’s blood.”

The most intriguing question for scientists now is figuring out what makes this child’s immune system so special. Some people have genetic mutations that enable them to better deal with an HIV infection, but according to the researchers, the nine year old doesn’t have a gene that gives natural resistance to HIV infection. Beginning drug treatment early is key, but it’s not the only answer.

“We think it was a combination of receiving early treatment and some factors in the immune system that controlled the virus," Cotton told NBC News.

There are hints that the child’s white blood cells lack a certain HIV-receptor, Dr. Cotton explained, so the virus has a hard time infecting the blood cells. Why this child’s blood cells lack that HIV-receptor is unclear, especially since there’s no genetic mutation that would lead to the low expression of that particular receptor.

“That could be a signal of something we don’t understand but might become a target for future treatments,” explains Cotton.

Related: HIV Patients With Undetectable Virus Unlikely To Infect Partners

The South African child is the third reported case of long-term HIV remission in a child after early HIV treatment was halted.
• The first case was a baby girl from Mississippi who received ART just 30 hours after birth until she was 18 months old. The baby sustained remission for 27 months, until 2015, when she rebounded and the virus was found in her blood.
• A French child started anti-HIV therapy at 3 months and stopped treatment sometime between ages 5.5 and 7 years. The child continues to be healthy more than 11 years later.

As promising as the newest case is, the South African child is not cured, Cotton said.

“Our 9-year old child is adding a little bit more to the picture as one tries to puzzle the complexity of human beings and HIV. It’s on the pathway to a cure but we don’t know how long it will take.”</s>An American girl born with HIV and in remission for years despite stopping treatment is showing signs that she still has the virus and therefore is not cured. The news is a setback to hopes that very early doses of powerful drugs might eliminate the infection that causes Aids.

The Mississippi girl is now nearly four and as recently as March doctors had said she seemed free of HIV despite not having been on medication for about two years. The case was regarded as a medical first.

But tests last week showed she was no longer in remission. She was back on treatment and responding well, doctors said.

The news was "obviously disappointing" and may have implications for a federal study that had been about to start testing early aggressive treatment in such cases, said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"We're going to take a good hard look at the study and see if it needs any modifications," either in terms of length and type of treatment or because of ethical concerns over raising false hopes about an approach that now had suffered a setback, Fauci said.

Most HIV-infected mothers in the US get anti-HIV medicines during pregnancy, which greatly cuts the chances they will pass the virus to their babies. The Mississippi baby's mother did not receive them and her HIV was discovered during labour. Because of the baby's great risk of infection doctors started her on unusually powerful treatment 30 hours after birth, even before tests could determine whether she had the virus.

The girl was treated until she was 18 months old, when doctors lost contact with her. Ten months later when she returned they could find no sign of infection even though the mother had stopped giving her Aids medicines.

Tests repeatedly showed no detectable HIV until last week, when the virus was detected in her blood. Doctors have said they don't know why the virus rebounded when it did.

In March doctors revealed that a second baby born with HIV may have had her infection put into remission by very early treatment, four hours after her birth in suburban Los Angeles in April 2013. Nearly a year later very sophisticated tests at multiple times suggested she had been completely cleared of the virus, but she remains on treatment so there is no way to know for sure.

Only one other person is thought to have been cured of HIV infection: a San Francisco man who had a bone marrow transplant in 2007 from a donor with natural resistance to the virus. More than five years later he showed no sign of infection.</s>The existence of modern antiretroviral drugs means HIV can be effectively held at bay, but cases of total remission are incredibly rare. Now, doctors have a new one to report.

A nine-year-old South African child who was diagnosed with HIV shortly after her birth in 2007 has now been in remission for eight-and-a-half years, scientists say – even though she only received anti-HIV drugs for a short period during her infancy.

It's only the third such case involving children in recent years – joining the 'Mississippi Baby' and the remission of a French child who successfully went drug-free for at least 12 years – and gives new hope that early treatment could lead to a virtual cure for HIV-infected babies.

"Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term HIV remission in infected babies," says Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which funded the clinical trial nine years ago.

"However, this new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease."

In the study, HIV-infected infants were randomly assigned to receive either early or deferred antiretroviral therapy (ART).

The child in question, whose identity is being protected, received early treatment for 40 weeks along with 142 other babies.

Before treatment began, the child's blood showed very high levels of HIV. The child commenced ART at nine weeks of age, and at the end of the course of treatment, results indicated the viral load had been suppressed to undetectable levels.

For the next eight years the child didn't receive any antiretroviral medicine, but a follow-up analysis of stored blood samples taken during the interim showed that the virus had not returned.

But that didn't mean she had been cured. When researchers conducted a thorough analysis of the child's blood at nine-and-a-half years of age, they detected a reservoir of virus integrated into a tiny proportion of immune cells – called latent HIV – the sole remaining evidence of any HIV infection.

Otherwise, the child was free of symptoms, and had a healthy level of key immune cells.

While the case bears similarities to the Mississippi Baby – whose remission lasted 27 months before the virus returned – and the French child, the doctors say they've never seen such a finite and controlled burst of therapy deliver results like this before.

"To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of sustained control of HIV in a child enrolled in a randomised trial of ART interruption following treatment early in infancy," says one of the lead researchers, Avy Violari from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Beyond that, the team hopes that further research might be able to highlight what it is about the child's physiology that led to such a successful treatment – especially since they don't think early ART by itself can explain the result here.

"We don't believe that antiretroviral therapy alone can lead to remission," Violari told the BBC.

"We don't really know what's the reason why this child has achieved remission – we believe it's either genetic or immune system-related."

At the same time, the team's analysis suggests that the child doesn't exhibit genetic characteristics associated with spontaneous control of HIV without the therapy – meaning it's likely that somehow the interplay between the short, early treatment and her body was able to induce her immune system to control HIV replication, creating a long-lasting and hopefully permanent remission.

Just what that mechanism was remains to be seen, but it's an incredibly inspiring puzzle to solve – and a wonderful result to be thankful for in the meantime.

The update on the research was presented at the 9th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Paris on Monday.</s>The brave hopes of HIV scientists that they were on the path towards a cure for Aids have received a considerable blow with the news from the US that, after appearing to have been totally cleared from the body of one small girl, the virus has been detected again.

The Mississippi baby was the poster child of the "hunt for a cure", which is the mantra scientists and campaigners have adopted since more widely available drugs stemmed the rise in the Aids pandemic and reduced the sense of emergency. We have never known her name, but the child treated in the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Mississippi appeared to be living proof that it was possible to outwit the virus. Studies have been planned to test the treatment she received in other babies. Now there will have to be a rethink. Throughout the HIV community, there will be real dismay.

Pregnant women with HIV are put on antiretroviral drugs to suppress the virus in their blood, for their own health and to protect their baby. In North America and Europe, the vast majority of babies with HIV-positive mothers are born free of the virus as a result. The Mississippi baby's mother, however, had never attended an antenatal clinic. Dr Hannah Gay, a paediatric HIV consultant at the hospital, took the decision to put the baby on a particularly strong course of antiretroviral drugs within 30 hours of the birth, before she even had any HIV test results. This was an unusual procedure, but sure enough, when the test results came back, they confirmed HIV in the baby.

The child continued to be given antiretroviral drugs for 18 months, when doctors lost contact with her. Ten months later, mother and daughter reappeared. When tests were done, there was no sign of the virus anywhere in the girl's body. A buzz of amazement and excitement went around the world. But now, at nearly four years old, the regular tests to which the child has been subjected have shown traces of the virus once again. She is no longer in remission and has been put back on treatment.

HIV has proved a formidable opponent for scientists trying to develop vaccines as well as drugs because of its ability to hide in the body. Drugs can suppress the virus until it is almost undetectable, but once they are stopped, the virus rebounds.

The events in Mississippi may still teach scientists a great deal. It does appear that treatment hit the virus harder in this child's case than anyone has managed to do before. Other doctors have been keen to try the approach. In March it was revealed that a second baby, in Los Angeles, had been treated with a similar strong cocktail of drugs within just four hours of her birth. Tests could not find the virus afterwards, but that baby is still on treatment and now likely to remain so.

There have been plans in the US to carry out a federally funded study of early aggressive treatment in newborn babies with HIV. If there was no sign of HIV after two years, doctors would stop the drugs. Whether such a study can now be ethically done will be in question.

"We're going to take a good hard look at the study and see if it needs any modifications," said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At a minimum, consent forms to join the study would have to be revised, he said. He added that scientists remained committed to finding a cure for HIV.

Jeffrey Safrit, research chief at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, was one of those to offer an upbeat view. "What we've learned from this case is really quite amazing," he said. "They were able to suppress the virus for a very long time without therapy. We need to take the positive aspects of this case and learn from them to move forward [with the federal study]".

Hopes have been raised before. Like the Mississippi baby, the "Berlin patient" appeared to offer a blueprint for a cure when his story emerged in 2008. The patient was an American, Timothy Ray Brown, who received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Germany to treat his cancer, acute myeloid leukaemia. His doctors managed to get the donation from a man who is one of the small minority who have natural immunity to HIV. Brown's HIV has not recurred. Stem cell transplants from donors have since been given to other people with HIV, but the virus has always made a comeback.

At the International Aids Conference, which opens in Melbourne at the end of next week, the promise of babies freed from HIV was expected to be one of the biggest and most hopeful themes. Now there will be a lot of stoical talk from HIV specialists about what can be learned from the setback. They have been here before and will be here again before HIV is, hopefully, finally conquered.</s>There's a sign of hope for people with HIV.A 9-year-old South African girl has surprised AIDS researchers as she continues to show no symptoms of the HIV virus. The girl was born with the virus but received early treatment. The case was presented Monday at the AIDS conference in Paris.There have been other cases where treatment didn't work or the virus eventually reappeared. This case is rare, but it seems to suggest that babies who are infected and treated right away may someday not need a life of treatment.At the AIDS conference in Paris, it was reported that the number of people living with HIV is startling. According to the United Nations, as of 2016, there are more than 36 million around the world. Only about half are able to have access to treatment.The results of one of the most promising studies also came out Monday.A 9-year old South African girl was diagnosed when she was only 30 days old, a newborn. Treatment began at 8.5 weeks and then continued for a total of 40 weeks."Was on treatment for about 40 weeks and then treatment was interrupted and the child has had undetectable viral load for the duration right up until now," said communicable diseases expert Caroline Tiemessen.The child was part of a clinical trial to see the effects of treating HIV-positive babies in the first weeks of life.Now it raises the possibility that treating babies early could prevent them from taking HIV drugs their entire lives."It doesn't have specific relevance to infants in San Francisco but you're right throughout the world there are millions and millions of infants who become infected," said Stephanie Cohen, M.D., with the San Francisco City Clinic.Researchers say other unknown factors may have contributed to the child's remission."I think the challenge is to try to pin down exactly what were the events that led to this in this child and what it is that's very special in this case," Tiemessen said.This is the third case of a child in remission using very early treatment. There are two somewhat similar cases in France and the United States.</s>Sign up for one of our email newsletters.

A South African girl who was born with HIV and received treatment as an infant is still in remission at age 9, according to a National Institutes of Health news release.

The girl started treatment at 9 weeks old and the virus dropped to undetectable levels after 40 weeks of treatment, according to the release. She had very high levels of HIV in her blood when she began treatment, the release states.

Hers is the third reported case of a child controlling the virus for long periods of time after treatment as an infant, according to the release. The virus is not detectable by standard tests and is not capable of replication, although more precise tests can still identify it in some of her immune cells, the release states.

“This new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of NIH, said in the release.

Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term remission in children, Fauci said in the release.

An NIH clinical trial is testing long-term impacts of starting antiretroviral HIV treatment within 48 hours of birth. The study includes 42 HIV-infected infants and hundreds more who have been exposed to HIV from the U.S. and countries in Africa and South America.

Some of the children could stop treatment late this year, according to the release.

Wes Venteicher is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-380-5676, wventeicher@tribweb.com or via Twitter @wesventeicher.</s>A 9-year-old South African child has been “virtually cured” of HIV. The child who was infected with HIV at the time of birth was given a burst of treatment after birth. The child has been in remission since eight and half years giving hope to millions of a possible new HIV cure.

The child was born to an HIV-positive mother and was taken to one of the clinics at about eight weeks of age. The therapy was initiated when the viral load was much lower, and it was continued until 48 weeks. By the time the treatment was completed, the child was free of any detectable viral load.

Even after a year, the child showed no signs of actively replicating virus. This is the first such case of sustained virological treatment. The family is said to be “really delighted.” The identity of the child is kept confidential mainly because the mother has died.

Most people affected with HIV need treatment throughout their lives to control the HIV that can destroy the immune system and cause AIDS. It is believed that the child had a better immunity and different kind of control over the virus even before the treatment began. Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, said as follows.

This case was described by researchers at the International AIDS Conference in Paris. This case study reveals that there could be other ways to control and perhaps cure HIV with treatment other than a lifelong regimen of antiretroviral drugs.

While the child being in remission raises hope, experts urged caution. Linda-Gail Bekker, president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), said in a statement that this case raised more questions than it answered. However, it still gives hope that treatment may not be required for life.

This is not the first case of complete remission. The first case was a young girl from Mississippi who was “functionally cured” for 23 months after ending the treatment, as reported by CNN. The virus returned after 23 months, and she was put back on medication.

The second case was reported in France where a child underwent treatment from birth until the age of six years. The blood showed no detectable level of virus for 13 years after completion of treatment. The teen is still in remission and maintaining good health.

The South-African child is the only case till date that appears to be a virtually complete HIV cure. The child was a part of a study which took place from 2005 to 2011 and involved 400 HIV-positive babies, as reported by The Washington Post. The aim of the study was to find if early treatment before the signs of sickness was better than deferred treatment.

It is a known fact that some people called the “elite controllers” are better at dealing with HIV. However, the child has something that has never been seen before. Studying that something and replicating it could give rise to a new drug or vaccine or antibody that could cure HIV in the future.</s>A girl in South Africa who was born with the AIDS has been able to suppress her infection for over eight years, even after stopping with anti-HIV medicine. Scientists take this as evidence that early treatment of the virus can cause a remission in rare cases, meaning it could become a form of cure.

The girl’s case was presented Monday at an AIDS conference in Paris, where other researchers likewise revealed positive HIV treatment results from test experiments using monthly shots instead of daily pills, CBS reports.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top AIDS scientist in the USA, said that these prospects for long-acting drugs are “very promising.” Current treatments are able to keep HIV under control, but are designed to be taken for the remainder of a patient’s life.

However, transplants are very risky and are impractical for mass treatments. So researchers have been looking at long-term remission options, wherein the body’s immune system can control HIV without the need for drugs, even if the virus remains.

The South African girl is the third child to have achieved long-term remission after aggressive treatment early on. In a study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the girl began taking HIV drugs when she was only two months old. The treatments stopped 40 weeks later.

When she was over nine years old, tests showed signs of HIV in a small number of her immune system cells, but none that were reproducing. In addition, the girl does not have the gene mutation that makes some people naturally resistant to HIV infections.

“Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term HIV remission in infected babies,” Fauci said. “However, this new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease.”
A girl born with HIV, who was started on HIV drugs when she was 2 months old and stopped 40 weeks later, is virtually-free of the virus even after no further treatment.