Researchers in Boston have reported a second success in
preventing AIDS in a baby born to an HIV-positive mother, and say there may be
eight more such cases.
The baby, born in Long Beach, Calif., is the second doctors
say aggressive treatment has prevented the disease from developing. The first
announcement was greeted with great skepticism in the medical world, but the
"Mississippi" baby is now more than 3 years old.
"This could lead to major changes, for two reasons,” Dr.
Anthony S. Fauci, executive director of the National Institute for Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, told the New York Times. “Both for the welfare of the
child, and because it is a huge proof of concept that you can cure someone if
you can treat them early enough.”
Meantime, it was disclosed that doctors are having similar
success with five babies in Canada and three in South Africa.
The doctors involved in the second baby's case, in
California, were not working with the obstetricians in the Mississippi case,
though they were aware of its success.
Within 48 hours doctors will begin clinical tests with up to
60 babies born infected to see if aggressive early treatment will help them.
There was more good news at annual AIDS conference in
Boston, according to Boston.com. An experimental drug tested on monkies appears
to give victims an alternative to the daily cocktail of pills now taken.
"This is the most exciting innovation in the field of
HIV prevention that I've heard of recently," said AIDS expert Dr. Robert
Grant at the Gladsone Institutes.
"Both groups are showing 100 percent protection"
using the drug. "If it works and proves to be safe, it would allow for HIV
to be prevented with period injections, perhaps every three months.
A second, independent test produced similar results.
Research "supports moving this forward" into human
testing, said Dr. Judith Currier, an infectious disease specialist at the
University of California, Los Angeles.
The drugs being used to treat babies are similar to those
given to adults, AZT, 3TC and nevirapine, but they are given immediately after
birth instead of waiting for the disease to appear.
The disease has bedeviled the scientific community for
decades, claiming as many as 36 millions lives as of 2012.
At first it was considered to mostly affect homosexuals, but
later cases involved heterosexuals as well.
The disease was first clinically observed in the US in 1981,
though research has indicated it may been around in a milder form in the mid-1950s.
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