Re: Baby cured of HIV in the USA
This is a very promising treatment. However, there are some important caveats, of course.
1. This is likely only applicable to newborn infants that were infected while in the womb. This will have little impact in the United States, where infant HIV infections are relatively tiny, but it has massive implications for countries experiencing widespread infant HIV infection.
2. It remains to be seen if there are developmental side effects to pumping a 30-hour-old infant with retroviral drugs. While HIV/AIDS is a terrible condition, this will be a less viable treatment method if it causes significant physical or mental development problems.
Still, this is pretty amazing news. Of course, since this has been done in only one child, it's unknown how effective this is at large.
1. This is likely only applicable to newborn infants that were infected while in the womb. This will have little impact in the United States, where infant HIV infections are relatively tiny, but it has massive implications for countries experiencing widespread infant HIV infection.
2. It remains to be seen if there are developmental side effects to pumping a 30-hour-old infant with retroviral drugs. While HIV/AIDS is a terrible condition, this will be a less viable treatment method if it causes significant physical or mental development problems.
Still, this is pretty amazing news. Of course, since this has been done in only one child, it's unknown how effective this is at large.
