July 11, 2014
Zaina Kahuk
News Writer
Headlines
A Mississippi girl born with the AIDS virus has been in remission for more than two years, but despite stopping treatment now shows signs that she still has HIV. The girl is now 4. Back in March doctors said she seemed free of HIV and was she was not being treated with AIDS drugs, which is a first. On Thursday, doctors were surprised to find the virus in her blood, and there were signs that it was harming her immune system. She is back on treatment and is responding well. This news will affect 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. Doctors had been considering stopping treatment if no signs of infection could be detected after two years. “We’re going to take a good hard look at the study and see if it needs any modifications,” either in terms of length of treatment or because of ethical concerns over raising false hopes about an approach that now has suffered a setback, Fauci said.
