A Baby was Cured from H.I.V., How True is this?

Apparently doctors were able to cure a baby with a virus causes AIDS or what we called as H.I.V. The treatment started a day after the baby was born. And if the baby is truly affected with the said virus, this would be the first time a person was cured with just simple drug treatments.

If it is about prevention from the transmission of the virus to the baby from the infected mother, that is possible during pregnancy and with necessary testing. Those found infected will be treated with antiretroviral drugs and giving the babies a 6-week course of 1 or 2 drugs will prevent the baby from being infected. In most cases, this type of prevention works, but if it turns out the other way around, doctors provide stronger drug regimens to have the infection treated from the baby. 

In the recent case of an H.I.V. infected woman from Mississippi, she was not able to do the treatment during her pregnancy, so that doctors gave her baby a 3-drug treatment-strength regimen, that is 30 hours after birth. This medications were continued for 18 months until the mother decided to stop going to the hospital and stop the medication. After 5 months, the mother with her child returned to the hospital and was found that the baby is free from the active virus. The baby is now 2 and a half years old. With very sophisticated tests, traces of virus can be found but this will not be able to spread and replicate which they called as "functional cure."

This was an alert to all doctors who are willing to find cure to this dangerous virus. Yet, researchers need to demonstrate conclusively that the baby was truly infected and was not just a prevention from absorbing the infection from the child's mother. 

If this is really believed to be the cure of most cases, it could be the start of standard care around the world since statistics shows that 200 babies a year are born with H.I.V. infections in the US, and 300,000 babies a year are born with such virus and infections abroad. Even if this will work in the future, the best defense with the transmission from the mother to the baby is still prevention which is preferably treated after the infection set in.