Today the first documented case of the cure of HIV in an infant was published, from a project funded by amfAR, the organization that Janet supports so passionately and funds many projects that seek a cure for HIV/AIDS.

The researchers were from Johns Hopkins University (MD) and University of Massachussets (MA)


Obviously I feel proud not only to be her stan but also to be studying @ Johns Hopkins University in an exchange program.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/he...anted=all&_r=0

Oh MY GOD

They really did that wow I'm honestly so amazed

That's a fantastic development

The Janet plug

Fantastic for the cure though.

Wow. Amazing

Omg, I was gonna talk about Janet's boobs, but after reading the article...

That's amazing

Wait i dont get it what happened

Nice. Hope they finally find a cure for everyone.

Yas Janet save mankind this is great news.

Wait wut

That's awesome! And JHU is a wonderful school, you're lucky to be there.

Wait this is only about babies? Welp.

SUMMARY:

Doctors announced on Sunday that a baby had been cured of an H.I.V. infection for the first time, a startling development that could change how infected newborns are treated and sharply reduce the number of children living with the virus that causes AIDS.

The baby, born in rural Mississippi, was treated aggresively with antiretroviral drugs starting around 30 hours after birth, something that is not usually done.

Dr. Persaud and other researchers spoke in advance of a presentation of the findings on Monday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.

Some outside experts, who have not yet heard all the details, said they needed convincing that the baby had truly been infected. If not, this would be a case of prevention, something already done for babies born to infected mothers.

“The one uncertainty is really definitive evidence that the child was indeed infected,” said Dr. Daniel R. Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Persaud and some other outside scientists said they were certain the baby – whose name and gender were not disclosed – had been infected. There were five positive tests in the baby’s first month of life – four for viral RNA and one for DNA. And once the treatment started, the virus levels in the baby’s blood declined in the pattern characteristic of infected patients.

Dr. Persaud said there was also little doubt that the child experienced what she called a “functional cure.” Now 2½ , the child has been off drugs for a year with no sign of functioning virus.

Virus levels rapidly declined with treatment and were undetectable by the time the baby was a month old. That remained the case until the baby was 18 months old, after which the mother stopped coming to the hospital.

When the mother and child returned five months later, Dr. Gay expected to see high viral loads in the baby. But the tests were negative.

Suspecting a laboratory error, she ordered more tests. “To my greater surprise, all of these came back negative,” Dr. Gay said.

One hypothesis is that the drugs killed off the virus before it could establish a hidden reservoir in the baby. One reason people cannot be cured now is that the virus hides in a dormant state, out of reach of existing drugs. When drug therapy is stopped, the virus can emerge from hiding.

CNN
A "functional cure" is when the presence of the virus is so small, lifelong treatment is not necessary and standard clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the blood.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/03/health...red/index.html

Amazing news!

This is incredible!

Cancer next please.

Babies have fairly poor immune systems. Having found an approach to cure them is a step towards curing adults.

Yassss for Brazilian Government paying for me to be here. YASS DILMA ROUSSEF SIS I AM GETTING LIFE.

(And a particular Brazilian ATRLer may seethe )