Quote:
Originally posted by Brando
Didn't the virus have 9 months to establish itself prior to birth though? 
I don't get this particular part. |
When a test showed the mother might be infected, the hospital transferred the baby to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where it arrived at about 30 hours old.
Dr. Hannah B. Gay, an associate professor of pediatrics, ordered two blood draws an hour apart to test for the presence of H.I.V. RNA and DNA.
The tests found a level of virus at about 20,000 copies per milliliter, fairly low for a baby. But since tests so early in life were positive, it suggests the infection occurred in the womb rather than during delivery, Dr. Gay said.
Typically a newborn with an infected mother would be given one or two drugs as a prophylactic measure. But Dr. Gay said that based on her own experience, she almost immediately used a three-drug regimen aimed at treatment, not prophylaxis, not even waiting for the test results confirming infection.
Virus levels rapidly declined with treatment and were undetectable by the time the baby was a month old.
Looks like the virus did establish itself at some point during those nine months, but it hadn't yet established what they call a "reservoir" for itself. With the "fairly low" abundance of the virus in the baby and this special three-drug treatment I guess they were able to diminish the presence of the virus to a harmless and virtually non-existent level.
