By: Jessica Rae
jrae@kcautv.com
It's made quite the buzz all over the nation today, a Mississippi baby born with HIV is now cured.
The baby was given three very strong drugs, thirty hours after she was born, and after one month of treatments the HIV was no longer in her system.
This case is so unique because doctors chose to initiate such strong medications right after the baby girl was born.
Does this bring hope of a cure to those who are currently HIV positive?
Right now there is no known cure for HIV, but the results of the treatments used on the baby in Mississippi could bring hope.
Siouxland Community Health HIV Case Manager Jamie Thompson says, "It's one step closer into a cure for AIDS, or ending AIDS because right now there is a lot of buzz about this being the generation to end AIDS."
Patients who already have HIV use medication consistently to suppress the virus.
Thompson says, "Once they go off the medication somehow it clicks back on and there's a lot of talk with scientists about the virus hiding in reservoirs in the tissues, and so it comes back."
This wasn't the case with the Mississippi baby. The HIV was not in her reservoirs, it was in her DNA.
Thompson says, "Here is another avenue for us to test and do more research so hopefully we get rid of it from adults or people who have had it for a very long time."
Thompson encourages anyone and everyone to get HIV tested. The results are ready in 15 minutes, all it takes is a little finger prick.
Doctors are already trying to replicate the medication cycle in order to help other HIV babies.
According to ABC news, around 1,000 babies are born each day infected with HIV.
