Earlier this year, the "Mississippi baby" who was believed to have been cured of HIV after receiving anti-retroviral treatments shortly after birth experienced an unexpected rebound illness and was found to have HIV again after a few years. Recently, another baby, this time in Milan, Italy, went through the same incident, with doctors thinking he has been cured of HIV only to find detectable levels of the virus present in his blood once again.
The baby boy was born to an HIV-positive mother in 2009 and was diagnosed 12 hours after that with the same disease. The child also received anti-retroviral therapy after his birth, and at age three his blood no longer showed any detectable levels of the virus. This led doctors to believe that the disease had been eradicated and so treatment was stopped. One of the researches said, "In view of these results and recent reports of apparent cure of HIV infection, and in agreement with the mother, we stopped ART."
However, subsequent tests revealed that, just two weeks after the anti-retroviral therapy was stopped, the virus had recurred. The medical team attending to the child said that, "In our patient, even with apparent clearance of the virus, HIV was not eradicated." Lead researcher, Prof. Mario Clerici said that even at birth, the child already had a very high HIV load that may be partly responsible for the incomplete eradication of the virus. Additionally, he also already had an infection while still in utero and had very low birth weight as well.
In both of these cases of HIV rebound in children previously thought cleared of the disease, the medical hopes of finally finding a cure for the fatal condition has been curbed. HIV and AIDS researchers conclude that anti-retroviral drugs are indeed effective in reducing the mortality and morbidity rates associated to the disease but, at the same time, ineffective in the total elimination of viral reservoirs that results in their inability to completely eradicate the virus.