Drug for HIV babies tested

At least five Canadian children have been treated with a drug regimen some researchers are suggesting may be a cure for HIV infection in infants, Canadian researchers have revealed.

Some of the children treated in this manner currently show no signs of infection, CBC News quoted the researchers as saying.

However, the researchers declined to provide specifics. Preliminary data will be presented at a scientific conference in May.

“Some of the early treated children exhibited sustained virologic suppression, meaning that their HIV viral load continues to be undetectable,” said microbiologist Hugo Soudeyns from Ste-Justine Hospital in Montreal.

This comes as US doctors announced last year that they may have cured a baby of HIV by beginning aggressive drug treatment within two days of birth. The so-called Mississippi baby is now three and a half years old and appears to be virus-free, two years after being taken off AIDS drugs.

Earlier this week another US team reported what appears to be a second success, in a baby from California. That girl, now nine months old, is still being given AIDS medication. There was talk at that conference, in Boston, that a number of children from Canada might also have been successfully treated in the same manner.

The scientists — from St. Justine Hospital, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto — have received nearly $2 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the International AIDS Society and the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research to look into what can be learned from studying the early treatment children.

Now, a team of Canadian researchers confirmed there have been at least five, and they are looking to see if there have been more.