Deborah Persaud from Johns Hopkins gave an update on the "Mississippi Baby" – now nearly four years old – who just before the conference was found to still have HIV after having had an undetectable viral load while off antiretroviral therapy (ART) for more than two years. Though disappointing for the child – who has resumed ART and is in good health – "we have learned a lot from this case and it provides a strong rationale for moving forward with a clinical trial" of very early combination therapy for infants, Persaud said.
"We're looking at the moment at achieving long-term remission, and how long can we go [without antiretrovirals]," said AIDS 2014 co-chair Sharon Lewin from Monash University. "We've realised in the past year that the virus can really hang around for a very long time and pop up unexpectedly." The Mississippi case "shows we need much better tools to detect HIV"…
