French Teenager Infected With HIV At Birth Has Undetectable Viral Level After Stopping Therapy 12 Years Ago

Agence France-Presse: Teen in remission from HIV 12 yrs after stopping meds: researchers
“A French teenager born with HIV has been in remission for 12 years after stopping her medication, a world-first that renews hope for the prospect of early treatment, researchers said Monday…” (Jones, 7/20).

aidsmap: Young woman stays undetectable for 12 years off treatment after early HIV therapy
“…[The] young woman, who was infected with HIV at birth and received very early antiretroviral therapy as a child, has stayed off therapy since the age of six with a viral load well below the detectability limit of standard tests. Such ‘post-treatment controllers’ are models for the ‘functional cure’ which is one of the goals of treatment research…” (Cairns, 7/21).

Associated Press: Doctors say teen’s HIV in check for 12 years without drugs
“…The teen might have some form of natural resistance to HIV that hasn’t yet been discovered. But her case revives hope that early, aggressive treatment can limit how strongly the virus takes hold, and perhaps in rare cases, let people control it without lifelong drugs…” (Marchione, 7/20).

BBC News: Teenager ‘in remission’ from HIV despite stopping drugs
“…Doctors have presented the details of her case at an International AIDS Society (IAS) conference in Vancouver. It is the world’s first report of long-term remission from HIV in a child…” (Dreaper, 7/20).

Bloomberg News: Largest Trial for AIDS Treatment Planned After French Teen’s Remission
“…Researchers now aim to replicate those results on a grander scale. They say they will attempt to batter HIV into submission with treatment initiated shortly after infection, then interrupt the regimen to see whether the virus returns. The experiment will cost about $5 million and could start next year with more than 100 patients, said Steve Deeks, the trial leader and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco…” (Bennett, 7/20).

CNN: Teenager controls HIV infection without drugs for more than 12 years
“…She was initially treated with antiretroviral drugs as a prophylactic to prevent infection, and then given a combination of four antiretroviral drugs when the virus was found to persist [after birth]. She was monitored as part of a group of child HIV patients, but failed to go in for observations between the age of five and six, during which time her family chose to stop her treatment…” (Senthilingam, 7/21).

Deutsche Welle: HIV teen ‘in remission’ after 12 years off meds
“…Her story was told at an International AIDS Society conference in Vancouver on Monday, rekindling hopes that early, aggressive treatment can limit how strongly the virus takes hold…” (7/20).

The Guardian: Teenager infected with HIV before birth healthy after 12 years without treatment
“…There are people known as ‘elite controllers’ whose immune systems appear to keep the virus at bay, but according to Dr. Asier Sáez-Cirión, of the HIV, inflammation, and persistence unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, the French woman does not have the genetic factors associated with those…” (Guardian, 7/20).

Nature: French teenager healthy 12 years after ceasing HIV treatment
“…[The 18-year-old girl] joins a select group of patients with HIV — such as the ‘Mississippi baby’ and the ‘VISCONTI cohort’ of 20 patients — who were treated early on in their infections, then discontinued treatment without immediate ill effects…” (Hayden, 7/20).

Reuters: First case of long-term HIV remission in child revealed
“…The French teenager’s case is thought to be the longest of any on record so far in a child…” (Steenhuysen, 7/20).

Science: How a young child fought off the AIDS virus
“…This time, it’s clear that the French woman is not cured: Investigators have found strong signals of HIV DNA in her immune cells and can readily induce them to produce virus, says Asier Sáez-Cirión, a viral immunologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris who reported on her case…” (Cohen, 7/20).

USA TODAY: French teen in ‘unprecedented’ remission from HIV
“…The girl’s case shows that ‘long-term remission is possible, even in children, and it can go out as long as 12 years,’ AIDS researcher Sharon Lewin said. ‘But we still need a lot of work to know why’…” (Szabo, 7/21).

Washington Post: French teen’s HIV in remission despite stopping treatment as a child
“…[T]he case presents a number of possibilities for researchers seeking further progress against HIV, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health…” (Bernstein, 7/20).

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