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HIV treatments can hold the disease at bay, though stopping the drugs can be a death sentence since it allows infected cells secreted within the immune system to re-emerge, spreading the virus anew. Administering the mix of drugs right after birth may have stopped the virus from forming hidden reservoirs.

Doctors say they have cured an infant born with HIV for the first time by giving her a cocktail of drugs shortly after birth, a result that could point the way toward saving the lives of thousands more infected children.

The baby, whose identity has been kept anonymous, began a regimen of AIDS drugs about 30 hours after she was born at a rural Mississippi hospital, doctors said yesterday at a medical meeting in Atlanta. At 18 months, the mother took the child off the medication. With no signs of the virus for 10 months, the infant was deemed functionally cured, researchers said.

While HIV treatments can hold the disease at bay, stopping them can be a death sentence, allowing infected cells secreted within the immune system to re-emerge. Administering the mix of drugs right after birth may have stopped the virus from forming hidden reservoirs. If confirmed in further studies, the approach could help cure some of the 300,000 children infected yearly.

Some babies here in the U.S. and Western Europe, and an awful lot of babies in the developing world dont have the opportunity for prevention, said Hannah Gay, who treated the infant at the University of Mississippi in Jackson. There would be scores of babies that would benefit if we can find a strategy for intervention that allows us to make this happen in other babies.

Doctors reported the result at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, an annual gathering of more than 4,000 infectious disease researchers.

The development comes at a time when researchers are ramping up efforts to find a cure for AIDS. Drugmakers, including Merck & Co. (MRK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD), are all studying medicines that could completely flush out the virus from infected patients.

Researchers at the meeting said they will continue studying a drug by Merck for a rare type of cancer after it showed early signs of clearing the hidden deposits of HIV, and Gilead announced plans last year to test a cancer drug called Istodax in a small group of HIV patients.

The babys treatment combined lamivudine and zidovudine, both sold by GlaxoSmithKline Plcs joint venture with Pfizer Inc., ViiV Healthcare, and Abbott Laboratories Kaletra.

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HIV-Infected Infant Cured With Early Use of Virus-Blocking Drugs