This week we saw the results of a new study that showed how infant antibiotic exposure is associated with early childhood obesity. Today, we’ve got more amazing health news: it appears that a second child thought to have been cured of HIV has the virus present in his blood again.

Cured of HIV?

The Mississippi baby was the first infant in the world who was thought to have been cured of the horrible virus after receiving antiretroviral therapy hours after being born. Sadly, the virus returned two years after the baby was taken off the medicine.

Today, it was revealed that another baby was believed to have been cured of HIV, but had the virus return. This case comes from Milan, Italy, where the baby was born to a mother infected with HIV. 12 hours after the baby was born, it was determined that he had HIV present in his bloodstream. He was started with ART four days after he was born and 3 years later, the tests showed that he had no more HIV or HIV antibodies in his blood, thus he was believed to have been cured of HIV. Unfortunately, as soon as he was taken off the ART, the virus came back.

There is only one person in the world who is thought to have been officially cured of HIV. He is Ray Brown and he’s called the Berlin patient. The man was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and received ART for 10 years. After being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, he received a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a CCR5 gene mutation (that stops HIV from entering human cells). 5 years later, Ray Brown is still HIV free.

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