This week at the 20th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, a group of researchers announced they had achieved a “functional cure” of a newborn baby with HIV infection. The news made a major splash and raised hopes that a giant step forward in controlling this devastating infection was finally at hand. 130304-Sepkowitz-HIV-baby-tease Pediatric HIV expert Deborah Persaud, M.D., a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who presented the findings at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta. (Johns Hopkins Children's Center) To which I say—maybe. But probably not. The story is this: a pregnant woman with no prenatal care appeared in premature labor at a small rural hospital. She was not known previously to be HIV infected but on testing was found to have antibody to the virus. At this point, the infant was transferred to a larger hospital and tested for HIV itself and not for antibodies that might simply...
