NATIONAL NEWS - A South African child born with HIV has surprised experts by appearing to be effectively cured of the Aids virus after just a year of treatment followed by eight and a half years drug-free.
Patients with HIV would normally need to stay on antiretroviral (ART) drugs for the rest of their lives to keep Aids at bay. But this child, still off treatment and now almost 10 years old, has no signs of the disease.
This and other recent, isolated cases of remission have given additional hope to the 37 million people worldwide infected with the virus that causes Aids.
Yet experts urged caution, saying the case is extremely rare does not suggest a simple path to a cure.
"It's a case that raises more questions than it necessarily answers," said Linda-Gail Bekker, president of the International Aids Society (IAS), which is holding a conference in Paris this week.
"It does raise the interesting notion that maybe treatment isn't for life. (But) it's clearly a rare phenomenon."
