Scientists talk about a nine-year-old girl with HIV infection who lives without medication for 8 years

A nine-year-old girl has been living for 8.5 years after being infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), without taking medication. The case was reported by researchers at the 9th HIV Research Conference of the International AIDS Society .

Usually, to suppress the spread of the virus, a person with HIV infection must take antiretroviral drugs for life. The girl in the report was born to an HIV-positive mother who was not taking medication and received antiretroviral therapy at 2 months. She stopped being treated when she was 11 months old.

Since then, she has been undergoing tests every year, which revealed that the virus is still in her immune cells, but it is not active - that is, it does not spread. The girl has no known genetic mutations that would protect her from HIV infection, so scientists tend to attribute this effect to early therapy.

• Such a tactic of treatment - to conduct a short-term aggressive therapy after infection - has long been of interest to scientists. This particular case was discovered as part of a study that took place in 2005-2011 in the Republic of South Africa. Within its framework, 400 HIV-positive children were examined.
• There had previously been much talk about the case of a girl from Mississippi who was treated and had no symptoms for 27 months, but then her viral load began to increase and she had to start taking drugs.