By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Online Tech Guru
  • News
  • PC/Windows
  • Mobile
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • More
    • Gaming
    • Accessories
    • Editor’s Choice
    • Press Release
Reading: The First Widespread Cure for HIV Could Be in Children
Best Deal
Font ResizerAa
Online Tech GuruOnline Tech Guru
  • News
  • Mobile
  • PC/Windows
  • Gaming
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • Accessories
Search
  • News
  • PC/Windows
  • Mobile
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • More
    • Gaming
    • Accessories
    • Editor’s Choice
    • Press Release

The Best Deals Today: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, Paper Mario, LEGO Harry Potter, and More

News Room News Room 31 August 2025
FacebookLike
InstagramFollow
YoutubeSubscribe
TiktokFollow
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
© Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Online Tech Guru > News > The First Widespread Cure for HIV Could Be in Children
News

The First Widespread Cure for HIV Could Be in Children

News Room
Last updated: 1 August 2025 16:29
By News Room 4 Min Read
Share
SHARE

For years, Philip Goulder has been obsessed with a particularly captivating idea: In the hunt for an HIV cure, could children hold the answers?

Starting in the mid-2010s, the University of Oxford pediatrician and immunologist began working with scientists in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, with the aim of tracking several hundred children who had acquired HIV from their mothers, either during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding.

After putting the children on antiretroviral drugs early in their lives to control the virus, Goulder and his colleagues were keen to monitor their progress and adherence to standard antiretroviral treatment, which stops HIV from replicating. But over the following decade, something unusual happened. Five of the children stopped coming to the clinic to collect their drugs, and when the team eventually tracked them down many months later, they appeared to be in perfect health.

“Instead of their viral loads being through the roof, they were undetectable,” says Goulder. “And normally HIV rebounds within two or three weeks.”

In a study published last year, Goulder described how all five remained in remission, despite having not received regular antiretroviral medication for some time, and in one case, up to 17 months. In the decades-long search for an HIV cure, this offered a tantalizing insight: that the first widespread success in curing HIV might not come in adults, but in children.

At the recent International AIDS Society conference held in Kigali, Rwanda, in mid-July, Alfredo Tagarro, a pediatrician at the Infanta Sofia University Hospital in Madrid, presented a new study showing that around 5 percent of HIV-infected children who receive antiretrovirals within the first six months of life ultimately suppress the HIV viral reservoir—the number of cells harboring the virus’s genetic material—to negligible levels. “Children have special immunological features which makes it more likely that we will develop an HIV cure for them before other populations,” says Tagarro.

His thoughts were echoed by another doctor, Mark Cotton, who directs the children’s infectious diseases clinical research unit at the University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town.

“Kids have a much more dynamic immune system,” says Cotton. “They also don’t have any additional issues like high blood pressure or kidney problems. It makes them a better target, initially, for a cure.”

According to Tagarro, children with HIV have long been “left behind” in the race to find a treatment that can put HIV-positive individuals permanently into remission. Since 2007, 10 adults are thought to have been cured, having received stem cell transplants to treat life-threatening blood cancer, a procedure which ended up eliminating the virus. Yet with such procedures being both complex and highly risky—other patients have died in the aftermath of similar attempts—it is not considered a viable strategy for specifically targeting HIV.

Instead, like Goulder, pediatricians have increasingly noticed that after starting antiretroviral treatment early in life, a small subpopulation of children then seem able to suppress HIV for months, years, and perhaps even permanently with their immune system alone. This realization initially began with certain isolated case studies: the “Mississippi baby” who controlled the virus for more than two years without medication, and a South African child who was considered potentially cured having kept the virus in remission for more than a decade. Cotton says he suspects that between 10 and 20 percent of all HIV-infected children would be capable of controlling the virus for a significant period of time, beyond the typical two to three weeks, after stopping antiretrovirals.

Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Copy Link
Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

How to Set Up Your New Android Phone

News Room News Room 31 August 2025
FacebookLike
InstagramFollow
YoutubeSubscribe
TiktokFollow

Trending

The 23 Key Pixel Settings to Change on Your Google Phone

While we're talking about the display, make sure your Pixel is using the highest screen…

31 August 2025

The 24 best gifts for book lovers

What do you gift somebody who loves books? The obvious answer is “a book,” but…

31 August 2025

The Best Handheld and Wearable Fans to Keep Sweat at Bay

This fan was a great companion during a late summer parade, providing some airflow without…

31 August 2025
Gaming

Win a Custom Delta Force x Alienware 16 Aurora Gaming Laptop

PC gaming is more popular than ever. You have traditional desktop PCs, handheld PCs like ROG Ally or Steam Deck, and the best of both worlds, gaming laptops. Out of…

News Room 31 August 2025

Your may also like!

News

Meta is struggling to rein in its AI chatbots

News Room 31 August 2025
News

How To Clean Your TV Screen or Computer Monitor

News Room 31 August 2025
News

These Hi-Fi Speakers Are Made out of Rocket Fuel Tanks

News Room 31 August 2025
News

AI agents are science fiction not yet ready for primetime

News Room 31 August 2025

Our website stores cookies on your computer. They allow us to remember you and help personalize your experience with our site.

Read our privacy policy for more information.

Quick Links

  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
Advertise with us

Socials

Follow US
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?