Detectable Levels of Virus Found in 'Cured' HIV Baby

Health officials announced Thursday that a nearly 4-year-old Mississippi child thought to have been cured of HIV now has detectable levels of the virus.

The child had been regularly tested for the AIDS virus, which appeared to have not returned over the years, but also exhibited no signs of damaging her immune system, according to NBC News.

"It felt very much like a punch to the gut," said Dr. Hannah Gay of the University of Mississippi, who has been treating the child.

The child, known as the "Mississippi baby" will now begin taking anti-HIV medications. Currently, officials note that she is responding well to the treatment.

"Ever since we discovered this case in 2012, we knew this could happen," said Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson who treated the child.

Doctors are working to determine if it's ever possible to stop using HIV medications, as people diagnosed with HIV are typically treated for the rest of their lives. According to Gay, the girl will be taking medication, "for a long time."

However, hope remains for the future.

"The fact that this child was able to remain off anti-retroviral treatment for two years and maintain quiescent virus for that length of time is unprecedented," said Deborah Persaud, professor of infectious diseases at the John Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore and one of the two pediatric HIV experts involved in the ongoing analysis of the case. "Typically, when treatment is stopped, HIV levels rebound within weeks, not years."