JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Blair E. Batson Children's Hospital at the University of Mississippi Medical Center has taken worldwide center stage. For the first time an infant has been by clinical definition functionally cured of HIV.
UMMC specialist Dr. Leandro Mena credits pediatric specialist Dr. Hannah Gay for her outstanding decisions in the newborn's case. Dr. Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist, started treating the child in the fall of 2010.
"In this particular case, the thought of preventing infections was no longer an issue. Because the mother did not receive prenatal care. Because of pre-term delivery," Mena said.
What is disheartening to Dr. Mena is what he described as a breakdown in the healthcare system.
"A woman who did not receive any prenatal care and without any prenatal care to deliver a baby that was exposed to HIV and second, the fact that baby known to have HIV infection was lost to follow up and for one year did not receive any medications for HIV," Mena said.
Dr. Gay says the mother did indeed quit bringing the baby to appointments and she had to contact health officials to track her down.
"This amazing event has been a result of two things that really should not have happened," Mena said.
Mena says there is a proven treatment for pregnant women who are HIV positive.
"For many years in Mississippi we have not had a single positive baby as long as the mother has received prenatal care so we know it's effective enough," Mena said.
While Mena doesn't want the breakdown to occur again, he is hopeful that this patient's cure could be beneficial in the long run to others.
"In real life, these are difficult events to replicate. I think there's a great implication worldwide for the hundreds of thousand of babies born in places where there is no prenatal care," Mena said.
As for potential benefits to the adult population, Mena says it will be studied but for now there are a lot of unknowns.
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