INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — 39 million people worldwide are living with HIV, the virus that leads to aids. In the 80′s, contracting HIV was considered a death sentence.

In the 90′s HIV was the number one cause of death among Americans ages 25 to 44. Fast forward to 2024 — there are anti-viral drugs that can keep people infected with the virus alive into their 70′s and 80′s. There are even drugs that can lower a person’s risk of catching HIV to almost zero. And now, a new breakthrough — this one impacting the youngest patients.

In 2013 a little girl known as the Mississippi baby made headlines becoming the first case of HIV remission in a toddler — but two years later the virus returned. It’s taken more than a decade for researchers to replicate that functional cure.

Johns Hopkins Pediatrician Dr. Deborah Persaud, MD, is part of the clinical trial team using ART therapy — or antiretroviral therapy — a cocktail of drugs administered within 48 hours of birth.

“It’s important to do it very early because we think it prevents the virus from really establishing a very large foothold,” Persaud said.

Standard treatment of babies with HIV typically starts two to three months after birth and continues for decades. This new trial included 54 newborns who were given ART therapy within days of their birth. Now around five and a half years old, after stopping their HIV medication, four of these children achieved remission.

“It’s a small number of cases, it’s four, but it’s really transformative for our field,” Persaud said.

130 thousand infants are infected every year with HIV. Interestingly, not every child born to a mother with HIV is infected.

HIV can be passed from mother to child during pregnancy, during the delivery process and during breastfeeding.

This story was created from a script aired on WISH-TV. Health Spotlight is presented by Community Health Network.