Miss. makes news, good news, this time

Editorials

March 15, 2013

Miss. makes news, good news, this time

By The Commercial Dispatch, Columbus, Miss. Associated Press Fri Mar 15, 2013, 07:00 AM CDT

COLUMBUS, Miss. — Generally, when Mississippi makes national news — especially of late — it is not the sort of notoriety we welcome. ...

So March 3, when Mississippi again made national news, we braced ourselves for the embarrassment that was sure to follow.

Only this time, it wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about.

Imagine that.

It was reported a child treated at Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson had become the first child — and just the second person — to have been cured of the HIV infection that leads to AIDS, a cure that can be mainly attributed to Dr. Hannah Gay, a University of Mississippi Medical Center pediatric infectious disease specialist.

When the child, whose name has not been made public, was diagnosed with HIV just hours after birth, Gay decided to begin treating the child immediately, with the first dose of antivirals given within 31 hours of birth. That’s faster than most infants born with HIV get treated, and specialists think it’s one important factor in the child’s cure.

In addition, Gay gave higher-than-usual, “therapeutic” doses of three powerful HIV drugs rather than the “prophylactic” doses usually given in these circumstances.

Over the months, the baby thrived, and standard tests could detect no virus in her blood, which is the normal result from antiviral treatment. After losing contact with the child for almost a year, Gay was successful in tracking down the infant and subsequent testing revealed that even without continuing treatment, the child showed no evidence of HIV. In short, the child was cured.

The implications of Gay’s work are potentially staggering. More than a 1,000 children a year are born with HIV, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries.

While much research lies ahead, Gay’s work with the child may someday be considered a major breakthrough in the fight against AIDS.

The record will show that the ground-breaking work began in Mississippi and was performed by a Mississippi-educated doctor.

And, for once, that’s nothing to laugh at.

Online:

http://www.cdispatch.com

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Generally, when Mississippi makes national news — especially of late — it is not the sort of notoriety we welcome. ...
So March 3, when Mississippi again made national news, we braced ourselves for the embarrassment that was sure to follow.
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