Doctors Report First Cure of HIV in a Child

For the first time, doctors are reporting that they have cured a child of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The landmark finding will help scientists better understand the nature of HIV, doctors say, and could potentially help countless HIV-positive babies in developing countries.

"I'm sort of holding my breath that this child's virus doesn't come back in the future," says Hannah Gay, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, who treated the child, a 2½-year-old Mississippi girl. "I'm certainly very hopeful that it will produce studies that will show us a way to cure other babies in the future."

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