Children’s Immune Systems May Be Key to HIV Cure

New findings suggest that children treated with antiretroviral drugs within the first six months of life could achieve long-term HIV remission, raising hope for the first scalable cure.

“Children have special immunological features which make it more likely that we will develop an HIV cure for them before other populations,” says paediatrician Alfredo Tagarro, pointing to how early treatment combined with unique immune responses sets young patients apart.

Researchers tracked several hundred HIV-positive infants in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, who began antiretroviral therapy shortly after birth. Astonishingly, five children who stopped treatment months later were found to have undetectable viral levels, defying the usual two- to three-week rebound; one child remained in remission for 17 months. At a recent conference, Tagarro shared that about 5% of children treated within six months suppress the viral reservoir to nearly undetectable levels — without ongoing medication. Building on this promise, Oxford’s Philip Goulder is now testing a trial of 19 children, six of whom have already maintained viral control for over 18 months. With tools like broadly neutralising antibodies, vaccines, and even gene therapies on the horizon, these early successes could guide the world toward a functional cure—starting with children and eventually expanding to everyone living with HIV.