Doctors announced Sunday that a baby had been cured of an HIV infection for the first time, in a development that could change treatment methods for infected newborns and reduce the number of children living with the virus that causes AIDS, the New York Times reported.

The baby, born in rural Mississippi, was given antiretroviral drugs starting around 30 hours after birth, a treatment not usually done. If further study reveals that this treatment works in other babies, the method will likely be recommended globally. The United Nations estimates that 330,000 infants were newly infected in 2011 and that more than three million children globally are living with HIV.

If the report is confirmed, the Mississippi-born child would be just the second documented case of a cure, something that was thought to be impossible a few years ago.

However, some outside experts said they need evidence that the baby had been infected. Otherwise, this would be a case of prevention, something that has already been done for babies born to mothers carrying the virus.

 

Read the full story at the New York Times.

Reach Executive Producer Danny Lee here; follow him here.