HASH NEWS!

HASH NEWS! 💞

At the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) 2026, researchers presented promising new studies on HIV remission in children—where children maintained an undetectable viral load even without taking daily antiretroviral therapy (ART), under close medical monitoring.

Research #1 (South Africa):
A subset of children who started ART very soon after birth were able to maintain viral suppression even after stopping treatment. These findings suggest that very early treatment may help some children’s immune systems keep HIV under control.

Research #2 (Botswana):
In a similar group of children treated very early, researchers first administered three broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) before stopping ART. (bnAbs are laboratory-made antibodies that can block many different strains of HIV.) After ART was discontinued, the children continued receiving bnAbs alone, and all 10 children who were evaluated remained undetectable while on antibody treatment alone.

Why does this matter?
These findings are encouraging and suggest that combining very early treatment with immune-based therapies, such as bnAbs, may open a pathway toward HIV remission for some children.

A reminder:
This is still early-stage research involving a small number of carefully selected participants. Larger studies and long-term follow-up are needed before these approaches can become part of standard HIV care.

📩 Thinking about getting tested? HIV screening—tara!

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