In an important announcement yesterday, Thursday, July 10, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that the child known as the “Mississippi Baby”—an infant seemingly cured of HIV after treatment had been initiated within hours of birth—now has detectable levels of HIV after more than two years of not taking antiretroviral therapy without evidence of the virus.

To learn more, HIV.gov sat down with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and asked him to share with us what this development means for our understanding of the intricacies of HIV infection and how it may affect HIV research efforts moving forward. NIAID and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), both part of NIH, provided funding to the researchers involved in the analysis of the case.We are very thankful that the more we learn, the more we can move forward. We are also thankful that all reports indicate that the child is well under the ongoing care of an excellent team of pediatric HIV specialists. We remain optimistic for the future as we continue to pursue the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and to support groundbreaking research that is giving us the tools to move towards an AIDS-free generation.