In the ‘80's, contracting HIV was considered a death sentence. 

The following decade, HIV was the number one cause of death among Americans from the ages of 25 to 44. 

Now, there are antiviral drugs that can keep people infected with the virus alive into their 70's and 80's. 

A new treatment could provide a major leap forward for babies born with the disease.

Deborah Persaud, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins University, is part of the clinical trial team using anti-retro-viral therapy — a cocktail of drugs administered within the first 48 hours of birth.

“It's important to do it very early because we think it prevents the virus from really establishing a very large foothold,” Persaud said.

Standard treatment of babies with HIV typically starts two to three months after birth, and continues for decades. 

The new trial included 54 newborns who were given ART therapy within days of their birth. 

Four of the children who are almost 6 years old have achieved remission.

“It's a small number of cases, it's four, but it's really transformative for our field,” Persaud said.

Statistics show that 130 thousand infants are infected every year with HIV. Not every child born to a mother with HIV is infected, but it can be passed from mother to child during a pregnancy, during the delivery process or with breastfeeding.

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