Girl cured of HIV - WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

JACKSON, MS (WKOW) -- Doctors are calling it a game changer in the fight against HIV.    

A toddler in Mississippi born with the virus has essentially been cured.

The girl's mother was HIV positive and passed it on to her daughter.

Hours after her birth, doctors gave the newborn a heavy dose of several HIV drugs.

The girl had treatment over the next 18 months, but eventually her mother stopped giving her the drugs.

Doctors saw the child before her second birthday and found no trace of the virus.

Now they're hoping to replicate their success.

"We are hoping to follow up with her and design some studies with other patients and see if we could see how we could do this for other babies in the future," says Dr. Hannah Gay from the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Researchers are now trying to pin down why the drugs worked.