Hopes for a cure for the dreaded Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which has killed millions of people around the world, suffered a major setback after a child earlier declared cured showed signs of HIV infection.

US federal health officials confirmed on Thursday that the Mississippi baby, who was announced cured of an HIV infection for the first time, is now showing signs of HIV infection.

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"It was like a punch in the gut," said University of Mississippi Medical Center Pediatrician Dr. Hannah Gay.

It was Dr. Gay who first put the child on drug treatment just hours after birth, the first time such medication was made.

On March, doctors announced that the baby had been cured of HIV infection, becoming only the second person in the world to have been cured of the virus. The first person was Timothy Brown.

The child remained virus-free for two years, an unprecedented development considering that HIV immediately reappears within a few weeks.

The announcement of the child's cure immediately raised hopes that HIV in children will be cured in the near future.

Plans were immediately made for a worldwide clinical trial for the design, with hopes of curing HIV-infected babies.

The United Nations estimates that around 320,000 babies have been infected with HIV in 2011.

AIDS expert Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said researchers will have to go back to looking at the trial's design following the latest development.

Fauci, however, said that while the Mississippi baby's case was disappointing, it did not come as a surprise.

He said he has been chasing the virus for the last 25 years and he knows HIV has a really unique way of hiding itself.

TagsHIV, AIDS, AIDS Cure, HIV Cure, Child HIV, Mississippi Child HIV