Political Quotes

“today I rise to recognize the work of Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children in Jackson, MS. On March 3, the news broke that one of Dr. Gay's patients, a baby born with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, had been ``functionally cured'' of the infection. Now 2\1/2\ years old, this child is only the second person in history to be cured of the virus. The infant was born to her HIV-infected mother at a rural Mississippi hospital and then transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she came under the care of Dr. Gay. Only 30 hours after the baby was born, Dr. Gay began an immediate and aggressive approach to treatment that seems to have made all the difference in this child's life. News of Dr. Gay's work and this baby's apparent cure has been celebrated around the world. This development opens a significant door to advance research and treatment for HIV and AIDS, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Millions of children around the globe have been infected at or during birth, and it is my hope that the spread of HIV among newborns will begin to slow and eventually stop with what has taken place in Mississippi what one doctor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School called a ``game-changer.'' I share the pride of all Mississippians in Dr. Gay, a native of Jackson, for her achievement and her dedication to our State.…”