In a breakthrough, a two-year-old baby girl in the US born with HIV has been "functionally cured" for the first time, scientists have said. US Researchers said they believe early intervention -- in this case within 30 hours of birth -- with three anti-viral drugs was key to the outcome.

A "functional cure" is when the presence of the virus is so small, life-long treatment is not necessary and standard clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the blood.

The finding was announced at the 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta. Dr Deborah Persaud, lead researcher and a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, presented the findings at the Conference.

The results of the findings could possibly lead to a cure for children infected with HIV. The unidentified girl from Mississippi was born HIV-positive to a mother who received no prenatal care and was not diagnosed as HIV-positive herself until just before delivery.