Treating HIV moms-to-be protects baby

BALTMORE, Md., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers recommend quickly treating maternal human immunodeficiency virus to prevent transmitting the virus to newborns.

The study, published online in ahead of print in the Nov. 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Disease, finds 82 percent of the mothers in the African country of Malawi involved in the study who received highly active anti-retroviral therapy did not infect their newborns with HIV through breastfeeding.

The study, led by Taha E. Taha of Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, involved 2,318 infant/mother pairs. A total of 130 infants -- about 6 percent -- became HIV-1-infected. The transmission rate for the virus was 1.8 percent in treatment-eligible mothers who received treatment versus a rate of 10.6 percent in treatment-eligible mothers who did not receive treatment.

The researchers say the choices are unclear for HIV-infected women who do not need highly active anti-retroviral therapy for their own health. This was the case of about 70 percent of the Malawi patients in the study.

Their rate of transmission was 3.7 percent. The researchers say options include prolonged infant anti-viral prophylaxis beyond 14 weeks of age or the institution of highly active anti-retroviral therapy in mothers not requiring therapy according to current guidelines.