Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Infection

Abstract

It has been 10 years since a study of perinatal zidovudine regimen showed that it prevented mother-to-child transmission of HIV in 67% of cases [1]. The article from the European Collaborative Study in this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases [2] summarizes how far we have come over the past 10 years in the developed world. Treatment of HIV-infected pregnant women has increased such that >90% of HIV-infected women receive HAART. The overall rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV has been dramatically reduced to 1%. The European Collaborative Study [2] confirm that maternal viral load is the key risk factor for mother-to-child transmission of HIV and that the suppression of viral replication through administration of potent combinations of antiretroviral drugs markedly reduces the risk of mother-to-child transmission. In HAART recipients, the only other intervention that significantly reduced motherto-child transmission of HIV was elective Caesarean section delivery. Although the European Collaborative Study article [2]