August 7th, 2009
Antiretroviral drugs are proving to be safe and helpful, thanks to an international study that examined HIV transmission prevention between mother and child by way of breast milk.
The research found that by supplying breast-fed infants with daily antiretroviral syrup, or by placing HIV-infected mothers on highly active antiretroviral drugs, lessened the child’s chances of developing the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Statistics show that the chance of HIV transmission by way of breast-feeding from mother to child is roughly one in five.
The Breast-feeding Antiretrovirals and Nutrition study focussed on more than 2,000 HIV infected mother-child pairs in Malawi Africa. The results will be presented in South Africa at the 5th International Aids Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis Treatment and Prevention.
As claimed by the study’s founders, breast milk is the source for roughly half of the 420,000 infants who are infected with HIV annually.
The study was composed of three groups: infant antiretroviral syrup, maternal medication, or no treatment following birth. The mothers and their children were all unsystematically alloted to one of the three groups. After 28 weeks, 7.6 percent of the infants from the “no treatment following birth” group either developed HIV or died, compared to 4.7 percent of infants whose mothers were treated with the antiretroviral medication, and 2.9 percent of infants who took the antiretroviral syrup themselves.
