The Use Of Triple Antiretroviral Drugs During Feeding Protects The Child From HIV

The Use Of Triple Antiretroviral Drugs During Feeding Protects The Child From HIV.
In sub-Saharan Africa, many mothers with HIV are faced with an inferior choice: breast-feed their babies and danger infecting them or use formula, which is often out of go as far as because of cost or can repel the baby due to a lack of clean drinking water dexona for increasing weight. Now, two new studies realize that giving pregnant and nursing women triple antiretroviral drug therapy, or treating breast-fed infants with an antiretroviral medication, can dramatically cut dow a fell transmission rates, enabling moms to both breast-feed and to watch over nearly all children from infection.

In one study, a combination antiretroviral drug therapy given to pregnant and breast-feeding women in Botswana kept all but 1 percent of babies from contracting the infection during six months of breast-feeding enhancement. Without the treat therapy, about 25 percent of babies would become infected with the AIDS-causing virus, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.

A supporter study, led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found that giving babies an antiretroviral panacea once a date during their first six months of spark of life reduced the transmission rate to 1,7 percent. Both studies are published in the June 17 end of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the United States, HIV-positive women are typically given antiretrovirals during pregnancy to leave alone passing HIV to their babies in utero or during labor and delivery. After the tot is born, women are advised to use formula instead of breast-feeding for the same reason, said elder study author Dr Charles M van der Horst, a professor of medicament and infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

That works well in developed nations where method is easy to come by and a clean water supply is readily available, van der Horst said. But throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, still water supplies can be contaminated by bacteria and other pathogens that, especially in the non-existence of good medical care, can cause diarrheal illnesses that can be deadly for babies.

Previous fact-finding has shown that formula-fed babies in the region die at a high rate from pneumonia or diarrheal disease, leaving women in a Catch-22. "In Africa, soul milk is absolutely essential for the first six months of life," van der Horst said. "Mothers there separate that. It was a 'between a surprise and a hard place' issue for them".