Preventing HIV Transmission From Mother to Baby
Reported May 14, 2010
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Researchers have developed a new way to package medications for HIV-positive mothers in developing countries, which could help prevent their newborn babies from also getting the disease.
The inexpensive, easy-to-use system developed by biomedical engineers at Duke University, allows mothers to give their babies a potentially life-saving dose of an anti-HIV medication shortly after giving birth.
Timing means everything for newborns in such situations. The drug, Nevirapine, must be given to a baby within days of being born in order for it to be effective, but most mothers are hesitant to travel to clinics or hospitals — the only place drugs are available — after delivering a child.
“In Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 90 percent of 430,000 new cases of AIDS in 2008 were attributable to mother-to-child transmission,” Carolina Gamache, program coordinator in senior researcher Robert Malkin’s Developing World Healthcare Technology Laboratory at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, was quoted as saying. “A single dose of Nevirapine right after birth has been shown to be effective in protecting the baby from the virus, but it has been difficult for many reasons to make this option available to women who give birth at home.”
Women would be able to get the pouch from a pharmacist early in their pregnancy and then take it home with them. After giving birth, they would simply have to rip the corner of the pouch and empty the drug into their newborn’s mouth.
The WHO estimates only 32 percent of infants born to mothers with HIV are given prophylactic antiretroviral drugs such as Neviraphine, compared to 45 percent of their pregnant mothers. The researchers hope this new development will reduce this gap.
Source: Presented at the Appropriate Healthcare Technologies for Developing Countries conference, London, United Kingdom, May 2010
