Nevirapine sustains advantage over AZT during breastfeed...( Infants who received a single dose of t...),Health

Infants who received a single dose of the inexpensive antiviral drug nevirapine (NVP) soon after birth--and whose mothers took one dose of the same drug during labor--were 41 percent less likely to acquire HIV at birth or during breastfeeding than infants in infant/mother pairs who were treated with a multi-dose regimen using AZT, according to new results from a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health.

In a long-term study that began in November 1997, Ugandan and U.S. researchers have found that the initial advantage gained by infants who, along with their mothers, received one dose of NVP was largely sustained by the group of children until they reached 18 months of age, with few serious side effects attributable to NVP. This finding offers compelling new evidence that short-course NVP effectively and safely reduces the number of children who eventually become infected with HIV. Efficacy data for all time points up to 18 months are published in the Sept. 13 issue of the British journal The Lancet. A final follow-up study will be conducted in 2004 when the children are five years old.

"This landmark study could have far-reaching implications in resource-poor countries where breastfeeding and mother-to-child HIV transmission are both common," says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIAID. "Indeed, the potential for lessening the burden of HIV/AIDS with this NVP regimen makes this work a very important public health breakthrough."

This study, named HIVNET 012, has tracked the efficacy over time of a single dose of NVP to a mother and her infant in comparison with a more complicated AZT treatment in preventing HIV transmission. HIV can be transferred to an infant before birth, during birth or through the mother's breast milk. More than 600 HIV-infected pregnant women were enrolled in the study. One group of women received a single dose of NVP during labor, while
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Contact: Jennifer Wenger
jwenger@niaid.nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
11-Sep-2003

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