Intervention cuts mother-infant HIV transmission dramatically: study

BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Anti-retroviral treatment and other intervention measures could decrease the risk of HIV transmission from mother to infant by more than 80 percent, a new study in China has found.

The study, conducted by the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, found nearly 29 percent of newly born children could be infected by HIV, the AIDS virus, if their HIV-carrying mothers failed to take any preventive steps during pregnancy, at childbirth and in the course of feeding their child.

This compared with an infection rate of only 4.4 percent among babies whose mothers had taken preventive measures, the Chinese newspaper Health News reported on Saturday.

The decrease in infection risk by nearly 85 percent could be achieved through various means including the proper use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, natural childbirth rather than via Cesarean section, and complete avoidance of breastfeeding, said the report.

HIV infection occurs via the transfer of bodily fluids such as blood, semen and breast milk.

The research covers 348 mothers and 312 babies who were born between Dec. 2004 and Jan. 2008. The results were published in the latest issue of Chinese Journal of AIDS & STD (sexually transmitted disease).

The study found the chance of HIV infection for a baby was approximately 15 percent if an HIV-carrier mother failed to adopt ARV treatment, compared with 4.41 percent when ARV was used.

The avoidance of breastfeeding in the first six months following childbirth could decrease infection rate among infants from approximately 28.5 percent to 13.4 percent.

Mother-to-infant HIV transmission amounts to only 1 percent of HIV infections in China. Unsafe sex and sharing of needles among injecting drug users were the major causes.

The Chinese CDC said this month the accumulated number of confirmed HIV/AIDS cases on the Chinese mainland since the mid-1980s had reached 295,000 by May, but experts estimate there could be more than 700,000 among China's 1.3 billion people.