US close to eliminating mother-to-child HIV infections

THE US is close to eliminating AIDS among infants, it emerged yesterday.

Some 2,000 US babies were born with the HIV virus in 1990, but that figure has been reduced to around 200, health officials told the New York Times.

In New York City, once the centre of the epidemic, the figure has dropped from 321 in 1990 to just five in 2003, it reports.

The breakthrough is attributed to the success of fighting mother-to-child transmission, using better drugs and more aggressive education and testing.

Health officials hailed the overwhelming advances but warned more work must be done on a global scale.

“We have had incredible progress,” said Dr Lynne Mofenson, of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

“But if you think about the US and New York and then you think about Africa, it is like a tale of two cities, a tale of two epidemics.”

The development is largely linked to the use of AZT, a drug used to attack HIV in the blood and central nervous system.

A ground-breaking study revealed in 1994 that the drug could be given to pregnant women, resulting in a 67% reduction in the risk of transmission.

“I remember the day,” Dr Mofenson said of the date the results were released in 1994.

“It was absolutely incredible,” she said.

With no intervention, an infected mother is believed to be between 20% and 25% likely to pass on the virus to her child. However, a year after the introduction of AZT, that risk was reduced to about 8%.

By 1998, state legislation required hospitals to conduct immediate testing of newborn babies.

As public awareness grew, would-be mothers were actively encouraged to get tested before they gave birth.

Since then, a combination of increasingly successful drugs, rigorous testing and partner notification, and the promotion of safe sex has contributed to reducing the risk even further, health officials said.