• UCLA Health
  • myUCLAhealth
  • School of Medicine
U Magazine

U Magazine

U Magazine
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Centennial Campaign for UCLA Issue
  • Browse U Magazine
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • UCLA Health
  • myUCLAhealth
  • School of Medicine

U Magazine

Browse U Magazine

  1. Home
  2. Browse U Magazine
Share this
The Cutting Edge

Stemming Infant HIV

WHEN HIV IS NOT DIAGNOSED until a pregnant woman with the virus goes into labor, her infant is usually treated soon after birth with the anti-HIV drug zidovudine (ZDV) to prevent the baby from becoming infected. Now, a National Institutes of Health study has found that adding one or two drugs to the standard ZDV treatment can reduce the chances by more than 50 percent that an infant will develop an HIV infection.

The study was conducted at 19 research hospitals in South America, Africa and the United States, under contract to the National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

From 100 to 200 infants are born with HIV in the U.S. each year, many to women who either were not tested in early pregnancy or who did not receive treatment during pregnancy. Internationally, estimates of HIV testing vary, with only 21 percent of pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries having been tested during pregnancy.

Infants in the study born to women whose HIV was not diagnosed until they were in labor, and who were treated after their birth with the routine six-week course of ZDV plus three doses of nevirapine (NVP) during the first week of life or with ZDV plus two weeks of lamivudine and nelfinavir, were more than 50 percent less likely to be infected with HIV than those infants who received ZDV alone.

“Our results showed conclusively that the two- and three-drug regimens are superior to the standard treatment with zidovudine,” says the study’s chair, Karin Nielsen-Saines, M.D., clinical professor of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA AIDS Institute.


Previous
Heart in a Box
Next
The Coffee-Diabetes Connection


YOU ARE VIEWING

Summer 2011

Summer 2011
E-Brochure
Printable PDF
IN THIS ISSUE
  • OUR CORE COMMITMENT
  • The Pain of Loneliness
  • Extreme Morning Sickness? It Could Be Your Genes
  • Gone Today, Hair Tomorrow
  • Understanding Organ-Transplant Rejection
  • How Autism-Risk Gene Rewires the Brain
  • Heart Programs Earn Recognitions
  • Tai Chi Soothes Depression
  • iCase Online
  • Heart in a Box
  • Stemming Infant HIV
  • The Coffee-Diabetes Connection
  • Wake-up Call
  • Dr. Mario C. Deng
  • A Second Hand, a Second Chance
  • Emily’s Incredible Journey
  • Foreign Exchange
  • A New Paradigm
  • The Excellence Rx
  • Sisterhood
  • A Native Daughter Returns
  • Awards/Honors
  • Grants
  • In Memoriam
  • MAA Board News
  • Dr. William Hastrup New Board Member
  • One-on-One with Dean Bok, Ph.D. ’68
  • In his own words: Bruce Dobkin, M.D.
  • Upcoming MAA Events
  • Dr. Paulsen’s Gift
  • Chairs of Distinction
  • In Memoriam
  • Gifts
  • Ride-along
  • Events
  • A Young Life Passes, and a Ritual of Birth Begins
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest
UCLA Health hospitals ranked best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report
  • UCLA Health
  • Find a Doctor
  • School of Medicine
  • School of Nursing
  • UCLA Campus
  • Directory
  • Newsroom
  • Subscribe
  • Patient Stories
  • Giving
  • Careers
  • Volunteer
  • International Services
  • Privacy Practices
  • Nondiscrimination
  • Billing
  • Health Plans
  • Emergency
  • Report Broken Links
  • Terms of Use
  • 1-310-825-2631
  • Maps & Directions
  • Contact Us
  • Your Feedback
  • Report Misconduct
  • Get Social
  • Sitemap
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest

Sign in to myUCLAhealth