HIV Mother To Child Prevention

HIV Mother to Child Prevention

How can a mother positive of HIV prevent the spread to her children? Are there are side effects of HIV medicines and treatments? How should the mother and baby treated? What kind of treatment is suitable for their condition? To answer all of these questions, we need to understand further about the virus.

Understanding AIDS/HIV

So, what is HIV? What is AIDS? AIDS is basically conditions that will make your immune system go weak and it is caused by the HIV (the virus). When the virus penetrates your system, it will weaken the immune system. Your body will be defenseless and even the simplest virus or ailment (such as common cold) can create huge damage and destructive effect.

The virus spread quickly through sexual fluids and blood. It can’t be spread by holding hands or touching, so it is basically safe to be near AIDS patient as long as both of you don’t exchange body fluids or blood.

Mother to Baby Prevention

Things can be a little difficult and tricky when a mother is positively suffering from HIV and she doesn’t want to transmit it to the baby. That’s why there is the so called MPTCT (Prevent the Mother to Child Transmission) of HIV. How to prevent it, anyway?

Well, a child is prone to HIV during pregnancy, delivery, labor, and breastfeeding, so it is important to prevent such thing from happening – on each stage. A mother who is HIV positive should be screened at the very early stage of pregnancy and should take 3 ARVs (antiretroviral drugs) until the delivery. 

When the baby is born, it should be given nevirapine every day up to six weeks. Previously, it was believed that the baby shouldn’t be breastfed to avoid transmission, but since baby formula is expensive and you can’t always make sure that the procedure is hygiene, health scientists start to allow breastfeeding (especially exclusive breastfeeding up to six months), as long as the mother still consume the ARVs.

 Based on a recent research, this procedure is proven to be safe and the possibility of transmission to baby can be reduced to 99%.

This basic HIV prevention has been included within WHO guideline since 2010 and has been applied to different parts of the world.