Human immunodeficiency virus infection in pregnant women, transmission andzidovudine therapy

Objective: To determine the rate of mother to child transmission of HN infe ction in women treated with zidovudine (ZDV), Patients and Methods: A conse cutive series of 52 HIV-positive pregnant women who either received antenat al care or delivered at our institution. Forty-three women were known to be HIV positive before delivery. Forty were treated with ZDV, 36 intravenousl y. Twelve had no antenatal care and one refused antenatal treatment. All ne onates were treated with ZDV. Results: The HIV transmission rate in childre n born to mothers treated with ZDV was 6.6%. This compares with a transmiss ion rate of 14% before we used ZDV. All three mothers who transmitted infec tion had low compliance, initialed therapy late in pregnancy or had advance d disease. Conclusion: Our experience supports the idea that ZDV treatment has reduced HIV transmission rate, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. A ll rights reserved.