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  • Title: Can a $4 drug stop vertical HIV transmission?
    Journal: AIDS Alert; 1999 Nov; 14(11):suppl 2-3. PubMed ID: 11366985.
    Abstract:
    Researchers have determined that a $4 dose of Nevirapine, which is 70 times cheaper than a short course of AZT therapy, is more effective than the AZT treatment in reducing the transmission of HIV from mother to baby. About 1,800 infants are born each day with HIV infection, and an estimated 45 percent of pregnant women in South Africa will be infected by the end of the year. The Nevirapine therapy still remains too expensive for much of the world, and there are still many women who are not tested during pregnancy and do not know they are at risk of transmitting the disease. Because of the stigma, many African women decline testing even when it is free and treatment is available. A study in Uganda found that Nevirapine lowers the risk of HIV transmission by breast feeding by nearly 50 percent during a baby's first four months. Vertical transmission remains a difficult issue, especially where contaminated water supplies could put an infant at risk for other infections when they are fed formula mixed with contaminated water.
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