Researchers identify a simple, inexpensive drug regimen that is highly effective in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission

A joint Uganda-U.S. study has found a highly effective and safe drug regimen for preventing transmission of HIV from an infected mother to her newborn that is more affordable and practical than any other examined to date. Interim results from the study, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), demonstrate that a single oral dose of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine (NVP) given to an HIV-infected woman in labor and another to her baby within three days of birth reduces the transmission rate by half compared with a similar short course of AZT. If implemented widely in developing countries, this intervention potentially could prevent some 300,000 to 400,000 newborns per year from beginning life infected with HIV. [author]