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Mother To Child Transmission Of Hiv

Speaker Notes

What is mother to child transmission?
Mother-to-child transmission is when an HIV positive woman passes the virus to her new born baby. This can occur during pregnancy, labor and delivery, or breastfeeding.
There is a 5%-20% that those children will be infected while being breastfeed. 15-30% of new born babies delivered by HIV positive women will become infected.

Is mother to child transmission a major problem?
In 2005, around 700,000 children under 15 years of age became infected with HIV, mainly through mother-to-child transmission. 90% of these mothers to child transmission infections occurred in Africa where AIDS is beginning to reverse decades of steady progress in child survival.

How can mother to child transmission be prevented?
Effective prevention of mother-to-child transmission requires a three-fold strategy.
1. Preventing HIV infection among possible parents
2. Avoiding unwanted pregnancies among HIV positive women
3. Preventing the transmission of HIV from HIV positive mothers to their infants during pregnancy, labor, delivery and breastfeeding.

Timing for material transmission of HIV
Babies who are born to mothers infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have found transmission rates of 13 to 40 percent.
HIV-1 has been detected in aborted fetal tissue demonstrating that transmission can occur early in pregnancy. Usually newborns are more frequently to show no signs of infection. Some studies have shown increased rates of transmission with prematurity, vaginal delivery and advanced maternal disease.

Risk factors for material transmission of HIV
An understanding of the frequency and risk factors for mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection is necessary before strategies can be developed to decrease transmission.