HHS National Institutes of Health Reports that Women's Response to Anti-HIV Therapy Improves If Treatment Begins at Least Six Months After Earlier Preventive Regimen, Given During Childbirth

January 16, 2007 – A study of 216 women in Botswana performed by researchers funded in part by the HHS National Institutes of Health has shown that, in resource-poor countries where the standard, multi-drug treatments are not widely available, nevirapine, given once during labor, alone or in combination with a short course of AZT during pregnancy, still provides an inexpensive, effective way to reduce the chances that a pregnant woman will pass HIV on to her child.  The study also found, however, that treating a new mother within six months of the nevirapine-based preventive regimen given during labor to prevent passing HIV to her child can diminish her response to the treatment.

"The findings show that single-dose nevirapine during labor alone-or with short-course zidovudine (AZT) during pregnancy-remains a viable option in resource-poor settings for preventing the spread of HIV from mother to child among pregnant women who do not yet require anti-HIV treatment for their own health," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD), part of the HHS National Institutes of Health (NIH).  "The findings also underscore the importance of immediately beginning a multi-drug treatment regimen for pregnant women who require treatment for their own health, but which does not contain nevirapine."

The results of the study appear in the January 11, 2007, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.  HHS/NIH support for the study came from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences (FIC).

The study findings are consistent with World Health Organization recommendations that all HIV-infected pregnant women be tested to identify those in immediate need of treatment, explained the HHS/NIH project officer for the study, Lynne Mofenson, M.D., Chief of the Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch at HHS/NIH/NICHD.

The study authors noted, however, that it was difficult to draw firm conclusions from the small number of infants studied, and added that additional information from other studies would be helpful.  The International Maternal, Pediatric, Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Group, sponsored by the HHS/NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and HHS/NIH/NICHDA is currently conducting a randomized, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the best treatment for infected infants with and without exposure to single-dose nevirapine.

For additional information:

• Women's Response to Anti-HIV Therapy Improved If Treatment Begins Six Months After Earlier Preventive Regimen Response to Treatment Diminished If Treatment Begins Within Six Months Of Preventive Regimen (U.S. National Institutes of Health)

Last revised: October 11, 2007