Hope for unborn children, treatment for HIV-positive mothers

There is hope yet for the unborn children of HIV-positive mothers.
A new treatment protocol involving highly-active anti-retroviral therapy in the fourth month of pregnancy has reduced mother-to-foetus infection from as high as 30 per cent to just four per cent.
Two women who took the prescribed medication have delivered healthy babies who are free of the disease.
Kuala Lumpur Hospital consultant paediatrician Dr Kamarul Azahar Mohd Razali said the deliveries were done by the Caesarean section to reduce the chances of infection.
The babies would also be on medication for six weeks after delivery as a further precaution.
Dr Kamarul said mothers would also not be allowed to breast-feed as the virus was also transmitted through mother’s milk.
He said all Health Ministry clinics were conducting antibody screening and advising pregnant women to go for screening.
"What worries me is that three- to six-month-old babies who are HIV-positive are being referred to me now as the mothers did not know they were infected when they were pregnant," he said. "It’s too late to do anything after they are born."
Dr Kamarul said couples intending to get married should be screened for HIV.
This is due to the "window period" of three to six months when the virus will not show.
"If I get infected today and take a test tomorrow, the test results won’t show I am HIV-positive.
"My real condition will only be shown in a test six months later," he said. Dr Kamarul suggested two screenings.
He said counselling on high-risk behaviour was needed before the first test to ensure absence of such behaviour during the six-month period.
On whether use of condoms was against Islam, Dr Kamarul said if one partner in a marriage was infected, a condom became mandatory to prevent infection.
"Islam allows contraception if a couple want to have children later but not if they want to remain childless forever," he said.
Source