Common drug combination can help mothers fight HIV/AIDS

Scientists have discovered a combination of common anti-HIV drugs that may help improve future treatment options for mothers-to-be infected with the disease.

The research, undertaken by a US team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, discovered that adding a single dose of two common anti-HIV drugs can prevent HIV-positive pregnant women from developing resistance to an entire class of HIV drugs.

As a result the scientists believe their findings, published in the Lancet, may help increase the effectiveness of treatments such nevirapine, a drug commonly used to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV during childbirth.

Dr Benjamin Chi, co-author of the report, said: "The simplicity and effectiveness of this regimen is an important aspect of this intervention.

"HIV-infected pregnant women who take nevirapine in labour now have an easy way to reduce some of the negative consequences associated with the drug," he added.

Figures provided by UNICEF revealed that, in 2002, 90 per cent of children who contracted HIV did so through parent-to-child transmission, either during pregnancy, during birth or from breastfeeding.

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