Extending drug treatments could help child Aids cases

New research has found that extended drug treatments can help prevent mother-to-child transmission of Aids.

A study in Malawi has found that an extra three months of treatment with the drug nevirapine can halve the risk of infection in babies, reports Reuters.

The study of over 1,000 newborn babies saw the extended use of nevirapine cut the infection rate at nine months to 5.2 per cent.

Lynne Mofenson from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development told the news agency that a new investigation will begin into whether even longer drug treatment can have increased benefits.

"What the Malawi study is showing for the first time is if you give the baby small amounts of anti-HIV drugs for the first 14 weeks of life, you can reduce the risk of HIV infection at nine months by 50 percent or more," she added.

Aids charity Avert estimates that up to 30 per cent of babies born to mothers with HIV will be infected during before birth and almost 20 per cent could get infected from breastfeeding.