With an aim to reduce mother to child HIV transmission, the government is all set to launch a new drug regimen for pregnant women.
Based on the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) is planning to put all pregnant women on anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) for their treatment to prevent HIV infection to their infants.
The Naco has decided that the “three drug regimen” will be started in a phased wise manner. “As of now ARV is not given to all pregnant women. Only women with less CD4 count are put on it. The plan however is to change the existing drug regimen as recommended by the WHO and put all pregnant women on antiretroviral therapy,” said Dr BB Rewari, National Programme Officer, ART. The WHO had earlier recommended the approach of starting all HIV infected pregnant women on lifelong treatment. The WHO has also now begun a comprehensive revision of ARV guidelines for pregnant women.
According to the available data, on an average approximately 700 women are infected with HIV annually in India. The transmission of HIV is possible from an HIV-positive mother to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding. “The new regimen will be more efficacious. As of now only the advanced countries are following the regimen,” added Dr Rewari.
The discussions to start the new drug regimen are underway,” added Dr Rewari.
To start with, the states reporting high incidence of mother to child transmission will be started with the new drug regimen. The costs relating to the implementation will be borne by the government and once the pilot project churn out good results, the new drug regimen will then be introduced in the cities across the country.
For the effective implementation the government has identified the hospitals and facilities in the select areas where women with HIV infection are registered and at present undergoing treatment.
Officials say that the aim behind the programme is to prevent vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child, to provide timely counselling to the mother to ensure zero transmission of the infection to the child.