Can Mothers With Hiv Pass It On To Child

Testing Positive For Hiv During Pregnancy

HIV testing of women in early pregnancy is now routine in Australia. Testing should be done with your consent and is offered during your first set of antenatal tests.

If you receive a positive test result, be reassured that many people with HIV live a full and active life. The risk of HIV transmission to your child is very low, given appropriate treatment.

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Role Of Genes In Inherited Traits

Children inherit genes from both their mother and father. What we see in the end are the dominant set of genes or dominant genes. Boys have one X and one Y chromosome while girls have two X chromosomes. The X chromosome contains more genes than the Y chromosome, and hence girls will have double the opportunity to exhibit dominant genetic traits inherited from parents than boys. For example, a boy may inherit a blood disorder called haemophilia while his sister will still carry the gene even if she does not have the disorder herself.

Should A Mother With Hiv Breastfeed Her Baby

Nov. 16, 1999 — The risk of passing HIV infection along to a newborn through mother’s milk is greatest in the early months of breastfeeding, according to a study in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In the U.S., breastfeeding is not recommended for new mothers infected with HIV, which can spread to the baby through the mother’s milk. But the study’s findings are likely to have a strong impact on international recommendations for limiting the spread of the disease.” In the U.S., specific recommendations for HIV-infected women are not to breastfeed,” researcher Paolo Miotti, MD, tells WebMD. “So the are much more important for developing countries, where breastfeeding is almost universal.” Miotti is a medical officer, division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , Bethesda, Md.

In 1998, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS issued a revised statement suggesting 1) that women be offered HIV testing and counseling, 2) that they be notified of the benefits and risks of breastfeeding if the mother is HIV-infected, and 3) that they make a decision based on individual and family situations.

The reported study was done to provide further information about breastfeeding timing vs. the risk of infant HIV infection. “We found that the risk was more in the first six months of the life of the baby than later on,” Miotti says. ” babies can catch HIV through breast milk as long as they are breastfed.”

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Characteristics Of Included Studies

Eight of the studies included in the final analysis were retrospective cohort studies and one study was prospective cohort study . The studies used health facility-based PMTCT data which was collected from 2004 to 2015. All studies included mother-baby pairs who were involved in the PMTCT care in the respective health institutions. Three articles were conducted in Amhara region , two in Oromia region , two in Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia , one study in Southern Nations, Nationality and Peoples Region and one study was conducted in Dire Dawa City administration . The time of infant HIV diagnosis for all of the included studies was at or after six weeks postpartum. The sample size of included studies ranges from a minimum of 71 mother-baby pairs who had a documented HIV test result in Addis Ababa City to 896 in 10 sub-cities in Addis Ababa city . Overall, a total of 3688 mother-baby pairs were included in this review . The quality score of included studies ranges from 6 to 9, with a mean quality score±SD of 8±0.71.

Table 1 Summary characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis of the prevalence of mother to child transmission of HIV in Ethiopia

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Hiv And Getting Pregnant

If you are HIV-positive and become pregnant, or would like to have a baby, it is strongly recommended that you talk to specialists.

If you live in Victoria, The Victorian HIV Service at the Alfred Hospital and the Chronic Viral Illness Clinic at the Royal Womens Hospital can provide you with more information.

At the Chronic Viral Illness Clinic at the Royal Womens Hospital you can discuss your options with doctors who specialise in HIV and reproductive health.

This clinic specialises in helping serodiscordant couples to conceive safely.

Timing of sex to coincide with ovulation can be discussed with a healthcare provider to increase your chances of getting pregnant while reducing the risk of passing on the virus.

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Can I Breastfeed While Living With Hiv An Overview Of Infant Feeding Options

Submitted on Aug 1, 2021

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Choosing a method for feeding their babies is one of the most important decisions expectant and new parents make. This decision can be even more complicated when the birthing parent is living with HIV. The information available to mothers and other parents living with HIV can be confusing for those who may want to explore the option of breastfeeding .

When a woman is taking HIV drugs and has an undetectable viral load , the chance that she will transmit HIV to her HIV-negative sexual partners is zero, and the chance that she will transmit HIV to her baby during pregnancy or birth is extremely low as low as under 1%. The risk of HIV transmission through breast/chestfeeding when the parent’s viral load is undetectable is also low. However, research has not yet shown that the risk is zero, as is the case with sexual transmission.

The process of deciding how to feed your infant can be overwhelming for parents who are living with HIV. This fact sheet provides some of the information you may want to consider in that process.

Click above to view or download this fact sheet as a PDF slide presentation

What Are The Components Required To Implement This Program

• Diagnosis. The World Health Organization recommends the use of rapid HIV tests, which allow pregnant women to be tested and receive results in the same clinic visit.4 In areas with high prevalence of HIV among pregnant women, it may be more cost-effective to give ART to all birthing women, thus removing the need for diagnosis.5
• Drugs. Antiretroviral drugs can be costly. Shorter regimens may have significantly lower drug costs.
• Distribution/adherence to drug regimen. A method for ensuring that drugs are reliably taken by pregnant women and their infants at the appropriate times.

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Are Hiv Test Results Private

Your HIV results can be:

• Confidential. This means your HIV test results include your name and other information, but only people allowed to see your medical records can see the results. Most HIV tests are confidential. HIV-positive test results are reported to state or local health departments to be included in HIV statistics, but health departments remove all personal information before they share test information with the CDC. The CDC uses the information only for reporting reasons and doesnt share it with any other organizations.
• Anonymous. This means you dont have to give your name when you take an HIV test, and only you know the test results. Both home HIV tests are anonymous. If you take Home Access HIV-1 test, you get a number. To get your test results, you call the lab and give the number instead of your name. Some public HIV test sites offer anonymous testing.

Talk to your health care provider or contact your local health department or other test sites to learn more about your testing choices.

Frequently Asked Questionsexpand All

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What Are The Signs And Symptoms Of Hiv

Signs of a condition are things someone else can see or know about you, like you have a rash or youre coughing. Symptoms are things you feel yourself that others cant see, like having a sore throat or feeling dizzy. The signs and symptoms of HIV vary depending on your health and the stage of your infection. Signs and symptoms may last for a few days to several weeks. Some people with HIV dont have signs or symptoms for 10 years or more.

If you think you may have HIV, even if you dont have signs or symptoms, tell your provider. Getting tested and treated can help you stay healthier longer and reduce your chances of passing the infection to others.

HIV has three stages of infection that have different signs and symptoms:Stage 1: Acute infection. This is the first 6 months of infection. About 4 to 9 in 10 people with HIV have signs or symptoms of flu within 2 to 4 weeks after infection. During this stage, you have a large amount of HIV in your blood and are very contagious. Flu-like signs and symptoms of acute HIV infection may include:

• Fatigue
• Fever, chills or sweating at night
• Enlarged lymph nodes
• Mouth ulcers or sore throat
• Muscle aches
• Rash

Stage 3: AIDS. People with AIDS have extremely weak immune systems and get more and more severe illnesses . You have AIDS when your CD4 count drops below 200 cells/millimeter or if you develops certain OIs. If you have AIDS, you can have a high viral load and easily spread HIV to others. Signs and symptoms of AIDS include:

Reducing Hiv Transmission Risk During Pregnancy

For HIV-positive women, ways to reduce the risk of transmission include:

• Taking antiretroviral medications before conception to reduce your viral load . The lower the viral load, the lower the risk of transmission to your unborn baby.
• Start antiretroviral HIV treatment as soon as you are diagnosed with HIV .

Being on treatment and having a low, or undetectable, viral load improves your immune system and health throughout pregnancy.

HIV-positive pregnancy today, with specialised care, is the same as HIV-negative pregnancy. Pregnancy does not make HIV progress any faster.

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Effective Treatments Can Reduce Hiv Transmission

When someone with HIV is on antiretroviral treatment and consistently has very low levels of virus they are not infectious and cannot sexually transmit the virus.

This may be true for sexual transmission during pregnancy, but researchers are still gathering more evidence before they can be confident it is true for transmission during pregnancy, labour and delivery, and during breastfeeding.

New preventative medications Pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis can be taken by HIV-negative people who are at risk of getting HIV.

As long as the HIV-positive partner maintains a stable undetectable viral load and these medications are taken strictly as prescribed, HIV transmission to a negative partner is not possible.

Speak to your treating doctor if you would like to explore these newer prevention drugs.

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How Can You Help Protect Your Baby From Hiv During Pregnancy

Get tested and treated for HIV. If you have HIV, getting treatment before and during pregnancy usually can prevent infection in your baby. If you take HIV medicines throughout pregnancy, labor and birth, and give your baby HIV medicines for 4 to 6 weeks after birth, the risk of passing HIV to your baby can be 1 in 100 or less.

If you have HIV thats not treated, you can pass it to your baby:

• Before birth through the placenta. The placenta grows in your uterus and supplies the baby with food and oxygen through the umbilical cord.
• During labor and birth through contact with moms blood and vaginal fluids. When you go into labor, your amniotic sac breaks, which increases your babys risk of getting infected. The amniotic sac is the sac inside the uterus that holds a growing baby. It’s filled with amniotic fluid. Most babies who get HIV from their moms get infected around the time of birth.
• After birth through breast milk. If you have HIV, dont breastfeed your baby.

If you dont have HIV and your partner does:

• Ask your provider about PrEP. Taking PrEP every day while trying to get pregnant, during pregnancy and while youre breastfeeding helps protect you and your baby from HIV.
• Ask your partner to take ART to help reduce the risk of passing HIV to you.
• If you think youve been exposed to HIV within the past 3 days, ask your provider about PEP.

If you have HIV and youre not ready to get pregnant:

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What Doctor Appointments Does My Baby Need

Just like other children, babies of mothers with HIV infection need regular check-ups. Your doctor will measure your baby’s growth and development, check for infections, and answer your questions.

Your baby will also get most of the same shots that other babies get. Check with your doctor about when your baby needs to get vaccines.

Also, talk with your doctor about what to do when your baby gets sick. In general, you should call your doctor if your baby:

Has a rectal temperature higher than 100.5°F

How Do I Know If I Have Hiv

If you are pregnant, it is important to attend your antenatal appointments, as these are the times when you can get an HIV test.

Your healthcare professional will offer you a test at your first appointment. If the result is positive you will be encouraged to start antiretroviral treatment as soon as possible. You will also be offered a test in your third trimester .Remember that, whether you are pregnant or not, if you do have HIV you may not show any symptoms. The only way to know whether you are HIV-positive is to get tested.

If at any point during your pregnancy or breastfeeding stage you think you have been exposed to HIV, you may be able to take post-exposure prophylaxis . You need to take PEP within 72 hours of possible exposure to prevent HIV from establishing in your body and being passed on to your baby. If youre breastfeeding, you should discuss whether or not to continue breastfeeding with your healthcare professional.

If you are pregnant, it is important to attend your antenatal appointments, as this is where you can get an HIV test.

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How Is Hiv Transmitted From Mother To Child

Without intervention, between 25% and 35% of the children born to HIV-positive mothers will themselves be infected.

In about 50% of the cases, transmission from mother to child occurs during labor and delivery. Scientists dont yet understand how exactly that transmission happens, but they have found that some treatments can prevent most cases. However, to many HIV-positive pregnant women in developing countries, these treatments are not available or acceptable. The hope is that better understanding of mother-to-child transmission will lead to more effective, more affordable, and more acceptable treatments. A study by Jesse Kwiek and colleagues published in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine implicates placental microtransfusions in HIV transmission.

Placental microtransfusions cause exchanges of small amounts of blood between the mother and the baby. They occur in most pregnancies once labor starts, because the contractions cause small areas of rupture in the placenta. However, the overall amount of blood exchanged differs from delivery to delivery.

Until recently, it was not possible to measure the extent of these microtransfusions for a particular delivery, but now scientists have developed an assay based on umbilical cord blood that can do this. In this study, the researchers made use of this new assay to ask whether there is a link between the extent of placental microtransfusions and the likelihood of HIV transmission.

Will My Baby Need To Be Treated

After your baby’s born, they’ll be given HIV medication, usually for 4 weeks, to stop them developing HIV.

Your baby will be tested for HIV within 48 hours of birth. They’ll usually be tested again at 6 and 12 weeks. A final test is also needed when your baby is 18 months old.

Read the answers to more questions about sexual health and questions about pregnancy.

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How Does Hiv Spread

You get HIV by coming in direct contact with body fluids from a person who is infected with HIV. You cant get HIV from shaking hands or hugging a person who has HIV. You cant get HIV from contact with objects like dishes, toilet seats or doorknobs touched or used by someone with HIV. HIV doesnt spread through the air or through mosquito, tick or other insect bites.

Body fluids that can contain HIV include:

• Blood
• Rectal fluids

In the United States, HIV mainly spreads through:

• Having anal or vaginal sex with someone who has HIV without using a condom or taking medicines to prevent or treat HIV. Most new HIV infections in women come from having vaginal or anal sex with a man who is infected. Theres little to no risk of getting HIV from oral sex, but its possible if a man with HIV ejaculates in your mouth.
• Sharing needles, syringes, rinse water or other equipment used with street drugs with someone who has HIV. HIV can live in a needle for up to 42 days.

Youre at increased risk for HIV if you:

• Have sex with more than one partner
• Have sex with partners who use intravenous street drugs. This means they inject street drugs into their body through a needle into a vein.
• Have sex with partners who also have sex with men
• Have another sexually transmitted infection . An STI, like HIV, is an infection you can get from having sex with someone who is infected. Certain STIs can increase your chances of getting HIV.

Less common ways HIV can spread include: