Abstract
HIV infection is amajor global health issue. The Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS,
2006) and World Health Organization (WHO, 2011)
state that there are 34 million people living with HIV
across the world and approximately 2 million are
children under 15 years old. Mother to child transmission
(MTCT) is a major cause of childhood HIV
status and continues to pose a worldwide challenge.
Factors associated with increased risk of MTCT are
well documented (Magder et al., 2005; De Ruiter
et al., 2012); such factors are a high maternal viral
load, low maternal CD4 count, whether mother has
received or is receiving antiretroviral therapy, LBW,
chorioamnionitis and breast-feeding. Research has
shown that reducing the transmission risk therefore
can be achieved by decreasing the viral load in the
mother from antiretroviral (ARV) drug therapy in
pregnancy
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS,
2006) and World Health Organization (WHO, 2011)
state that there are 34 million people living with HIV
across the world and approximately 2 million are
children under 15 years old. Mother to child transmission
(MTCT) is a major cause of childhood HIV
status and continues to pose a worldwide challenge.
Factors associated with increased risk of MTCT are
well documented (Magder et al., 2005; De Ruiter
et al., 2012); such factors are a high maternal viral
load, low maternal CD4 count, whether mother has
received or is receiving antiretroviral therapy, LBW,
chorioamnionitis and breast-feeding. Research has
shown that reducing the transmission risk therefore
can be achieved by decreasing the viral load in the
mother from antiretroviral (ARV) drug therapy in
pregnancy
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 155-162 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Neonatal Nursing |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2012 |