HIV/AIDS

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission

Introduction

Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, which can occur during pregnancy, childbirth, or through breastfeeding, accounts for more than 90 percent of all cases of childhood HIV infection, especially in countries where effective antiretroviral drugs are not available. As more women of childbearing age become infected, the number of HIV-infected children is expected to rise.

Although opportunities exist to successfully intervene during pregnancy to prevent transmission of HIV from an infected woman to her infant, developement of safe, simple, and inexpensive interventions that would be more widely applicable, particularly in the developing world, remains of the highest importance.

Research Activities

NIAID is supporting a number of research studies to develop strategies to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

• HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN)
  Co-sponsored by NIAID, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the HPTN is a worldwide collaborative clinical trials network that develops and tests the safety and efficacy of primarily non-vaccine interventions designed to prevent the transmission of HIV.
  
  For more information about MTCT research at the HPTN, including ongoing clinical studies,  go to HIV Prevention Trials Network (non-government).

• CRISP database
  This online database can be used to search for ongoing research supported by NIAID and NIH. (Keywords: perinatal, intrapartum, nevirapine, and MTCT)

• AIDSinfo
  This government Web site has information on HIV/AIDS-related health topics, treatment and prevention guidelines, information on drugs and vaccines, and a database of all federally funded HIV/AIDS clinical trials.

NIAID Contact

Sheryl Zwerski, RN, MSN, CRNP
Division of AIDS, Prevention Sciences Branch
E-mail: szwerski@niaid.nih.gov

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