Last Update: 08/13/2008 Printer Friendly Printer Friendly   Email This Page Email This Page  

Women and Infants Transmission Study (WITS)

The NICHD Pediatric, Adolescent, and Maternal AIDS Branch co-sponsors WITS, the longest continuously enrolling, prospective cohort study of HIV-infected pregnant women and their children. 

The study was initiated in 1988, and, through a cooperative agreement co-funded by the NICHD, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  The main objectives of WITS are to:  identify and characterize factors that influence maternal-infant transmission of HIV; develop and evaluate methods for early diagnosis of HIV in perinatally exposed infants; and identify and characterize factors that influence HIV disease progression in HIV-infected pregnant and postpartum women and children. 

As of June 2002, the six clinical sites in the United States and Puerto Rico had enrolled 2,872 HIV-infected pregnant women, and 2,396 infants born to them.  In addition to collecting clinical and laboratory information on participants at regular intervals, WITS maintains a valuable repository of biological samples for current and future research.  Specific aims of the current WITS cycle focus on understanding the pathogenesis and course of pediatric HIV disease in an era of antiretroviral treatment; monitoring the long-term effects of fetal and neonatal exposure to antiretroviral agents in uninfected children; describing the course of maternal HIV disease in an era of antiretroviral treatment; identifying and characterizing factors that influence the development of viral drug resistance; identifying and characterizing factors that influence adherence to medication regimens; and understanding the pathogenesis and natural history of hepatitis C virus co-infection in HIV disease.  As of July 2002, WITS investigators had authored 110 primary or related publications.