VietNamNet Bridge - From April, all pregnant women with HIV in Ho Chi Minh City will be treated with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs free of charge, regardless of the level of immune cells in their blood.

Dr. Tran Thinh, Deputy Chief of the HCM City AIDS Prevention Committee’s Office, says the program to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child has been in effect for about 10 years, but HIV-infected mothers were only treated during pregnancy to avoid transmitting the virus to their children.

"From now on, all pregnant women with HIV, regardless of the level of their immune cells, will be treated with free ARV medication for life. This helps limit the possibility of infection from these women to people around them," Dr. Thinh says.

Previously, ARV treatment was only continued for post-pregnant women with levels of the immune cells known as CD4+T- lymphocytes in the blood of 350 cells/mm3 [or lower]. For ordinary uninfected people, the amount of CD4 immune cells is around 2.000/mm3. HIV infection causes that level to be depressed.

Infants born to HIV-infected mothers are monitored for HIV exposure in outpatient pediatric clinics. Thanks to early intervention, in HCM City, for every 100 cases of HIV-infected mothers giving birth, only about two babies are born with the virus.

The city currently has 56 HIV consultation units for pregnant women and HIV-infected pregnant women.

Expectant mothers will be tested for HIV in the first three months of pregnancy. To reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission, HIV-infected women are provided with antiretroviral therapy and with a milk substitute for breast milk, and diagnostic testing is performed on infants born to infected mothers.

P. Linh