Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors

After years of stalling and much criticism from the HIV/AIDS sector, the Policy Committee of the National Health Council on Friday finally adopted new guidelines for the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT).

The objective of this study was to examine missed opportunities for participation in a prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme in three sites in South Africa. A rapid anthropological assessment was used to collect in-depth data from 58 HIV-positive women who were enrolled in a larger cohort study to assess mother-to-child HIV transmission. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the women in order to gain an understanding of their experiences of antenatal care and to identify missed opportunities for participation in PMTCT.

The South African Public Sector strike has meant that many public sector patients with HIV may or already have had their treatment interrupted. This applies to antiretrovirals, as well as opportunistic illness treatment.

Women can take the anti-AIDS drug nevirapine to protect their unborn children without endangering their ability to undergo life-saving antiretroviral treatment later on, a new study has found.

Detailed guidelines for the treatment of infants and children in resource-limited settings have been issued this week by the World Health Organization ahead of the World AIDS Conference next week in Toronto. The guidelines highlight the difficulties in determining drug doses for children, and urge pharmaceutical companies to work towards producing fixed dose combinations that can be used to treat children.

Prior exposure to single-dose nevirapine (sdNVP, Viramune) for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) does not necessarily impair a womans subsequent response to nevirapine-containing antiretroviral treatment (ART), particularly if enough time passes between that exposure and the need for ART, according to studies presented at the Thirteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver. The studies suggest that nevirapine-containing regimens are still a good first-line option for ART for many sdNVP-exposed women in resource-limited settings.

Women who took a single dose of the non-nucleoside analogue (NNRTI), nevirapine (Viramune) to prevent mother-to-baby transmission of HIV have an immunological response to HAART comparable to women who did not use nevirapine in this way, according to a study presented to the Third International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment in Rio de Janeiro on July 25th.

TB drug development is to receive a major injection of cash and expertise, the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development announced yesterday.

BOSTON, Feb. 24 -- AIDS experts have reached the conclusion that nevirapine, the workhorse drug that has prevented tens of thousands of cases of HIV infection in newborn babies, has enough drawbacks that its use is likely to change markedly.

Antiretroviral drug combination therapy might be more effective in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission and less likely to foster drug resistance among pregnant women than single-dose nevirapine, according to data presented this week at the... 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, the Washington Post reports.