Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date. My question is, if a mother is currently infected and has a child, what is the possibility that child will be infected? Now what if the child is born and throughout 1 year the child was tested and came back negative, is there any possibility the child will be infected or carry the disease after the first year? How often does the child need to be checked?
If the mother receives NO treatment before birth, the child has a 1 in four chance of being born HIV positive.
With pre natal treatment, and cesarian section delivery, the risk of infection is reduced to about 1 in one hundred.
If the child were to test positive, in this situation a year after birth, you would have to posit a different route of transmission, i.e. by contaminated breast milk.
If the child is not breast fed, after a few months, further testing is not required.
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