BOSTON, Massachusetts, Feb 25 (AFP) - A cocktail of antiretroviral drugs works better than a single dose of nevirapine to prevent HIV infection in newborn babies, researchers said at the 12th Retrovirus Conference here.
A single dose of low-cost nevirapine is the treatment of choice in developing countries, above all in Africa, to prevent pregnant women from passing the AIDs virus to their offspring.
But nevapirine, made by Germany's Boehrinbleger Ingelheim, is also mired in controversy, in South Africa especially, since the antiretroviral drug can cause a virus mutation that makes women resistant to the drug.
In a study presented to the conference Thursday, more than 60 percent of HIV infected pregnant women who received the single dose of nevirapine showed preliminary resistance to the drug.
Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs during several weeks of pregnancy combined with a single dose of nevirapine around delivery has a lower rate of resistance and offers better, low-cost infection protection for the newborn.
Several studies conducted in African countries used a single dose of nevirapine shortly before childbirth and Combivir, a combination of antiretroviral drugs AZT and 3TC during several weeks of pregnancy and for three days after childbirth. A single dose of nevirapine was also administered to the newborn as well as AZT.
Researchers at Paris' Rene Descartes University conducted clinical trials with the same cocktail with 329 pregnant women during a an anti-AIDS project in Abidjan and the Ivory Coast in 202 and 2003. Six weeks after birth, the infection rate was only 4.7 percent, compared to 12 percent seen with the single dose approach.
Another study conducted at Boston's Israel Deaconess medical center on 1,100 pregnant women in Botswana used AZT in the 32nd week of pregnancy. A group of these women were also given a dose of nevirapine during birth. Six weeks later, the rate of HIV infection among the newborn was also below five percent.
James McIntyre, a physician working at Johannesbourg's University of Witwatersrand, told the conference that while opinion was divided on the usage and effects of nevirapine, many doctors continued to advocate using only this drug.
"In my country this has been seen as a US and pharmaceutical company conspiracy," he added referring to the extensive use of nevirapine to prevent HIV infection of newborns.
In July 2004, South Africa restricted the use of nevirapine because of its secondary effects, especially the increased resistance to anti-AIDS drugs.
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