AEGiS-Bangkok Post: Drug to cut birth risk may be free; Nevirapine reduces infection rate to 5% Bangkok PostImportant note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Drug to cut birth risk may be free; Nevirapine reduces infection rate to 5%

Bangkok Post - December 2, 2000
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi

A drug which drastically lowers rates of mother-to-child HIV transmission may be donated free of charge to the health system for five years.

The drug Nevirapine has proven more successful than the use of Zidovudine (AZT).

HIV/Aids experts meet this month to consider the number of pregnant women who should get the drug, and criteria for selecting them.

A doctor said HIV transmission can be cut to 4.5 percent if a pregnant woman takes one tablet before birth and her newborn child takes a drop of the liquid form of the drug.

Women with HIV can pass it on to their children through pregnancy in up to 30-40 per cent of cases. A course of AZT cuts the risk of transmission by eight per cent.

Communicable Diseases Control Department director-general Somsong Rakphao said short-course AZT is more complicated than Nevirapine because it has to be taken from the 4th month of pregnancy until delivery, while the newborn has to take the drug for at least one week.

Nevirapine costs 120 baht a course while AZT costs 3,000 baht.

Manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim had offered to donate Nevirapine free of charge for an unlimited number of pregnant women and their newborn babies for five years.

Spokesman Phisit Manjaiaj said this could be extended depending on how seriously the donation scheme was run. Pregnant women would not be forced to join and those taking part would be warned about possible side-effects. Taking the drug for more than three months can lead to liver problems and skin rashes. Each year 5,000 Thai children are born with HIV.
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