Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
 |
Newsday - February 19, 1998
Laurie Garrett - Staff Writer
"Today's news from Thailand is one of the first hopeful signs for countering HIV and AIDS in the developing nations of the world," Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a press release yesterday.
In 1994, American researchers showed that treatment of pregnant women and their newborns with AZT decreases transmission of the virus to the babies by nearly 70 percent. As a result, the numbers of American babies born infected with HIV plummeted 43 percent by 1996, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently it is targeting the year 2000 for eradication of mother-to-child transmission.
But even as the numbers of AIDS babies nosedived in wealthy countries, they have soared in the Third World. And for poor countries, the triumphs of AZT use to prevent transmission from mothers seemed a bitter defeat, for they could not afford to spend $800 per infected pregnant mother.
In hopes of finding a cheap, viable way to stem the spread of HIV to babies, the CDC has been conducting studies of lower doses of AZT in pregnant women in Thailand and the Ivory Coast.
Yesterday the United Nations AIDS Programme, based in Geneva, said that joint Thai/CDC studies using $50 worth of orally administered AZT reduced the incidence of HIV-infected babies by 50 percent, compared to mothers who received placebos.
The findings were so striking that the CDC and UN AIDS shut down placebo use in their trials and put all the mothers on AZT.
The use of placebos in these studies has been controversial. The New England Journal of Medicine said American scientists ought to offer overseas research subjects the same standards of care as are available in the United States. But CDC defended the use of placebos saying that it was precisely because the U.S. standard of care was unaffordable in poor countries that cheaper doses of drugs were necessary.
980219
ND980201
Copyright © 1998 - Newsday. All rights reserved. All pages of newsday.com are copyright © Newsday, Inc. Other parties may also own rights to portions of newsday.com content. No portion of newsday.com content may be published, broadcast or distributed, directly or indirectly, in any medium without Newsday's prior written consent. Newsday, Inc. will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any content on newsday.com. http://www.newsday.com.
AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, John M. Lloyd Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1998. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
Copyright ©1980, 1998. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .