AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, November 15, 2004
Staff Medical Writers

In a recent report, investigators in the United States conducted a study "to determine whether different HIV-1 genotypes present in a single cohort, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, showed differences in timing for transmission from mothers to their infants."

"We determined the maternal viral load, transmission time, and the HIV-1 envelope (env) subtype of 253 HIV-1-infected infants enrolled in a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial to examine the efficacy of vitamins in decreasing mother-to-child transmission in Tanzania.

"Classification of HIV-1 positivity in utero was based on PCR results at birth. Infants were classified as intrapartum infected if they scored negative for the sample collected at birth and positive for the sample collected at 6 weeks of age," said B. Renjufi and colleagues.

The researchers found a "significant differences in the distribution of transmission time according to subtype. A higher proportion of HIV-1 with subtype C env (C-env) was transmitted in utero than HIV-1 with subtype A env (A-env), subtype D env (D-env), or both combined."

"Based on our results," the authors concluded, "the efficacy of regimens administered only at labor may not protect as large a fraction of infants born in geographical regions with subtype C-env epidemics as compared to epidemics in regions where subtypes A-env and D-env predominate in the population."

Renjufi and colleagues published their study in AIDS (Preferential in-utero transmission of HIV-1 subtype C as compared to HIV-1 subtype A or D. AIDS. 2004 Aug 20;18(12):1629-36.

For additional information, contact M. Essex, Harvard University, School Publ Hlth, Department Immunology and Infectious Diseases, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Publisher contact information for the journal AIDS is: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 530 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19106-3621, USA.

The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of Mother-To-Child Transmission, HIV/AIDS, Chemoprophylaxis, Epidemiology, and Genomics and Genetics.

This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.

Reference

Renjufi B, Gilbert P, Chaplin B, et al., "Preferential in-utero transmission of HIV-1 subtype C as compared to HIV-1 subtype A or D", AIDS. 2004 Aug 20;18(12):1629-36.

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