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Declining Perinatal AIDS Incidence Associated With Increased Use Of AZT CHICAGO, IL - Aug. 10, 1999 -- Substantial declines in perinatal acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) incidence have been associated with an increase in zidovudine (AZT) use, according to an article in tomorrow’s issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Mary Lou Lindegren, M.D., from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues analysed nation-wide U.S. AIDS and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) surveillance data through June 1998, particularly studying the effects of the U.S. Public Heath Service perinatal HIV recommendations on trends in incidence of perinatal AIDS and factors contributing to these trends. The researchers found that perinatal AIDS cases peaked in 1992 and then declined 67 percent from 1992 to 1997, including an 80 percent decline in infants and a 66 percent decline in children aged one to five years. The authors said rates of AIDS among infants declined 69 percent from 1992 to 1996, while births to HIV-infected women declined by only 17 percent from 1992 to 1995. Among infants, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP, a lung infection dangerous only to those with impaired immunity resistance, a frequent cause of death for those with AIDS) rates declined 67 percent from 1992 to 1996, similar to the decline in AIDS. The authors state that the declines in perinatal AIDS were temporally associated with an increase in zidovudine use to reduce perinatal HIV transmission and that reductions in the numbers of births and effects of therapy in delaying AIDS do not explain the decline. “We need comprehensive strategies to ensure access to prenatal care, HIV counselling and testing; therapy to reduce perinatal transmission; avoidance of breastfeeding; and appropriate treatment and services for mothers,” the researchers write. “Prevention of HIV infection in women is the ultimate goal to further reduce perinatal HIV infection.” According to the information cited in the study, perinatal transmission of HIV accounts for 90 percent of pediatric AIDS cases in the United States and almost all new HIV infections in children. An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 infants were born to HIV-infected women each year from 1989 to 1994; by 1995, more than 16,000 perinatally HIV-infected children had been born. E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version