‘Rigorous medicine regime followed on affected mothers and their children’

The treatment regime followed since 2012 for pregnant women tested positive for HIV and new-born babies has led to stoppage of transmission of HIV to the new-born for the last two years in Dakshina Kannada.

District AIDS Control Officer Kishore Kumar said pregnant women were being given tablets right from the day the infection is detected when the foetus is three months old. She would continue to take medicines throughout her lifetime. The child is also administered liquid medicines for a period of six weeks since the time of birth. Both the schedules are rigorously monitored.

Dr. Kumar said that at the end of six weeks the child will be subjected to DNA PCR test to check whether there were any traces of HIV infection. Blood samples for this test are sent to a laboratory in National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences.

The same test is again done when the baby is six months and when s/he completes a year. An antibody test is done locally when the child is 18 months old.

“If the child carries infection it will be noticed when the first test is done. The three tests done subsequently is to confirm non prevalence of the infection,” Dr. Kumar said, and added that it only after the final test showed negative for the virus that the child would be declared as free from HIV. No child had been found positive for HIV in 2013 and 2014, he confirmed.

Apart from HIV positive pregnant women coming to government hospitals, the District AIDS Control Cell closely monitors treatment of pregnant women in private hospitals. “Our results are the best among the 30 districts [of the State],” Dr. Kumar added.

A report of epidemiological profile study carried out by the National Aids Control Organisation in 2014 shows the district to be stable in terms of transmission of HIV from parent to child. A stable trend is also seen in the number of HIV positive cases detected among those who visited the blood bank, the report mentions.

The report said the HIV positivity among male and female sex workers have also been low.

There was a declining trend of HIV positive cases among the female sex workers over the past four years, it said.

The reduction in HIV positive cases is also seen among those who have attended Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC). Only 2.53 per cent of men and 2.15 per cent of women of ICTC attendees have been tested positive.