Recommendations from the Meeting on Prevention of Mother-to-Infant Transmission of HIV by Use of Antiretrovirals

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE MEETING ON PREVENTION OF MOTHER-TOINFANT TRANSMISSION OF HIV BY USE OF ANTIRETROVIRALS,
GENEVA 23-25 JUNE 1994
The number of children infected with HIV is increasing with the ever-expanding AIDS
pandemic. To date, it is estimated that more tharr I million children have been infected with
HIV through mother-to-infant (MTI) transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO)
projects that during the 1990s as many as 5-10 million children will be HIV-infected through
their mothers, the majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. In this context, the recent
documentation of a reduction of the risk for MTI transmission of HIV by use of zidovudine
(ZDV) in pregnancy constitutes a major breakthrough, opening new areas for research and
intervention in this field.
An interim analysis of a phase Ill randomized, placebo-controlled trial (ACTG 076),
conducted in the United States and France, to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerance of
zidovudine (ZDV) for the prevention of MTI transmission of HIV has demonstrated a clear
reduction of the risk for MTI transmission for the group who received ZDV. The study was
conducted by the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIALD) in collaboration with the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the United States, and by the Institut National
de la Sante et de la Recherche Mddicale (INSERM) and the Agence Nationale de la
Recherche sur le SIDA (ANRS) in France.

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