Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV: use of Nevirapine among women of unknown serostatus
Report of a technical consultation | 5-6 December 2001, Geneva
ISBN 92 41 56 212 9
At this time, there is considerable support for accelerating and intensifying efforts to prevent HIV infections in infants, especially in countries most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Programmes using antiretroviral drugs to reduce HIV transmission from women known to be HIV-infected to their infants are being introduced or taken to scale in a number of countries. A two-dose regimen of nevirapine (single dose to the mother at onset of labour and single dose to the infant within 72 hours of birth) is increasingly being used because of its low cost and simplicity.The use of nevirapine among women of unknown serostatus at the time of labour and delivery has also been proposed, especially in settings with high HIV prevalence among pregnant women and limited availability or low uptake of programme activities for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, such as voluntary counselling and testing and antiretroviral prophylaxis.