Safer mother-to-child AIDS drugs on cards

AIDS experts have found a safer, but slightly more expensive means, of reducing the mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) in developing countries.

According to findings presented at the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference being held in Massachusetts, USA, a combination of the drugs Combivir and Nevirapine were more effective in safeguarding mothers from future resistance to Nevirapine.

Although Nevirapine is cheap and highly effective in preventing babies from contracting the virus from their mothers, research has shown that up to two-thirds of women become resistant to it.

However, the combination would likely cost more than double the usual US $8 per single dose of Nevirapine, and may take some time before becoming generally available.

The Associated Press quoted Dr Mary Fowler, an MTCT specialist at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying: "It's important not to be rapidly over-optimistic. The translation from trials to [treatment] programmes is incredibly challenging."