HIV transmission from mother to child

HIV transmission from mother to child during pregnancy, labor and delivery, or breastfeeding is called perinatal transmission. Research published in 1994 showed that zidovudine (ZDV) given to pregnant women infected with HIV and their newborns reduced the risk for this type of HIV transmission [1]. Since then, the testing of pregnant women and treatment for those who are infected have resulted in a dramatic decline in the number of children perinatally infected with HIV. However, much work remains to be done: about 100–200 infants in the United States are infected with HIV annually. Many of these infections involve women who were not tested early enough in pregnancy or who did not receive prevention services.

Perinatal HIV transmission is the most common route of HIV infection in children and is now the source of almost all AIDS cases in children in the United States. Most of the children with AIDS are members of minority races/ethnicities [2].

STATISTICS

HIV/AIDS in 2005

The following bullets are data from the 33 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting. For a list of the 33 states, see the box at the end of this fact sheet.

• HIV/AIDS was diagnosed for an estimated 142 children less than 13 years old who had been infected with HIV perinatally [2].
• An estimated 6,051 persons who had been infected with HIV perinatally were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2005 [2].
• Of the perinatally infected persons living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2005, an estimated 66% were black (not Hispanic or Latino), and an estimated 20% were Hispanic/Latino [2].

AIDS in 2005