ART - BHIVA recommends that most infants should be given Zidovudine (AZT) monotherapy for the first four weeks of life although children born to mothers whose viral load is detectable or who are untreated may be considered for triple combination therapy. ART choice may also be guided by HIV DNA PCR results.

Testing for HIV infection – all babies share their mother’s antibodies at birth and this is no different for children born to positive women. This means that all such babies will have a positive result for an HIV antibody test, however, this result will not mean that the baby is HIV-positive. To establish whether a baby has sero-converted BHIVA recommends that they be tested using sensitive HIV DNA PCR processes at one day, six weeks and twelve weeks of age. If all of these tests are negative – and the baby is not being breastfed – then the child is not HIV infected.

New and first time mothers often experience extreme emotional and physical upheaval at this time. For positive mothers this is compounded by the anxiety and distress of waiting to hear results and the subsequent decisions to be made in the event of a positive test result. The experience and support of qualified specialist staff will be important at this time and help understanding of test results.