9/30 Reading: Mother to Child Transmission

Kourtis et al researched a very pressing question and gave us some much needed answers in this article, though there is so much more that we do not know about mother to child transmission. An important point that they addressed that took me surprise is the idea that the time of viral exposure is not necesarily the time when infection occurs. How absolutely novel! It is very interesting to think that an fetus's blood can be contaminated with virus but will not be infected up until 2 days of life if ever; it kind of sounds like HIV is sometimes dormant in infants. It is understable that it is usually waiting for the infant's immune system to be activated in order to complete reverse transcription but the authors also said that sometimes, the virus never activates and eventually decays. Now I am sure this case is pretty rare but it from the authors, it sounds like it does happen sometimes. How does that work? As the authors said there are so many more questions that have not been answered and it is important to focus on mother child transmission because it is one of the hardest methods of transmission to avoid. One can avoid getting sexually infected by using protection or knowing whether his/her partner is infect; but how can a mother avoid contaminating her baby when her baby is inside her virus ridden body? And how does a mother choose between refusing to breast feed, which could lead to her child starve and practically feeding her child contaminated milk? Hence the importance of continued research on possible ways of evading postnatal transmission which is the largest cause of infection in all infants.
Reading this article, I realize how far research has progressed in the long and arduous search for a solution (any solution) to mother to child transmission especially in developing world countries where breastfeeding could be the difference between life and death for newborn. It is also interesting to learn how transmission is more likely to occur more or less depending on the stage of pregnancy. Obviously, it is most likely during labour and deliver, only after breast feeding, and as the authors strongly suggested, it would help to research more ways infection could be avoided even at these most risky stages. The area of mother to child transmission of HIV-1 is very complex and commands that one put into consideration a wide spectrum of ideas. It is also a very important area because this transmission is not easily preventable.