Preventing pediatric AIDS in developing countries.

The article Mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1: timing and implications for preventions by A. Kourtis, talks mainly about the timeline of when and through what media the child is most vulnerable to the contraction the HIV virus from its mother. The two main ways that an infant can contract the disease is either during birth, or after birth through post-natal care. The article concludes that in breast feeding populations, “postnatal care exposure to HIV-1 could account for about 40% of all transmissions making it the most important time interval for all transmission of HIV to the infant.(730)” Furthermore, states that formula-fed children are less vulnerable to contracting the disease through their mothers’ breast milk. This shows that perhaps formula milk could play a huge role in prevention of pediatric AIDS. However, in developing countries, it might be very difficult for impoverished families to purchase formula milk for their new born infants. This statistic confirms Barnett and Whiteside’s argument in Disease, Change, Consciousness and Denial, that “ The relationship between inequality, poverty and infectious disease is observable (15)” and that there is a “link between malnutrition, parasitosis and susceptibility to infection in general ( 15)” in less developed countries. Perhaps if governments or charitable organizations could work at least providing the resources for infants whose parents are infected to have access to formula milk, then infants could have the opportunity to live an HIV-free life. However, this proposition could only work provided that children did not contract the disease during birth. According to Kourtis’ article, “In non-breastfeeding populations, about half of all HIV-1 cases caused by mother-to-child transmission occur in the days before delivery and during labor, when the placenta separates from the uterine wall. Another third occur during late labor and actual passage through the birth canal. (730)” An effective way to combat this transmission from mother to child at birth, would be through c-sectional delivery. Again this poses another issue of health-care shortage in a lot of developing countries, where it would probably be hard to find expert doctors to help perform c-sections for HIV-infected mothers. Therefore, the prevention of pediatric AIDS remains a hard one to combat, especially in developing countries.

Kesaobaka Modukanele

HIV/AIDS: Biology, Behavior and Global Responses

BLOG ENTRY 2 ( Response to Wednesday September 30th Class)