Highly active anti-retroviral therapy in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in rural Zimbabwe during the socio-economic crisis.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in breastfeeding women in rural Zimbabwe. During a severe socio-economic crisis in 2005-2007, 82 eligible HIV-positive pregnant women between 14-36 weeks gestation were initiated on HAART with AZT/3TC/nelfinavir combination therapy at a rural hospital and continued through to six months post-partum. In addition, mothers also received intrapartum single-dose nevirapine (sdNVP). Infants received sdNVP/AZT in the first 72 hours and were assessed for HIV infection at six weeks of age. Results were compared to historical controls of HIV-positive pregnant women who received sdNVP only at the same center. Of the 67 infants with available data on HIV status at six weeks postpartum, three (4.4%) were HIV positive by HIV RNA assay in the HAART + sdNVP group compared to 49/297 (16.5%) in the sdNVP group (p = 0.01). HAART given to HIV-infected mothers in pregnancy and during breastfeeding along with intrapartum sdNVP resulted in a lower postnatal HIV transmission at six weeks postpartum compared to sdNVP treatment. Our HAART regimen demonstrates that PMTCT of HIV can be effective even during times of socioeconomic crisis in resource-poor rural settings.