Effect of perinatal zidovudine prophylaxis on the evolution of cell-free HIV-1 RNA in breast milk and on postnatal transmission.

Perinatal zidovudine (ZDV) prophylaxis decreases rates of perinatal transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Its relationship with levels of HIV-1 RNA in breast milk and postnatal transmission in breast-fed African children is unknown. At day 8 after delivery, levels of HIV-1 RNA in breast milk from 28 women who transmitted HIV-1 (Ts) postnatally and from 130 women who did not transmit HIV-1 (NTs) were lower for women receiving ZDV than for women receiving placebo.

15 Month follow up of African children following vaginal cleansing with benzalkonium chloride of their HIV infected mothers during late pregnancy and delivery.

Objectives: To study mother to child HIV-1 transmission (MTCT) and infant mortality following benzalkonium chloride (BC) disinfection.

Methods: A randomised, double blind phase II placebo controlled trial. Women testing positive for HIV-1 infection in prenatal care units in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, from November 1996 to April 1997 were eligible, with their informed consent.