Of Viruses and the Mother-Child Dyad

摘要

In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued new guidelines regarding infant feeding and HIV/AIDS. Rather than depend on people who have HIV and give birth in a risky location to determine the best way to feed a particular infant after being informed and weighing various risks, the new guidelines recommend a relatively straightforward antiretroviral regimen that renders breastfeeding relatively safe for infants in areas where the risks from not being breastfed are high (WHO, 2010). The complications facing those who live in low-resource settings, have HTV, give birth, and then need to feed an infant may be different now that such a regimen has been deemed effective. Global efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HTV could conceivably be thought of now as simply a problem of access to drugs.