How is HIV drug treatment used during pregnancy?
Deciding when to use HIV treatment during pregnancy, and which medications to prescribe, depends on a number of individual circumstances. However, most of these circumstances fall into one of seven different scenarios. Here’s a look at each scenario, along with the treatment recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency responsible for setting health care policies in the United States. Its guidelines, Recommendations for Use of Antiretroviral Drugs in Pregnant HIV-1-Infected Women for Maternal Health and Interventions to Reduce Perinatal HIV-1 Transmission in the United States, are based on extensive reviews of available data by a panel of experts in the field of HIV-related pregnancy care. The most recent edition of its guidelines were published on April 29 , 2009. When reviewing these recommendations, there are a few basic “rules” to know about: • The nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) Retrovir (zidovudine) has been studied e
