The use of viral culture and p24 antigen testing to diagnose human immunodeficiency virus infection in neonates

Article Abstract:

More than half of infants infected with HIV may not test positive for HIV infection at birth using viral culture or p24 antigen testing. Viral culture involves the removal of white blood cells from the infant to be cultured in the laboratory. Of 181 infants born to HIV-positive mothers, 40 were infected with HIV and three died from complications of HIV infection. Among the infants who were HIV-positive, 19 (48%) were positive for HIV infection using viral culture at birth and 30 (75%) were positive using viral culture at three months of age. Only seven HIV-infected infants (18%) were positive for HIV infection by p24 antigen testing at birth. None of the viral cultures from the 141 infants who remained HIV-negative were positive for HIV at birth or later. Some newborns who are HIV-positive do not sero-convert until several months after birth. These infants may not have become infected until the later months of gestation or during delivery.

Diagnosis, Neonatal diseases

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Maternal factors associated with perinatal HIV-1 transmission: the French Cohort Study: 7 years of follow-up observation

Article Abstract:

Older pregnant women in an advanced stage of HIV infection may be more likely to transmit the virus to their baby. Researchers have followed 848 HIV-positive women and their babies since delivery. The babies were tested periodically for HIV. A total of 171 babies became infected with the virus. This 20% transmission rate was relatively stable between 1986 and 1990. Women who were older, those who breastfed and those with advanced infection were more likely to transmit the virus. Advanced infection was marked by low white blood cell counts, a smaller percentage of CD4 cells and a greater percentage of CD8 cells. Women with a viral protein called p24 in their blood were also more likely to transmit the virus. This protein is produced when the virus is reproducing. Women who delivered by cesarean section were just as likely to transmit the virus as those who delivered naturally.

Risk factors, HIV infections, Pregnancy, HIV infection in pregnancy

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A prospective study of infants born to women seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus type 1

Article Abstract:

Investigating the transmission of the AIDS virus from mother to newborn is difficult because the AIDS virus is detected by the presence of a specific kind of anibodies the body puts into the blood in reaction to the virus. The newborn baby of a mother with AIDS may have gotten some of these antibodies from its mother without actually getting the virus itself, so the presence of the antibodies in the blood of the newborn does not prove that the baby is infected with the AIDS virus. It is impossible to predict whether a baby will become infected by the age of eighteen months on the basis of how it was delivered or what led to the infection of the mother. However, five out of six breastfed infants of infected mothers became infected, while only one in four of those who were not breastfed did.

Analysis, Maternal-fetal exchange, Medical examination, Development and progression, HIV (Viruses), HIV, Infants, Neonatal screening, AIDS (Disease) in children, Pediatric AIDS (Disease)

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