Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission of HIV- a brief chronology

Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) accounts for 3% of all routes of HIV transmission. PPTCT program was launched in India during 2002 with single dose Nevirapine prophylaxis to mother- baby pair and from 2013, country started implementing option-B+ ARV prophylaxis i.e. all HIV infected pregnant women are initiated with triple drug Anti Retroviral treatment. Two representative studies were conducted in West Bengal, India to understand protective efficacies of both regimens. The first study evaluated the protective efficacy of peripartum mother- baby pair of Nevirapine prophylaxis. The results showed that this regimen was effective in reducing vertical transmission of HIV for two third numbers of exposed babies. This regimen was ineffective in reducing transmission rate to less than 5% as needed for elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV. The next study assessed protective benefit of option B+ regimen. This study revealed that the multidrug ART regimen was 26% more effective over and above the earlier regimen. Moreover this regimen has potential to fulfill the global pledge to eliminate paediatric HIV in resource limited set ups.