Short-course zidovudine against mother-to-child HIV transmission
Zidovudina de pauta corta contra la transmisión maternoinfantil del VIH
- Date
- 1998 · confidence high
- Place
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Credited to
- Bangkok Collaborative Perinatal HIV Transmission Study (Shaffer, Chuachoowong and colleagues)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
A trial in pregnant women who took oral zidovudine from week 36 of gestation and during labour, which halved HIV transmission to the child. It showed that a short, cheap regimen worked in resource-limited countries.
The results were announced in 1998 and published in The Lancet in 1999. The ACTG 076 trial (1994) had earlier shown a long, expensive regimen, which Bangkok shortened.
What it led to
- perinatal HIV prophylaxis in developing countries
- single-dose nevirapine trials (HIVNET 012)
- global reduction of paediatric HIV infection