HIV & Pregnancy - Shorts - Brief Article

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Jan, 2002  by Jule Klotter

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The US Public Health Service policy for treating HIV-positive, pregnant women includes anti-HIV drugs during pregnancy and intravenous AZT (azidothymidine, aka zidovudine or Retrovir) during labor. Their newborns are given AZT for six weeks, whether or not the babies test positive; and they are denied breast milk, for fear of further contamination with HIV. According to British journalist Neville Hodgkinson, most babies born to HIV-positive women do not have elevated HIV antibody levels at birth. Most of those who do test HIV-positive become HIV-negative at about 18 months without treatment, indicating that they had simply obtained the antibodies -- not an infection -- from their mothers. A 1994 study, sponsored by AZT's manufacturer, showed that only 25% of the infants with HIV-positive mothers were born with HIV antibodies. When using AZT during labor and after birth, only 8% of newborns born to HIV-positive women had HIV antibodies. On the basis of this study, AZT became a standard treatment for pregnant w omen who test HIV positive and their infants. This reduced number of HIV antibodies does not translate to better health for the children receiving AZT, however.

Several studies show that infant mortality is actually higher among infants who receive AZT either directly or indirectly via their mothers while in the womb than among HIV-positive infants who do not receive AZT. In June 2000, R. S. De Souza and colleagues reported that AIDS-related deaths were three times more likely in babies whose mothers received AZT than in those whose mothers were untreated [Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Human Retrovirology 24, no.2 (June 1, 2000); 154-161] . A 1999 study, involving over 200 HIV-positive children, by the Italian Register for HIV Infection in Children [AIDS 13 (May 28, 1999): 927-933] found that the group whose mothers received AZT during pregnancy showed significantly higher rates of severe disease and had a higher death rate by age three than those whose mothers were not treated. In July 2000, U.S. scientist David Rasnick, a member of the South African Government's Advisory Panel on AIDS, stated that he was unable to find any evidence in the scien tific literature that indicated that antiviral therapy increased health or lifespan in children.

AZT is highly toxic and mutagenic. Drawing on a book by South African advocate A. Brink called Debating AZT: Mbeki and the AIDS Drug Controversy, Neville Nodgkinson says that "AZT's proven toxicities include severe muscle pain, weakness, and atrophy; heart muscle changes and malfunction; bone marrow suppression, with consequent anemia and loss of all types of blood cells; liver failure; and broadranging and sometimes irreversible loss and poisoning of mitochondria, the energy 'factories' within our cells." O.A. Olivero and colleagues discovered that AZT actually becomes incorporated into the DNA, causing DNA damage and mutations [AIDS 13 (May 28, 1999): 919-925]. The same researchers found that AZT crosses the placental barrier to cause tumors in the lungs, liver, and female reproductive organs of mice. Their research, presented at the Third Conference on Environmental Mutagens in Human Populations (February 18, 1999), warns that "infants exposed to AZT even for short periods of time during gestation, may sus tain genotoxic damage."

According to an article by Susan Gerhard, some doctors are enforcing the Public Health Service protocol by calling in Child Protective Services if parents refuse permission to give their baby AZT. Children have been removed from their parents' custody, forcing parents to go to court to get them back. Depending upon how indoctrinated the judge is about the value of AZT and other antiviral treatments, the parents sometimes win and sometimes do not. One way that pregnant women avoid the conflict is to refuse HIV testing for themselves and their babies in the states that still give people a choice. (New York and Connecticut require HIV testing.) Mothers Opposing Mandatory Medicine (MOMM), founded by Christine Maggiore, has other suggestions for women who want to avoid social service agency intervention. "Six Steps HIV-Positive Mothers Can Take to Exercise Informed Choice and Avoid Legal Problems" can be obtained by calling toll free 877-804-4MOM or by visiting the web site www.informedmomm.com "Safe and Sound Und erground" by Susan Gerhard. Mothering, September/October 2001.

"Poisoning Our Babies" by Neville Hodgkinson. Mothering, september/October 2001

COPYRIGHT 2002 The Townsend Letter Group
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