A?mother with AIDS has given birth to a healthy baby in
Shanghai thanks to a new treatment that helps prevent the virus
spreading to the fetus during pregnancy.
The mother, whose name was not revealed, volunteered to try the
medical treatment after she was notified about the disease during
her pregnancy.
The baby was receiving anti-virus treatment six weeks after
being born and the mother was not allowed to breastfeed her baby as
the milk contains the HIV virus, the Shanghai Evening News
reported yesterday.
The baby was in perfect health, the report said.
If an HIV carrier is pregnant, the baby has a 30 percent chance
of getting the disease. The baby is likely to die before the age of
three if it contracts the virus during infancy, experts said.
Mothers with AIDS still face danger during labor despite
improvements in medical treatment, said Lu Hongzhou, deputy chief
of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.
(Shanghai Daily November 30, 2007)