I blogged last week about the possiblity of HIV+ women having children. I found an excellent organization in the state of Illinois that helps expecting mothers through their process. There is even a hotline that provides emotional support for women.
Illinois Perinatal HIV Hotline 1-800-439-4079
One of the most amazing things about this hotline is that it is available 24/7 and it also serves women out of the state as well. This hotline feels that HIV+ women should have support 24/7 no matter what the circumstances. This hotline offers many services that seem to be of extreme importance for any women.
Hotline services include:
•Real-time medical consultation about the most up-to-date treatments for HIV-positive mothers and their babies.There are many interesting tabs on the website that answer about everything a person would want to know about being pregnant and positive.
•Linkage of HIV-positive women and their infants to an ongoing network of specialty care during and after pregnancy.
•Social service consultation and access to enhanced perinatal HIV case managers for the highest risk women.
•Post-test counseling and support for mothers and babies with positive rapid HIV tests.
•The reporting mechanism for preliminary positive rapid HIV tests as mandated by the Illinois Perinatal HIV Prevention Act
I have really started to develop a passion for women and HIV. I think it is extremely of the essence for awareness to get out.
I previously blogged about HIV+ women being able to carry a healthy baby full-term. There are many drugs that benefit the women and unborn child.
There are many questions that will come into mind for a women that has just discovered she is pregnant, while being HIV+.
Some of the questions are:
Should I start treatment? What is the best treatment for me? What treatment will I need for delievery?Searching the internet for answers I found many interesting insights on HIV treatment. It is important for a women to start HIV treatment for her health and for her babies as well. There are anti-HIV medicine that will prevent the baby from having HIV. This medicine will also ensure that the mother is healthy.In order to find the best treatment,it all depends on when the diagnoses was. "Women who are in the first trimester
of pregnancy and who do not have symptoms of HIV
disease may consider delaying treatment until after 10 to
12 weeks into their pregnancies" (HIV and Pregnancy,2009). After the first trimester,"pregnant women with HIV should receive at least AZT
(Retrovir or zidovudine); your doctor may recommend
additional medications depending on your CD4 count, viral
load, and drug resistance testing" (HIV and Pregnancy, 2009).
So, a very important question is "What treatment will I need for delievery?
"Most mother-to-child transmission of HIV occurs around
the time of labor and delivery" (HIV and Pregnancy, 2009). This makes it very important for the women and baby to receive the correct treatment!
There are several methods of treatment that will ensure that baby is HIV free. A mother is provided with:
1. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART),which isI think it is amazing that women have a choice! I read a book once that said, "I will live my life and not let HIV live it for me" Awesome!
recommended even for HIV-infected pregnant women
who do not need treatment for their own health. If
possible, HAART should include AZT (Retrovir or
zidovudine).
2. During labor and delivery, you should receive
intravenous (IV) AZT.
3. Your baby should take AZT (in liquid form) every 6
hours for 6 weeks after birth.
http://www.hivpregnancyhotline.org/
http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/contentfiles/DrugRegimensPregnantWomen_FS_en.pdf
Hi Sarai. Your blog was very interesting as I have not read much about being HIV and pregnant. Your information helped to answer some of my questions and was very informative. I still wonder why the HIV medications can halt the baby from being born with HIV but can't cure and adult with HIV. Another question I would like to find the answer to is are there any long-term side-effects for the baby by taking the HIV medications? I thought you did a good job. Agnes Morgan
ReplyDeleteIf a woman takes only AZT that is considered a mono therapy and HIV can mutate more easily against one drug than three drugs. I would never recommend mono therapy to any one.
ReplyDeleteThe recommendations is that the women become undetectable since that reduces the number of free virus in the blood stream and that leads to less chance of the virus being transmitted to the fetus.
What you have cited as 1, 2 and 3 was what they use to give to HIV positive women. It was a study that was done that showed the reduction of HIV to the baby. However, they have since stopped that protocol in favor of the triple drug therapy most patients are on.
Nice Did You Know. Now where is the rest of your blog about your growth in this class?
Wow, Sarai, I have not thought about Protocal 076 in quite awhile. That was the old treatment on how to help prevent transmission of the virus to a baby.
ReplyDeleteHow are you doing looking for an ASO to volunteer? I hope you are able to attend the women's panel. Based on your interest here, you would really find it educational.
Morgan: I will look for information on side-effects and post it! I think that the medication is able to help the baby because the virus still has not replicated and maybe not done the seroconversion Just a guess, but I will look into that and hopefully find good information for you!
ReplyDeleteTeach: There is so much to blog about that I can admit I totally forgot about the how did you grow in class part! I'm sorry will be up next week hopefully. I am slowly getting the hang of blogging. I totally see why taking more drugs (triple) would be better. HIV can mutant into another form and utimately beat the medicine.
Linda: I am guessing some places are still using Protocal 076? Okay.. I will look into more recent treatment! Well, getting a place to let you volunteer is so hard. They don't really give much choices and I do not want to just volunteer to clean! I would like to get one on one time. Yes, I do plan to attend the womens panel and the mens. It would be really great. I think that as students in 2009 we have to wake up to the thought of HIV.