Key investigators in India, US, Ethiopia and Uganda are waiting for the results. “We expect the initial results to be available to all of the investigators soon,” said Phadke. No concerns have been raised about the safety of this trial, according to a communication of international, independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), she added.

The mode of study

India has an estimated 2.5 million HIV-infected individuals and the percentage of HIV cases attributed to mother to child transmission has increased almost ten fold from 0.33 per cent in 1999 to 2.8 per cent in 2004. With an estimated 27 million births occurring annually in India and an assumed vertical transmission of at least 25 per cent in the absence of any mother to child transmission intervention, this is expected to lead to greater than 24,000 HIV infected children each year, researchers Robert Bollinger from Johns Hopkins University and Amita Gupta and Jayagowri Sastry from B J Medical College point out in the August 2007 issue of Indian Journal of Medical Research.

A study of a small group of 41 HIV infected women who chose not to exclusively breast feed their infants was also conducted. The anti HIV drugs were given to the women and the infants also received a single dose of nevirapine. Out of the 42 infants — 32 were formula fed and 10 were mixed fed. Four infants were diagnosed with HIV infection. Out of the formula fed babies, transmission occurred in only one infant at fourteen weeks. This small study suggests that a short course of AZT or a single dose of NVP is effective in reducing Mother to Child transmission in the Indian setting.