Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission: from the first stages to the possibility of elimination

Abstract

Despite the success in reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission rate worldwide, the problem of perinatal HIV transmission is still relevant. Sexual activity nowadays is the predominant way of transmission, therefore the number of HIV cases among women growths. This leads to an increased number of pregnancies and childbirth in HIV-infected women. Better preventive treatment has decreased the transmission risk to 1% or less. Despite this, the Russian Federation is still not among the countries where the elimination of mother-to-child transmission has been recorded. This review article focuses on the main stages of mother-to-child transmission prevention from the time that no antiretroviral therapy was available to the current stage, when highly active antiretroviral therapy is used during pregnancy, childbirth and for the treatment of newborns. The research provides a comparative analysis of modern national and international clinical recommendations for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission.