Strategic approaches to decrease breast milk transmission of HIV-1: the importance of small things.

Abstract

Research on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has yielded a number of effective interventions resulting in extremely high programmatic success in developed countries, where a transmission risk of <1% is attainable. The cornerstones of this success are the use of combination antiretrovirals and the avoidance of breast-feeding. Importantly, the prevalence of maternal HIV-1 infection is low in developed countries, and there is programmatic ability to deliver integrated, multifaceted care to infected women