AZT in trial to protect babies from A.I,D.S.

Press, 31 August 1989, Page 42

AZT in trial to protect babies from A.I,D.S.

NZPA-AP Washington

Pregnant women who have A.I.D.S. will be given an anti-A.I.D.S. drug for the first time in an experiment to determine if the drug can prevent their babies from developing the fatal disease. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said an experiment with the anti-A.I.D.S. drug, Zidovudine, more commonly known as AZT, will be conducted on 10 women infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or H.1.V., which causes A.LD.S. The institute's director, Dr Anthony Fauci, said the experiment was an effort to find a way of treating one of the fastest growing categories of A.LD.S. patients: newborn

babies. “The prognosis for children (infected) with H.I.V. is grim,” said Dr Fauci. The institute said that little was known about how A.LD.S. was transmitted from mother to baby but it was believed to occur either during development within the mother, at birth through contact with the mother’s blood, or from breast milk after birth. Most A.LD.S. infants are born to mothers who are intravenous drug users or have been the sexual partners of intravenous drug users.

In the first phase, the researchers will enrol six women with no recent history of drug . abuse. After they haveXcom-

pleted their treatment, the investigators will then treat four women who are intravenous drug abusers and are being maintained on methadone, an approved pharmaceutical used to wean patients from illegal drugs. All 10 will start the study with AZT injections and continue through the rest of their pregnancy by taking 200 milligram AZT pills five times a day. When the test subjects go into labour, AZT will be injected again. After delivery, the babies will be monitored carefully for 18 months to determine if the AZT treatment affected their development. They also will be checked for development of A.LD.S..