Women who are INFECTED with HIV during pregnancy will have a very high rate of transmission to their children. Until now, medicine has not found a way to be able to definitively treat the disease. HIV not only causes health harms, but also greatly affects the development of the fetus in the womb.
1. Is HIV transmitted from mother to child?
To find the answer to this problem, a World Health Organization (WHO) study was conducted on 100 pregnant mothers infected with HIV, about 9 children will be transmitted from the mother in the period from the time they are in the fetus, 17 children are infected during labor and 10 are infected with HIV during breastfeeding. Mother-to-child HIV infection rates account for about 30%.
2. How is HIV transmitted from mother to child?
If a pregnant woman has HIV, mother-to-child transmission can occur very early or through the following 3 times:
2.1 Mother-to-child transmission of HIV during pregnancy
Scientific studies have found HIV viruses in the kidneys, brain, liver of fetuses are only 13 weeks old, in particular, organizational abnormalities in the brain and aggressive glands of HIV-infected fetuses. Some cases of babies born to hiv-infected mothers have suffered from immune disorders and there are abnormalities in cd4 cell numbers, which suggests that the spread of HIV from mother to child occurs very early through each other, scientists also call this type of vertical transmission.
Mother-to-child transmission of HIV through cake is complicated and has many unknowns because the structure and functional characteristics of vegetable cakes will vary from time to time of pregnancy. The likelihood of HIV spreading from mother to child through each other remains unclear, but studies have explained that this rate will increase if the age of the pregnant mother increases, whether the mother is hiv positive during pregnancy or the mother is pregnant and then infected with HIV, the risk of spreading to the child through the cake is still great, accounting for about 30%.
2.2. Mother-to-child HIV infection during childbirth
The second possible path to mother-to-child HIV infection is during labor. Explaining this, experts say that when the fetus passes through the mother's genitals to go out, it will be directly exposed to vaginal fluid and swallow amniotic fluid (in the blood and vaginal fluid of the HIV-infected mother containing the HIV virus). Or the transmission occurs due to the exchange of m mother and fetal blood during labor (contractions of the uterus can pump blood containing the hive virus in the mother into the fetal circulation system and cause the child to become HIV positive from the mother). According to statistics, about 60% of children were transmitted HIV from their mothers during this period.
The infection rate will increase in prolonged labor, difficult births or scratched pregnancies, crushed mother's software, trauma…. The longer the time from amniotic rupture to the child's birth, the greater the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Every hour from the amniotic rupture, the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV increases by about 2%.
In cases of twins and triple births, the risk of HIV infection in babies born first is usually higher than those born later. Therefore, in order to reduce the risk of mother-to-child HIV infection during childbirth to a minimum, doctors often wash the vagina with antiviral substances before labor.
2.3. Mother-to-child HIV infection during breastfeeding?
Although the concentration of HIV virus in breast milk is not high, the likelihood of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is still great if the breastfeeding baby is HIV positive.
The HIV virus from breast milk can penetrate through the oral mucosa, tongue, benefits of the child and attack the body, especially in case the child shows inflammation in the oral cavity, the higher the infection rate.
In addition, if the hiv-infected mother's breast is inflamed or cracked or when the child has teeth that bite the mother's breast bleeding, the HIV virus can also follow blood into the baby's mouth and penetrate through the mucous membranes in the oral cavity to cause disease. According to statistics, about 30% of children are infected with HIV from their mothers during breastfeeding.
3. How to reduce the risk of MOTHER-to-child HIV infection?
In fact, mother-to-child HIV infection rates will account for about 40%. However, if mothers living with HIV receive good backup care, the transmission rate to their child will be reduced to 10%, even to only 1%. Scientific studies have explained that the proportion of children who are transmitted the HIV virus after prying has a negative result of over 90%. Therefore, whether a child is born with HIV infection depends a lot on predarial treatment in a pregnant mother infected with the HIV virus.
In order to prevent and reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in a pregnant mother with HIV, the mother needs to go to specialized medical facilities for counseling, maternity care and monitoring and treatment for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
When labor takes place, women need to continue to cooperate well with obstetrician and gynecologist to help the birth process be convenient and safe. In particular, mothers should strictly follow the guidelines for the care and treatment of post-birth babies to minimize the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
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