Elective Cesarean Delivery to Reduce the Transmission of HIV

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Abstract
Each year in the United States 6000 to 7000 women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection give birth. Worldwide, about 2.3 million HIV-infected women give birth each year. The transmission of HIV from mother to child (vertical transmission) is dependent on a number of maternal, virologic, immunologic, and fetal factors. Although transmission may occur before birth or even after (through breast-feeding), approximately 70 percent of the cases of vertical transmission occur during labor and delivery. Efforts to prevent vertical transmission must reduce the risk throughout pregnancy, delivery, and puerperium. In the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) study 076, zidovudine therapy . . .