Response to Antiretroviral Therapy after a Single, Peripartum Dose of Nevirapine

This study analyzed the response to nevirapine-based antiretroviral treatment among 218 HIV-infected women in Botswana who had previously received either a single dose of nevirapine or placebo at the time of labor. After the single dose of nevirapine, 18.4% of recipients had treatment failure, as compared with only 5.0% who received placebo. However, the risk of virologic failure did not seem to be increased when antiretroviral treatment was initiated 6 months or more, as compared with less than 6 months, after the peripartum dose of nevirapine. This study analyzed the response to nevirapine-based antiretroviral treatment among 218 HIV-infected women in Botswana who had previously received either a single dose of nevirapine or placebo at the time of labor. Nevirapine remains central to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and to combination antiretroviral treatment throughout much of the developing world. 1 , 2 Nevirapine administered as one dose to the mother and one to the newborn reduces mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 by 41 to 47%, 3 , 4 and well over 875,000 women and infants have received a single dose of nevirapine. 5 A single dose of nevirapine is the cornerstone of the regimen recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent mother-to-child transmission among women without access to antiretroviral treatment and among those not meeting treatment . . .