PREVENTION OF MOTHER TO CHILD TRANSMISSION OF HIV

SUMMARY AIDS is a chronic unpleasant fatal disease caused by infection with Human immune deficient virus (HIV1). It has reached endemic proportions and thereby caused wide spread alarm among public all over the world. HIV1 is highly mutable virus. This variability of HIV1 is believed to be due to error prone nature of enzyme reverse transcriptase. Latency and transactivation is characteristic of HIV1. HIV1 evades and undermines the immune system; hence vaccines are not effective against it. . Highly active anti retroviral therapy (HAART) increases patient survival by 13.3 years on average. The perinatal transmission of HIV1 affects nearly seven lakh infants each year worldwide. Most of them born in developing countries. The prevalence rate of transmission is ante partum (25-35%), intrapartum (70-75%), breast feeding (14%). An attempt is made to give overall view of HIV1 infection, diagnosis and prevention of mother to child transmission (MCT) with anti retroviral therapeutic agents (ART).