Abstract
HIV pandemic is already recognised as one of the chief medical threats faced by the modern world but the matter of much concern now is a high prevalence of perinatal HIV infection due to transmission of the deadly virus from mother to child through various routes. Approximately 5-10% of all the cases infected by HIV are children. Majority of these children acquire infection through mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) either during pregnancy, delivery, or by breast-feeding. Our research has identified several maternal and non maternal factors associated with the development of HIV in infants. In this paper we have also thrown light on the various pharmacological and non pharmacological approaches adopted currently for combating MTCT of HIV. Both prospective and retrospective clinical studies have shown that MTCT can be reduced to less than 2% by use of antiretroviral drugs in women during pregnancy and labour. The regimen is also effective in infants in the first 6 weeks of life if combined with obstetrical interventions including elective caesarean delivery and avoidance of breastfeeding. Thus this review not only summarizes the current opinion on the issue available in the literature but also presents a holistic viewpoint from a clinical perspective which may help the future researcher to frame a rationalised approach to preveant vertical transfer of virus from HIV- infected pregnant woman to her children.