Study Affirms Benefit of Very Early Antiretroviral Therapy Within Hours of Birth for Newborns with HIV
Johns Hopkins MedicineA study of more than 50 babies through 2 yeard old in Africa, Asia, North America and South America has added substantially to evidence that giving antiretroviral therapy (ART) to newborns with HIV within the first days — rather than within weeks or months — of life can safely suppress amounts of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels. Findings of the study, which was co-led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center physician-scientist and researcher Deborah Persaud, M.D., and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network, were published Dec. 4 in the journal The Lancet HIV.