Question
Should my baby take nevirapine or novatrim?
30 June 2022. Related: All topics, Children.
Hello, should my 3 month old baby continue talking nevirapine? or must she only take novatrim? Is nevirapine same as novatrim?
Answer
Hi, how are you doing?
Congratulations on your baby.
At 3 months baby does not need to be on nevirapine. After 12 weeks there is no longer any benefit for baby to continue taking it.
Nevirapine and novatrim are different types of medication. Nevirapine is to prevent HIV. Novatrim is an antibiotic (co-trimoxazole) used to prevent other infections. Baby should stay on this and they can remain on Novatrim for a while.
Josh.
Hi Mpho, congratulations on having a baby. It is great to hear that you have an undetectable viral load.
Yes it is okay for baby to take Novatrim. As you are undetectable, it is only recommended for baby to be on HIV treatment for the first 6 weeks (sometimes 12 in high risk cases). After this there is no additional benefit to taking HIV treatment.
As baby is being breastfed, Novatrim is used to prevent any risk of other infections from breastmilk. This is common and can be used for as long as baby is being breastfed. It is safe for baby. This is not a mistake and it is good that the clinic has made this change in treatment.
Hi
I am breastfeeding n my viral load is lower than detectable.. my baby is 8 weeks now he was taking zidovudine syrup since after birth… I took him to clinic for six weeks and they gave him novatrim… my question is ..is it okay or there is a mistake?
Hi Mrs M, congratulations on having a baby. It is great to her that you have an undetectable viral load. It is right that your clinic has recommended to stop breastfeeding.
As you are undetectable, there is no additional benefit to give baby nevirapine after 6 weeks. This is because this is a low risk transmission and continuing with nevirapine has no proven benefit of reducing the risk further in these cases.
Breastfeeding carries a low risk of transmission and while there is some risk, being undetectable yourself means this risk is as low as possible. Nevirapine is used to prevent any risk of transmission that could have happened in the womb. It does not prevent transmission from breastmilk.
I have a six weeks old baby girl and my viral load is lower than detectable,so at the clinic they said I should stop giving her nvp but am scared because iam still breastfeeding, won’t breastfeeding her without her taking medication safe or am I going to infect her,I am scared for my baby.