Question
Why did my child stop nevirapine after 6 weeks?
30 December 2021. Related: All topics, Children, HIV transmission, PEP/PEPSE.
Hi, my child stopped taking nevirapine after six weeks. They never tested him and I breastfeed. I don’t know if my child is positive or negative.
Answer
Hi, how are you doing? Congratulations on your new baby.
The length of nevirapine depends on the level of risk there is to the baby. A course of 6 weeks is for mothers of low risk – on medication with a viral load below 1000. If this is the case it is normal for your baby to no longer be on nevirapine.
It is good that you are breastfeeding. Doing this and not mix feeding will keep the risk of transmission low. Are you able to take your baby to a clinic to get tested?
If you have another question please ask,
Josh.
Hi Ester, congratulations on having a baby. It is great to hear baby has tested negative. It is normal for baby to stop being given nevirapine after 6 weeks. As you have an undetectable viral load, there is no continued benefit in taking nevirapine as the risk is already as low as possible. There is no further benefit in continuing to give baby nevirapine.
How is baby being fed? If you had stopped breastfeeding and they have had a negative test, the result is conclusive and baby would not require any further testing. After breastfeeding there is no further exposure of HIV to baby and further testing would not be needed. If baby is still breastfeeding, there is still some risk (though this is incredibly small as you are undetectable). Baby can have a confirmed status result 6 weeks from when they were last breastfed.
I um hiv positive and my baby tested negative at 6 week he was given nevirapine and its stopped because my viral load blood is not detected. Again they test he on 9 months but the result comes not showing up wht does it means. It can be possible my baby be hiv positive when we do a retest again