{"id":20455,"date":"2025-08-01T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/?page_id=20455"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:24:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:24:50","slug":"infant-meds-when-the-mother-is-living-with-hiv","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/factsheets\/infant-meds-when-the-mother-is-living-with-hiv","title":{"rendered":"The baby&#8217;s meds when the mother is living with HIV?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The information on this page is based on WHO guidelines updated in July 2025. Please always talk to your doctor or health team about medication and dosing for a baby. Guidelines also can change.<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>All babies are given HIV meds (PEP) if their mother is living with HIV.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>This should be started within 4 hours.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>These are given as liquids (syrups) so it is easy for the baby to take.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This gives extra protection from HIV even if the baby\u2019s risk is already very low.<\/p>\n<p>The meds for the baby include one or more of these three syrups:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>nevirapine (NVP).<\/li>\n<li>dolutegravir (DTG).<\/li>\n<li>lamivudine (3TC).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Which meds are used, and for how long might depend on which country you live in.<\/p>\n<p>Please talk to your nurse or doctor about which of these are recommended for your baby.<\/p>\n<p>Tables 1 and 2 below show the differences in UK and WHO guidelines.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Table 1: British HIV Association (BHIVA) guidelines (2000)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Also most high-income countries in Europe and the US etc.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Babies start meds (syrup) within four hours of birth.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"94\">Risk<\/td>\n<td width=\"161\">Details<\/td>\n<td width=\"132\">Daily ARV syrups<\/td>\n<td width=\"104\">Duration<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"94\">Lowest risk<\/td>\n<td width=\"161\">Mother on ART for more than 10 weeks and two VL &lt;50 at birth.<\/td>\n<td width=\"132\">AZT only<\/td>\n<td width=\"104\">2 weeks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"94\">Low risk<\/td>\n<td width=\"161\">Baby born before 34 weeks and mother only one VL &lt;50 at birth.<\/td>\n<td width=\"132\">AZT only<\/td>\n<td width=\"104\">4 weeks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"94\">Higher risk<\/td>\n<td width=\"161\">Mother\u2019s VL &gt; 50 or unknown at birth.<\/td>\n<td width=\"132\">AZT + 3TC + NVP<\/td>\n<td width=\"104\">4 weeks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><em>*Adapted from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bhiva.org\/pregnancy-guidelines\">BHIVA pregnancy guidelines (2020 update).<\/a> Section 9.1, page 85.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Table 2: World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines (2016)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Most lower-income countries including Africa, Asia and the rest of the world.<\/em><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 18.490566%;\" width=\"94\">Risk<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 29.433962%;\" width=\"151\">Details<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 18.679245%;\" width=\"94\">Daily ARV syrup\u2019s *<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 31.320755%;\" width=\"161\">Duration **<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 18.490566%;\" width=\"94\">Lowest risk<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 29.433962%;\" width=\"151\">Mother\u2019s VL &lt;1000 at birth AND on ART for more than 4 weeks.<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 18.679245%;\" width=\"94\">Single drug: NVP preferred but sometimes 3TC or dolutegravir can be used.<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 31.320755%;\" width=\"161\">6 weeks but might depend on country. *<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 18.490566%;\" width=\"94\">Higher risk<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 29.433962%;\" width=\"151\">Mother not on ART for more than 4 weeks OR\n<p>VL &gt;1000 in 4 weeks before birth.<\/p><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 18.679245%;\" width=\"94\">3 drug combination: \u00a0abacavir, 3TC and dolutegravir (pALD)<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 31.320755%;\" width=\"161\">6 weeks AND then single drug while breastfeeding and until viral load becomes undetectable.\n<p>Might depend on country (see below)<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>These countries use different meds:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Botswana<\/li>\n<li>Tanzania<\/li>\n<li>Zamibia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These countries offer a MINIMUM of 12 weeks meds:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eswatini<\/li>\n<li>Kenya<\/li>\n<li>Namibia<\/li>\n<li>South Africa<\/li>\n<li>Zambia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ref: \u00a0WHO. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/publications\/i\/item\/9789241549684\">Consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection: recommendations for a public health approach, 2nd ed. (June 2016).<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Co-trimoxazole<\/h2>\n<p>Co-trimoxazole is a different type of medicine for the baby. It is not used to protect against HIV. It is a combination of two antibiotics. This medication is used to stop other infections. It is given to baby when a screening test is positive for HIV.<\/p>\n<p>Baby will continue with co-trimoxazole if baby then is diagnosed with HIV.<\/p>\n<p>Co-trimoxazole is also known as Septrin, Ilvitrim\u00a0or Bactrim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The information on this page is based on WHO guidelines updated in July 2025. Please always talk to your doctor or health team about medication and dosing for a baby. Guidelines also can change. All babies are given HIV meds &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":7201,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20455","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20455"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26199,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20455\/revisions\/26199"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}