http://www.aliveandwell.org/html/mothers_babies/mothersbabies.html

At least 75%% of babies born to HIV positive mothers will test HIV
negative without medical intervention. (90) Studies have shown that
for properly nourished HIV positive expectant mothers receiving
regular prenatal care, over 90%% of their children test negative with
no drug therapy. (91) Mainstream medical experts acknowledge that
children need up to 18 months to develop their own immune response and
discard the antibodies passed on to them from their mothers, and note
that HIV testing before 18 months of age does not yield conclusive
results. (92) Despite this widely accepted fact, several states
require mandatory HIV antibody testing for newborns in public
hospitals. (93)

As explained previously, HIV antibody tests do not indicate the
presence of actual virus and are unable to determine if the antibodies
it detects are even HIV antibodies. Newer "viral load" tests do not
detect actual virus and are not approved for diagnostic use. Even when
administered after 18 months of age, neither test can determine if a
child is actually infected with HIV. Despite these facts, the tests
are routinely used to diagnose HIV infection in newborns and children.
The results of these inaccurate and improperly applied tests are the
basis for all claims regarding transmission rates of HIV from mother
to child, and for declaring that a baby "has HIV."

Expectant mothers who test HIV positive are commonly advised to abort
or to take AZT, a highly toxic chemical compound originally created
for use as a cancer treatment. AZT works by blocking the formation of
DNA -- a process essential to sustaining life -- and destroying all
growing cells, particularly new cells produced in the bone marrow
where the immune system is generated. AZT is a known carcinogen,
mutagen, and teratogen, and until recently it was contraindicated for
use during pregnancy. (94)

AZT was approved for expectant mothers based on the conclusions of a
single trial, ACTG076, a trial sponsored by AZT's manufacturer.
According to this study, transmission rates of HIV were 25.5%% for
infants of untreated mothers and 8.3%% for children born to the AZT-
treated women.

The results of ACTG076 have proved impossible to duplicate in further
studies on pregnant women treated with AZT. In fact, other reports
have shown that expectant mothers using prenatal multivitamins
experienced lower rates of transmission than the lowest rate of those
treated with AZT. One study determined that use of vitamin A
correlates with a transmission rate of 7.2%%. (95)

The effects of AZT on expectant mothers include muscle deterioration,
severe anemia, nerve damage, liver damage, muscle wasting, lymphoma,
acute nausea, diarrhea and dementia. The effects of AZT on developing
infants include misshapen heads, extra fingers, triangular faces,
albinism, misplaced ears, cavities in the chest, webbed fingers,
anemia, spontaneous abortion, chromosomal damage, and can result in
the need for therapeutic abortions of severely deformed fetuses. (96)

Routine HIV antibody testing for pregnant women raises particular
concerns as pregnancy itself can cause positive HIV test results. (97)
Although cross-reactions due to pregnancy are documented in the
medical literature and acknowledged by test manufacturers, HIV
antibody tests have become part of standard prenatal screening, and
are even mandatory in some states.

A fundamental problem of routine screening using even the most
accurate test is that low risk groups will have the highest rates of
false positives. This occurs because the accuracy of a test
deteriorates when administered to populations among which the microbe
being tested for is rarely found. Since the incidence of HIV
positivity among American women who describe themselves as risk-free
is 0.01%%, a consequence of routine HIV screening of all expectant
women is widespread false positive results. (98) One study of
premarital HIV screening reported that HIV antibody tests with an
alleged specificity of 99.8%% and sensitivity of 98.3%% had an accuracy
of less than 15%% when administered to this low risk group. (99) And
these figures are based on invalid and/or loose definitions of
specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy that do not involve tests
validated by identifying actual HIV infections.

Another troubling consequence of requiring HIV tests for pregnant
women is the emerging issue of obligatory drug treatment. While CDC
guidelines state that "discussion of treatment options should be non-
coercive, and the final decision to accept or reject AZT for herself
and her child is the right and responsibility of the woman," such
discussions rarely include objective data on the toxic effects of AIDS
drugs or any information that would support a decision to reject them.
(100) Most health practitioners promote the notion that a positive
test indicates infection with a lethal virus, and portray AIDS
medication as particularly urgent and necessary for expectant women.

Although the CDC says that "a [mother's] decision not to accept
treatment should not result in punitive action," suggested standards
of care have been legally mandated in some instances and children have
been taken from parents who choose not to accept treatment. (100) In
one recent case, public health officials in Eugene, Oregon intervened
when an HIV positive mother declined AZT therapy for her HIV negative
infant son. (101) As a result of her decision, both parents were
charged with neglect, and the state took legal custody of their
healthy newborn boy who was given six weeks of AZT treatment. (102)

Another HIV positive mother in Bangor, Maine faced charges of "serious
parental neglect" for declining to provide her son with AIDS drugs
that had previously caused him harm. (103) Her four-year-old boy, HIV
positive since birth, had become so anemic during 10 weeks of AIDS
treatment as to require blood transfusions, and experienced a host of
adverse effects that left him unable to walk and in almost continual
pain. (104) His mother discontinued treatment after noting that his
health returned when she stopped giving him the drugs. After a
District Court found in her favor, an appeal was brought before the
State Supreme Court challenging the decision. In this case, the mother
was granted the right to keep her son off AIDS medications and in her
custody. (105)

As this book went to press, authorities in Montreal, Canada seized the
children of a woman who has been HIV positive, healthy and unmedicated
for 13 years after she declined HIV treatment for her two boys. The
Quebec Superior Court agreed to delay administration of drugs to her
sons, ages three and seven, pending the determination of a custody
hearing. The mother told the court that HIV treatments are
experimental and highly toxic, and that her family has been healthy
without using drugs. (106)

Whose Benefits Outweigh the Risks?
Documented effects of AZT, also known as Zidovudine, Retrovir-
Zidovudine,
and ZDV. AZT is also one of the two active ingredients in Combivir.

"HIV-1 infected children with mothers who were treated with zidovudine
had a 'higher probability of developing severe disease' compared with
untreated children. These children also had a higher probability of
severe immune suppression and lower survival."

Reuters Health, June 2, 1999 on a report in the
May 28, 1999 issue of AIDS 13:927-933

"Concerns are being fueled by a study from a team at the National
Cancer Institute near Washington, DC. In the journal AIDS (Vol 13 p
919), the researchers report that AZT is incorporated into the DNA of
white blood cells in people treated with the drug-including pregnant
women and their babies. This is because AZT mimics thymidine, one of
the four nucleosides that make up the genetic code. Olivero and her
colleagues warn that the changes may increase the chance of developing
cancer."

Michael Day, New Scientist, June 26, 1999

"In reviewing the frequency of birth defects in this population [of
HIV positive women taking AZT during pregnancy] we noted eight birth
defects (10%%) out of 80 live births."

Kumar et al, Zidovudine Use in Pregnancy: A Report on 104 Cases and
the
Occurrence of Birth Defects, Journal of AIDS, Vol. 4, 1994

"Concerns stem from a study led by StÅ1⁄2phane Blanche of the Necker
Hospital in Paris. He has examined the cases of around a thousand
pregnant women with HIV and found that eight gave birth to babies who,
though HIV-negative, suffered from a neurodegenerative condition that
kills its victims in infancy. The condition highlighted by Blanche is
thought to be caused by abnormalities in mitochondria, the energy
'factories' within our cells. The babies' mothers had all taken a
combination of the drugs AZT and 3TC from week 32 of their pregnancy.
This condition is an extraordinarily rare mitochondrial disorder that
you might expect to see in only 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 100,000 births."

Michael Day, New Scientist, June 26, 1999

"At present, data regarding the effects of ZDV use on vertical [mother
to child] transmission rates are inconclusive and incomplete. In
addition, the long-term effects of ZDV use during pregnancy and after
birth on the woman and any resulting child are yet to be discovered.
The possibility has not yet been ruled out that this 'risk-reducing'
measure may not be effective and may prove detrimental to the health
of both mother and child."

Bennett, Mandatory Testing of Pregnant Women and Newborns:
A Necessary Evil? AIDS/STD Health Promotion Exchange, 1998

"A total of 172 participants died [169 while taking AZT, 3 while on
placebo]...The results of Concorde do not encourage the early use of
zidovudine in symptom-free HIV-infected adults...Representatives of
the Wellcome Foundation who were also members of the Coordinating
Committee have declined to endorse this report."

Concorde Coordinating Committee, Concorde: MRC/ANRS Randomised Double-
blind
Controlled Trial of Immediate and Deferred Zidovudine in Symptom-free
HIV Infection, The Lancet, Vol 343, April 9, 1994

"Following combination antiretroviral therapy administered during
pregnancy, most HIV positive mothers and their children developed one
or more adverse events, according to the results of an observational
study.

"Dr. Lorenzi's group evaluated 37 pregnant women with HIV infection
and the 30 infants who had been born at the time of the study. All of
the women received two reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and 16 women
were also given a protease inhibitor. Among the infants, the most
common adverse event was prematurity (10 infants), followed by
profound anemia (8 infants). The investigators also noted two cases of
cutaneous angioma, two cases of cryptorchidism, and one case of
transient hepatitis. Two infants whose mothers were on triple therapy
with a protease inhibitor developed non-life-threatening intracerebral
hemorrhage. One infant, also exposed to triple therapy, developed
extrahepatic biliary atresia."

Reuters, January 1, 1999

"New York researchers report a case of severe anemia in a newborn
infant that was probably caused by treatment of the HIV positive
mother with the antiretroviral combination of zidovudine, lamivudine
and zalcitabine. The male infant, who was pale and developed
respiratory distress soon after birth, '...was diagnosed with high
output congestive heart failure secondary to profound anemia.'

"Dr. Wendy J. Watson of the University of Rochester Medical Center and
colleagues ruled out infection, nutritional deficiencies, congenital
leukemia and congenital red blood cell aplasia in the child. 'The
cause of the life-threatening anemia in our infant is presumed to be
utero bone marrow suppression by one or more of the antiretroviral
agents administered to the mother,' they report in the May issue of
The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal."

Reuters, June 8, 1998

"...the estimated probability of developing [Non-Hodgkin's] lymphoma
[in patients taking AZT alone, or in combination] by 30 months of
therapy was 28.6%%...and by 36 months, 46.4%%."

Pluda et al, Development of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in a Cohort of
Patients with Severe Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
Infection on Long-Term Antiretroviral Therapy, Annals of
Internal Medicine, 1990; 113(4): 276-282

"The long-term consequences of in-utero and infant exposure to
zidovudine are unknown. The long-term effects of early or short-term
use of zidovudine in pregnant women are also unknown."

Retrovir, Canadian Pharmaceutical Association Compendium
of Pharmaceuticals, 1997; 1357-1361

"A long-term federal government study of AZT begun in August 1991
involving 839 children at 62 hospitals was halted. An independent
committee monitoring the trial recommended it be halted because 'the
children receiving AZT had more rapid rates of disease progression,
AIDS-related infections, impaired neurological development and
death.'"

The New York Times, February 14, 1995

"Proven Power For HIV: Because of her baby, because she vows to be
there for her family, because her kids remind her to take her
combination of anti-HIV medicines everyday...There are no adequate and
well-controlled studies of Combivir [lamivudine/zidovudine tablets] in
pregnant women. Combivir should be used in pregnancy only if the
potential benefits outweigh the risks."

Glaxo-Wellcome ad for Combivir, April 1999
AZT's manufacturer Glaxo-Wellcome reported $2.35 billion in annual
sales of AZT and their other antiviral drugs for 1997. (107)