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Drug Resistancet Fades Quickly in Key Aids2 Drug International medical guidelines call for5 pregnant women with advanced HIV to get a combination of AIDS drugs including nevirapine to prevent passing their infection on to their newborns during delivery. But in poor countries, combinations have been expensive and nevirapine has often been Used al. one, since studies have shown that a single dose can cut the transmission rate in half. The further out you get from that exposure to single dose nevirapine, the less detectable nevirapine resistance is6, said Shahin Lockman of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston7. She says waiting period for women who get the single dose of nevirapine at delivery can be as short as six months. If they started nevirapine-based treatment six or more months after nevirapine exposure, their treatment response8 was just as good, and really quite high, compared to women who did not have the single dose of nevirapine, she added. However, the women who started nevirapine-based treatment within six months of that nevirapine exposure were much more likely to experience treatment failure. I.ynne Mofenson is chief of research on child, adolescent, and maternal AIDS at the U. S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development10. She says the finding supports a World Health Organization H recommendation restricting a single dose of nevirapine only to pregnant HIV-infected women who are healthy enough to wait six months after childbirth for more nevirapine-based therapy. Otherwise, they should get other drugs during labor. It shows the importance of screening women for treatment while they are pregnant and putting them on appropriate therapy while they are pregnant to avoid having to start them too soon after they received preventive therapy, she explained. | 
