Maternal Antibody Epitope Mapping in Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV

Abstract

The problem of pediatric HIV infection has recently been the object of great concern since the seriousness and urgency of the issue of pediatric AIDS threatens to grow in the coming years.^1,2,3 increasing numbers of women of childbearing age become HIV infected through intravenous drug abuse or heterosexual transmission⁴. The seroprevalence in an unselected population of childbearing women has for instance been reported to be as high as 2% in an inner New York City hospital and, more strikingly, in Central and East Africa rates up to 10% have been documented. The epidemiology of pediatric HIV infection is, of course, different from that of its adults counterpart. At present, approximately 80% of the AIDS children have been infected through perinatal transmission, whereas only 20% through HIV-infected blood or blood products. In the developed countries, the decrease in prevalence of this latter route due to HIV screening of blood transfusions since 1985 will account for perinatal transmission as the only significant source of HIV infection. Yet, our knowledge about the route and the exact timing of vertical transmission is still incomplete.