AIDS Test Identifies Virus in Newborns
A new test can identify babies who are born infected with the AIDS virus so they can be quickly treated in an effort to delay or stop fatal illnesses, researchers say.
When mothers are infected with AIDS, the chances are about one in three that it will be passed on to their babies during pregnancy. But doctors have had to wait more than a year before knowing which newborns are infected.
The still-experimental test can frequently--though not always--sort this out soon after birth.
“It’s something of a breakthrough. We have been very hindered by the fact that we don’t have diagnostic tests in infants,” said Dr. Martha F. Rogers of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Rogers and colleagues at six New York hospitals tested the new method, known as polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, on newborns of women infected with the AIDS virus. They reported their results in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine.
The test locates minute bits of the genes of viruses that have gotten inside blood cells. It then multiplies these gene fragments so they can be detected.
