Survival Analysis

Investigation of Maternal and Infant Antiretroviral Drugs

in Reducing Transmission of HIV

through Breastfeeding

Abstract

Data from a clinical trial of HIV drugs are analyzed and summarized in this report. The clinical trial was hold in Lilongwe, Malawi to investigate two types of HIV treatments in preventing HIV transmission by breastfeeding. 2400 HIV-positive breast-feeding mother were enrolled in the 28-week trial with their babies and randomly assigned into one of three study groups: control, antiretroviral (ART) drug for the mother and nevirapine (NVP) for the infant. SAS 9.2® was the main analytical software package used in the data analysis. Analysis with Kaplan–Meier method shows both drug treatments have significantly reduced the HIV transmission rate: the HIV-positive rate in the control group is 8.3%, compared with 4.3% in maternal ART group and 2.0% of infant NVP group at the end of 28 weeks. Cox regression model were applied in comparing the drug treatment effects and identifying risk factors associated with the treatments. The analysis result shows that maternal viral load, infant gender and weight at birth are statistically significant factors in the ART treatment, while in the NVP group the only significant covariate is maternal viral load.

Introduction

Breastfeeding is one way of HIV transmission from HIV-positive mother to infant but is also recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) to decrease the early death rate in resource-limited settings. [1] A 28-week clinical trial of using antiretroviral drugs was conducted to compare two types of drug treatment in reducing the risk of HIV transmission. 2400 HIV-positive mother and their new born infant were randomly enrolled into one of three study groups: Daily antiretroviral treatment (ART) for the mother, daily nevirapine (NVP) for the infant and a control group.

Interested date and data of the clinical trial was monitor and recorded. The data table includes a series of...