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)

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."

"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."

"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."

"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)

Defind Terms

Carcinogen: Any
agent capable of causing cancer such as asbestos fibers and high-energy
radiation. Chemicals form the largest group of carcinogens.

Mutagen: Any physical
or chemical agent that, when applied to a group of living cells,
increases the rate of mutation in those cells. Mutation is a change
in the genetic material within a cell which can give rise to cancer
or a hereditary disease.

Teratogen: An
agent that causes physical abnormalities in a developing embryo
or fetus. The drug thalidomide is an example of a teratogen. Drug
regulating agencies usually refuse to license drugs for use during
pregnancy if they have been found to be teratogenic for any species.

Contraindicated:
A line of medical treatment, such as drug therapy or surgery, that
is inadvisable or unwise due to any factor in a patient's condition.