KHUJAND, February 5, Asia-Plus — Another case of baby being born to an HIV-infected mother has been reported in Khujand, the capital of the Sughd province, bringing a total number of such cases in northern Tajikistan to five.
Ibrohim Madaliyev, the deputy director of Khujand AIDS Center, said that the baby and his mother are currently in satisfactory health condition. “They are no under strict medical supervision,” the deputy director said, noting that It takes about 15 to 18 months to detect whether the baby is infected or not.
According to specialists, like other people, HIV-infected mothers have antibodies and share them with her baby when they are pregnant. Because babies keep antibodies from an HIV infected mother for many months after birth, an antibody test may be positive in an infant even if the baby does not have an HIV infection.
It takes about 15 to 18 months for an uninfected baby to “clear” these maternal antibodies out of his system. If an antibody test is taken shortly after birth in a uninfected baby who was born to an HIV-infected mother, the test will be positive; if the antibody test is taken again after the uninfected baby has cleared the maternal antibodies, it will be negative and it would look as if the baby crossed over from being HIV-infected to uninfected but, in fact, the baby was never HIV infected
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According to official statistics, there are 290 HIV sufferers in northern Tajikistan. 61 new cases of HIV were registered in the province last year alone.
