{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.015037593984962405, 'fraction_numerical': 0.006981740064446832, 'mean_word_length': 4.75, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Bringing AZT to poor countries.

In August 1994 the US Public Health Service recommended that HIV-infected pregnant women receive the drug AZT to reduce the risk of HIV transmission to their baby. Almost a year later it recommended that all pregnant women be tested for HIV since there is an effective means of preventing HIV transmission to the baby. This AIDS research victory cannot help most of the worlds HIV-infected women however since they live in developing countries. These poor countries cannot afford AZT or the sophisticated clinics used in the US/French clinical trial discovering AZTs ability to reduce perinatal HIV transmission. This trial found the HIV infection rate to be 25.5% in babies receiving the placebo and 8.3% in babies receiving AZT. Evidence suggests that perinatal HIV transmission occurs in the narrow window shortly before or during labor. Pregnant women in developing countries need to take multiple doses but many women do not even attend medical clinics. The recommended protocol requires women to use infant formula to prevent HIV transmission through breast milk; but most women in developing countries breast feed. The World Health Organization and UNICEF even encourage them to breast feed regardless of HIV status. Various studies are in the planning stages to develop ways to translate the protocols success into a preventive strategy that is feasible and effective in developing countries. They are using lower doses of AZT and/or shorter treatment schedules. The first trial is scheduled to begin in West Africa. A concern in this trial is that AZT causes anemia which is already common in African women. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is developing a full-fledged efficacy study in the Ivory Coast. CDC is planning a similar trial in Thailand for the spring of 1996 to examine the effect of breast feeding.