RESEARCH ARTICLE
A Foilized Polyethylene Pouch for the Prevention of Transmission of HIV from Mother to Child
Robert Malkin*, Caroline Howard
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
First Page: 92
Last Page: 97
Publisher ID: TOBEJ-6-92
DOI: 10.2174/1874120701206010092
Article History:
Received Date: 3/3/2012Revision Received Date: 20/7/2012
Acceptance Date: 21/7/2012
Electronic publication date: 14/9/2012
Collection year: 2012
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Many children become HIV+ due to mother-to-child transmission, a risk that can be largely eliminated if infants ingest antiretroviral (ARV) medications immediately after birth. As most mothers in Africa deliver at home, the ARV must be provided at their last antenatal visit, sometimes months before birth. No current drug delivery system allows the mother to store the medication at home long enough to be effective. We propose a preserving, foilized, polyethylene pouch to be pre-dosed and sealed by a pharmacist for later delivery to the newborn.
Pouches were filled with 0.6 ml of Nevirapine (NVP). Thirty-three pouches were immediately studied to measure the impact of medication handling (oxygen, light, filling and sealing the pouches). The remaining samples were stored for up to one year at three storage conditions (25°C/60%RH, 30°C/65%RH, and 40°C/75%RH). Every two months, moisture loss, preservative concentration, impurity concentrations and NVP concentration were measured. Flora and fauna challenges were conducted.
The pouch nearly eliminated moisture loss: pouches lost less than 0.7% of their weight over twelve months. As expected, exposing the medication to light, oxygen, and handling significantly affected the sacrificial preservative concentrations (Propyl paraben dropped 38%, Methyl paraben dropped 12% at time point zero). However, after the initial time point, preservative levels were stable in the package over twelve months under all storage conditions (4.1% average concentration drop), leaving sufficient preservatives to protect the medication. The concentration of NVP changed an average of only 1.3% over all storage conditions and times points (maximum 1.4%).
We conclude that the foilized polyethylene pouch can preserve NVP, and perhaps other ARV’s, for up to one year.