The number of children born with HIV antibodies has reached a new high - but all are expected to be free of the virus shortly, according to the consultant who works with them.
The HIV/AIDS statistics published yesterday by the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, mask a success story for Irish hospitals.
They show 27 children were born with HIV antibodies in the first half of the year. This compares with 23 in all of last year and 20 the previous year.
Traditionally, about 70 per cent of children born with the antibodies are clear in about 18 months when their own immune systems take effect.
But about 30 per cent have turned out to have HIV in their own right.
Now, however, that risk has been cut to less than 1 per cent, according to Dr Karina Butler, consultant in paediatric infectious diseases at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children and the Children's Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin.
This is due to a number of factors. Two thirds of HIV positive mothers are identified through ante-natal screening. This has allowed better management including drug therapy and, in some cases, the use of caesarean sections.
As a result their babies have an excellent chance of being born without having contracted HIV in their own right. The HIV antibodies in their systems at birth belong to their mothers and are eventually eliminated.
This has been achieved in spite of what Dr Butler describes as "a major increase in the number of HIV positive pregnant women".
That increase is due partly to a rise in the number of heterosexual people becoming infected with HIV. In the first six months of the year, 46 new cases of HIV were identified among heterosexuals, making this category second to intravenous drug users at 57 cases. Homosexuals and bisexuals were in third place, accounting for 32 cases.
Women who are HIV positive are also less afraid to become pregnant because there is no longer a 30 per cent chance the baby will become HIV positive, Dr Butler said.
But she warned that this may only be a "honeymoon period" which could end if the HIV virus adapts to the drugs which are used to combat its spread. For this reason, she said, the same success rates cannot be assumed to hold indefinitely.
The overall figures show deaths from AIDS since 1985 had reached 702 by the end of June (including 23 children). In the first half of the year, 11 people died from AIDS.
The numbers testing positive for the HIV virus between the early 1980s and June of this year reached 2,364.