Before the program started, HIV struck 40 percent of babies born to infected mothers tracked by the School of Medicine. To date, however, not a single woman with HIV who had prenatal care at the Helena Hatch Center has had an infected child. That's more than 50 healthy babies and counting. In other programs around the country, regular doses of AZT reduced the HIV transmission rate to about 8 percent, she noted. We can't explain our success, but it's clear that good prenatal care and HIV medications significantly improve the likelihood of having healthy babies.
Colleagues trace the center's achievements to the woman who started it all.
She also has tremendous compassion, which is why the Helena Hatch Center is so successful. That program wouldn't even exist without her. Despite recent victories, anxiety hangs over the center. The federal grant runs out in 1999, and nobody knows if the program can survive. Fraser and others are frantically searching for funds, but the future doesn't look promising.