A mother with AIDS has given birth to a healthy baby in Shanghai thanks to a new treatment that helps prevent the virus spreading to the fetus during pregnancy.

The mother, whose name was not revealed, volunteered to try the medical treatment after she was notified about the disease during her pregnancy.

The baby was receiving anti-virus treatment six weeks after being born and the mother was not allowed to breastfeed her baby as the milk contains the HIV virus, the Shanghai Evening News reported yesterday.

The baby was in perfect health, the report said.

If an HIV carrier is pregnant, the baby has a 30 percent chance of getting the disease. The baby is likely to die before the age of three if it contracts the virus during infancy, experts said.

Mothers with AIDS still face danger during labor despite improvements in medical treatment, said Lu Hongzhou, deputy chief of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.

(Shanghai Daily November 30, 2007)