Baby Born via Artificial Insemination Using Sperm of HIV-Positive Man

A Japanese woman has given birth via artificial insemination using sperm from her HIV-positive husband, with both mother and child confirmed infection-free, doctors said Tuesday. It was the first successful birth using HIV-infected sperm in Japan, according to Tasuku Harada, a gynecologist and lecturer at the medical department of Tottori University in Tottori. "Both the mother and baby have tested negative for the virus," he said. Harada, who led a team of doctors in the case, said he was aware of 250 babies born in Italy and several more in Spain through the same method.

The mother, in her 20s, gave birth to the child at the university's hospital over the summer. Her husband, also in his 20s, is a hemophiliac who became infected with HIV after receiving contaminated blood products. Many hemophiliacs in Japan were infected with HIV between the late 1970s and mid-1980s after receiving transfusions of contaminated blood products.

Doctors placed the husband's HIV-positive sperm into a centrifuge to separate the sperm from the virus. The sperm was then subjected to a "swim-up" method in which doctors remove only active sperm to further filter out the HIV virus. "According to one study, all but one of 4,000 copies of the virus may be removed through this method," Harada said. The sperm-rinsing procedure is widely available in Japan but there are few places to check if the rinsed sperm is virus-free. As of June 24, 2001, the Japanese health ministry had reports of 7,680 cases of full-blown AIDS or HIV-positive patients. This figure includes 1,432 people infected through contaminated blood products. At least 1,225 people have died of the disease.

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