Cuba eliminates mother-child transmission of HIV

onnaedo

June 30, 2015 8:37 PM

WHO head, Dr Margaret Chan, called it one of the greatest public health achievements possible.

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said Cuba has successfully eliminated mother-to-child transmission of both HIV and syphilis.

WHO head, Dr Margaret Chan, called it one of the greatest public health achievements possible, as the move follows years of efforts to give pregnant women early access to prenatal care, testing and drugs to stop these diseases passing from mother to child.

WHO hopes other countries will be able to achieve the same.

Dr Carissa Etienne, of the Pan American Health Organization, which has been working with the WHO, said:

"Cuba's achievement today provides inspiration for other countries to advance towards elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis."

Less than 2% of children in Cuba whose mothers have HIV are born with the virus which is the lowest rate possible with the available prevention methods.

Globally, 7 in every 10 pregnant women living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries receive effective antiretroviral medicines to prevent transmission of the virus to their children.

According to WHO, among the 22 countries that account for 90% of new HIV infections, 8 have already reduced new HIV infections among children by more than 50% since 2009 (based on 2013 data) and another 4 are close to this mark.

By 2014, more than 40 countries were testing 95% or more of pregnant women in prenatal care for syphilis but experts say many countries must still do more to prevent and treat this disease.

According to BBC, about 1.4 million women living with HIV become pregnant, untreated, they have a 15-45% chance of transmitting the virus to their children during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding.

But the risk drops to about 1% if antiretroviral medicines are given to both mothers and their babies.

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