Moldova, Belarus and Thailand have successfully eradicated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. The World Health Organization hails their success.
The fight against HIV is advancing around the world. The UN opens its high-level meeting on the end of AIDS on June 8. On this occasion, his health agency salutes the success of three states in a particular sector: mother-to-child transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO) will award certificates to Thailand, Moldova and Belarus.
All three countries have not only interrupted mother-to-child transmission of HIV, but also syphilis. A double success that the WHO welcomes on June 8. “It is very encouraging to see countries succeed in eliminating mother-to-child transmission in these two infections,” said Executive Director Margaret Chan.
95% of pregnant women treated
Official recognition of the end of transmission crowns 20 years of relentless efforts on all continents. Cuba is the first country to have achieved this goal, in June 2015. Now three more countries have achieved it. “Ensuring that children are born healthy is giving them the best possible start in life,” says Margaret Chan. It is a tremendous achievement and a clear signal that the world is on the path to an AIDS-free generation. “
Without going that far, the world is in any case on the right track as regards the care of pregnant women. Because the model followed by Thailand, Moldova and Belarus is relatively simple: invest in antenatal care, systematically screen for syphilis and HIV in pregnant women and their partners, and treat them when they are positive. In Europe, 95% of expectant mothers take antiretroviral treatment, which lowers the level of the virus in the blood to make it undetectable. This approach lowers the risk of transmission from 45% to 1%.
1% of transmissions
Reducing transmission also means caring for sick children. On the European continent, 70% of newborns are screened within two months of giving birth. However, “each child who grows up without HIV thanks to antiretrovirals is a witness to the progress made in the world to end mother-to-child transmission”, underlines Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. These transmissions represented only 1% of new HIV infections in 2014 in Europe.
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