Organization:
Contact: David Harwood
Abstract: Transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child is the primary, near exclusive cause of infection for infants and young children.
The disease can be spread during the course of pregnancy, delivery or post-partum in the course of breastfeeding. More than 5 million infants have been infected since the onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis, with 600,000 new infections last year alone. In seriously affected countries, the risk that an HIV-positive mother will infect her child is as high as 35%. Antiretroviral drug therapies and provision of alternatives to breastfeeding have been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission rates. In order to make these services available in places of greatest risk, there is a need to dramatically expand voluntary testing and counseling services for women, enhanced access to antiretroviral drugs, as well as prenatal and post-partum care services for HIV-positive women. Preventing the incidence of mother-to-child transmission is a key priority for the UN Secretary-General and the international community. The international community has agreed to work to reduce the number of infants infected by HIV by 20 percent in 2005 and by 50% by 2010. To achieve this ambitious goal, counseling and testing coverage for HIV-positive pregnant women will have to increase to 75% in 2010, drug coverage to 100% in 2010 and special efforts will have to be made to reduce infections in young women.