The World Health Organization is working hard to reduce the number of pregnant mothers around the world who pass HIV on to their unborn children.
HIV is not automatically passed from mother to unborn child. This is good news! But there is always a chance that the disease will be transmitted. The main way to prevent transmission is through the use of antiretroviral drugs.
What are antiretroviral drugs? These are medications taken to treat infection by retroviruses like HIV… which opens up another question: what are retroviruses? A retrovirus is a virus that inserts itself into a host cell and is then replicated as part of the host cell’s DNA. (That’s a VERY simplified explanation.) Different types of antiretroviral drug work at different stages of a retrovirus’s life cycle, so treatment plans often include more than one kind of antiretroviral drug.
So. All that said, antiretroviral drugs are key to helping prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. The United Nations has a four-pronged plan to help prevent HIV transmission between mother and child:
- Prevent HIV infection among women of childbearing age.
- Prevent unintended pregnancies among women with HIV.
- Prevent transmission of HIV from mother to infant.
- Provide treatment, care, and support for mothers with HIV and their families.
The UN General Assembly has a goal of making HIV prevention, treatment, and care programs available for eighty percent of pregnant women around the world by 2010. This, they hope, will reduce the number of infants born with HIV by fifty percent.
It’s a good goal, but an ambitious one. HIV testing and counseling services are expanding around the globe. In 2008, 21% of pregnant women in low and middle income countries were able to get an HIV test. This number is up from 15% in 2007. In 2008, 45% of pregnant women in low and middle income countries received antiretroviral medication to prevent HIV transmission to unborn children. This number is up from 35% in 2007, but it’s still a long way to go to that 80% goal the UN set.
Still, it’s good to see more countries doing more. More nations are following World Health Organization recommendations to use two or three antiretroviral drugs in combination to prevent transmission of HIV between mother and unborn child. Even countries with highly successful prevention programs — like Thailand, that has a less than 5% rate of mother to child transmission of HIV — could improve availability of HIV testing, training of personnel, monitoring of antiretroviral side effects, and more. There’s always room for improvement.
According to the World Health Organization, around the world, HIV and AIDS are the leading cause of death among women of childbearing age. One third of children born with HIV die before they reach their first birthday. Almost half don’t live to see their second.
Although there is not currently a cure for HIV or AIDS, there are still many ways to fight the disease. Preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to unborn child is a big one.