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The burden of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including mother-to-child transmission of HIV, disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries, in particular the countries of Southern Africa. [2] The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.3 million women and girls living with HIV become pregnant each year. [3]
Programs to prevent the vertical transmission of HIV (from mothers to children) can reduce rates of transmission by 92–99%. [84] [142] This primarily involves the use of a combination of antiviral medications during pregnancy and after birth in the infant, and potentially includes bottle feeding rather than breastfeeding.
Although prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) programs have been implemented across different regions, their success in resource-constrained settings is still widely debated upon. [9] In 2008, the majority of sub-Saharan Africa as a whole had an estimate of 430,000 HIV infections among children under the age of 15. [9]
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection can occur during delivery of the neonate, in utero through mother-to-child transmission or postnatally by way of breastfeeding. Most transmission occurs during delivery. Transmission depends on multiple risk factors, usually centered around the viral load of HIV in the mother.
Programs to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to children can reduce rates of transmission by 92–99%. [47] [57] This primarily involves the use of a combination of antivirals during pregnancy and after birth in the infant but also potentially include bottle feeding rather than breastfeeding.
HIV is carried in body fluids and is spread by sexual activity. It can also be spread by contact with infected blood, breastfeeding, childbirth, and from mother to child during pregnancy. [73] When HIV is at its most advanced stage, an individual is said to have AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). [74]
Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS is a global Campaign launched by UNICEF in 2005 to raise awareness of the plight of children globally in relation to HIV and AIDS, and to spur action. Almost every minute of every day, a child dies because of AIDS, and another two young people are infected with HIV. [ 1 ]
It is important to work towards eliminating Mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 in developing nations. Due to a lack of testing, a shortage in antenatal therapies and through the feeding of contaminated breast milk, 590,000 infants born in developing countries are infected with HIV-1 per year. [45]