Children and HIV and AIDS

Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV

Factsheets on the status of national PMTCT responses in the most affected countries.

Each of these 22 country-specific factsheets sets out strategic information on the state of PMTCT service-delivery and policy development, while also highlighting bottlenecks that must be tackled to reach national targets. (These documents are easiest to read when printed on A4 or legal size paper)

• Angola
• Botswana
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Chad
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Ethiopia
• Ghana
• India
• Kenya
• Lesotho
• Malawi
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nigeria
• South Africa
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

the facts on PMTCT 

In 2009:

• About 1,000 babies were infected with HIV every day during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.
• Globally, there are approximately 1.4 million pregnant women living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries.
• Only 26% of pregnant women living in these countries received HIV tests. 
• In Eastern and Southern Africa, the region hit hardest by the epidemic, only half of pregnant women were tested for HIV.
• An estimated 53% of pregnant women living with HIV in the developing world received antiretroviral drugs to prevent them from transmitting the virus to their babies.
• In Eastern and Southern Africa, 68% of pregnant women living with HIV received antiretroviral treatment.
  

What is the response?
An intervention known as “prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV,” or PMTCT, provides drugs, counselling and psychological support to help mothers safeguard their infants against the virus. Ensuring PMTCT is provided to all women that need it is our most effective way to end mother-to-child HIV transmission by 2015, and reach the UN’s Millennium Development Goal 6. 

Ensuring that no baby is born with HIV is an essential step towards achieving an AIDS-free generation. But far too few pregnant women and their infants have access to this preventive treatment. 

What needs to happen?
To reach our objectives, pregnant women across the developing world must be tested for HIV.  PMTCT programmes must be scaled up to include all mothers and babies who need them – no matter how impoverished or geographically isolated they may be.  And where prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission is accessible, it must be delivered consistently and with the most effective drugs available.

There is a four-pronged strategy to prevent HIV among infants and young children. This includes key interventions to be implemented as a component of overall maternal, newborn and child health services.

Prong 1: Primary prevention of HIV among women of reproductive age within services related to reproductive health such as antenatal care, postpartum/natal care and other health and HIV service delivery points, including working with community structures.
Prong 2:  Providing appropriate counselling and support to women living with HIV to enable them make an informed decision about their future reproductive life, with special attention to preventing unintended pregnancies.
Prong 3: For pregnant women living with HIV, ensure HIV testing  and access to the antiretroviral drugs that will help mothers’ own health and prevent infection being passed on to their babies during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.
Prong 4: Better integration of HIV care, treatment and support for women found to be positive and their families.