WUNRN
21 September 2009 – Efforts
to curb HIV transmission from mothers to their children in Africa have received
a boost, thanks to a new partnership between the Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and a UN-backed initiative seeking to help lift villages on
the continent lift themselves out of poverty.
Under an agreement signed today, UNAIDS and the Millennium Villages Project will jointly help local governments in nine African nations set up “mother to child transmission-free zones.”
The
Millennium Villages Project aims to reach the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) – eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline – in 10 African
countries within five years through community-led development.
Every
year, the great majority of children born with HIV are in sub-Saharan
With
the support from African and global business leaders, the new scheme will draw
on existing infrastructure and human resources in villages to rapidly expand health
services.
“In
the whole of Western Europe, there were fewer than 100 mother-to-child
transmissions in 2007, whereas in sub-Saharan
In
high-income countries, transmission of HIV to children has plummeted from 25
per cent to between 1 and 5 per cent in recent years as HIV testing and counseling
of pregnant women, the use of antiretroviral drugs during and after delivery,
and safe infant feeding have become common practice.
Evidence
from
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