China Earmarks 800 Million Yuan for Mother-to-Child Transmission Prevention

China this year designated more than 800 million yuan (US $120 million) for efforts to prevent mother-to-baby transmission of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B virus, according to Ministry of Health sources.

This is a 10-fold increase above the figure budgeted for 2009, which addressed only mother-to-baby HIV transmission, said Zhang Lingli, director of the women's section in the ministry's Department of Maternal and Child Health Care and Community Health. "As there is an increasing proportion of women being infected with HIV, syphilis, and HBV, the central government is attaching great importance to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission to reduce the infection among babies and improve the health of women and children in general," Zhang said, adding that the project will cover more than 1,000 counties and assist 6 million mothers. MOH aims, by 2015, to test more than 80 percent of pregnant women for the three conditions, and to provide free treatment to more than 85 percent of infected mothers and their babies.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


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