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Due to hygienic deliveries and the
effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-infected babies and
pregnant HIV-infected women, South Africa’s Cotlands childcare facility has
closed its AIDS hospice for children. Cotlands is a nonprofit organization that
provides care for babies who are up for adoption. The Cotlands AIDS hospice
opened in 1996 to care for HIV-infected infants and children who were abandoned
or orphaned; by 2002, the hospice often experienced two AIDS deaths per week.
However, AIDS deaths at Cotlands hospice stopped in 2008, thanks to ART for
HIV-infected babies and increased HIV testing and treatment of pregnant women.
Almost all South African women who
visited prenatal clinics received HIV testing. Those diagnosed with HIV received
ART and counseling about nutrition and safe delivery, which cut the national
rate of mother-to-child transmission to less than three percent in 2011,
according to the African Medical Research Council.
The Joint United Nations Program on
HIV/AIDS reported similar gains in other countries, including Thailand, where
mother-to-child transmission dropped to under five percent. Eighty percent of
Caribbean HIV-infected mothers now receive ART. The World Health Organization
has considered recommending free, life-long ART for HIV-infected women.
However, unequal, gender-based access to treatment could result in tension and
conflict for women in countries such as Malawi and Uganda, according to focus
groups convened by the Global Network of People Living with HIV.
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.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
