In just two decades, a national health program in Botswana with relatively few funds has prevented HIV transmission from mother to child. Before, it was as many as 40 percent of HIV-infected pregnant women who passed the disease on. Today it is less than one percent. Pregnant women are encouraged to be tested for HIV and mothers who test positive are quickly put into treatment, where they receive antiretroviral drugs for the rest of the pregnancy. There are medicines which, among other things, prevent the virus from being transmitted to the child. In addition, the newborn also receives treatment for the first six months. – The progress in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the region is truly a public health success, with more than 1.7 million new infections in children averted since 2010, says Mohamed Fall, who is Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa at UNICEF in a press release. – We applaud Botswana for this remarkable achievement, he says. A great achievement In 2013, Botswana became one of the first countries in the world to implement the so-called “Option B+”. It is an effective lifelong treatment for all pregnant and lactating women living with HIV. Treatment begins from the time the diagnosis is made. And it has worked. – This is a great achievement for a country that has one of the most serious HIV epidemics in the world – Botswana shows that an AIDS-free generation is possible, says DR. Matshidiso Moeti, who is the World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Africa, in a press release. – This ground-breaking milestone is a major step forward in stopping AIDS on the continent. Globally, 15 countries have succeeded in eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission. But they have not had as big an epidemic as Botswana, where as much as 30 percent of the population was infected with HIV in 1999. Born HIV-free WHO has spoken to Dora, who lives in the village of Serowe in Botswana. She is a poultry breeder and she lives with HIV. When she was pregnant, she was worried about whether she would pass the virus on to her child. Therefore, she signed up for a program where she could receive antiretroviral treatment. She waited anxiously for the results of her son’s HIV test, and was happy that the treatment had worked. Her son was born HIV-free. Fortunately, today it is the case that most women in Botswana can identify with this experience.
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Botswana fights HIV transmission from mother to child
