UNAIDS: Prevention of MTCT Can Spur Birth of "HIV-Free Generation" 11/1/2010
Jeffrey Sachs and UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibé spoke out on the importance of simple HIV testing and ARV technologies to reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Africa
One of the most important means of stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, let alone reversing the damage the pandemic has wreaked on sub-Saharan African especially, is the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT), the United Nations has announced.
Central to this goal is increasing testing among vulnerable or at-risk populations, including pregnant women. Ensuring that women have access to anti-retroviral medication can drastically reduce the likelihood that their newborn or infant children will become infected. According to UNAIDS, where resources are limited, it is possible to administer certain drugs that will reduce "the riskof HIV transmission by more than 40%." The expansion of hospitals or health clinics and medical services to remote and urban regions is one important first step.
Noted economist Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University's Earth Institute and special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for the Millennium Development Goals commented on the effectiveness of UN programming in areas of low economic development. He notes that important improvements to the health of a population can be made even in spite of high levels of dire poverty (defined as people living on less than a $1.25 a day).
Most recent data from 2008 shows that 390 000 children were infect with the deadly virus from their mothers—in utero, through labour/delivery, or even through breast milk.
“AIDS has become the leading cause of death among infants and young children in much of sub-Saharan Africa,” said Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Executive Director Michel Sidibé, speaking from Kenya today. As such, reducing this methodof transmission would be pivotal to improving child mortality.
Both Sachs and Sidibé emphasized the importance of the Global Compact for development, technological solutions, and innovative leadership to beating HIV/AIDS and reducing mother-to-child transmission. Such realities shed light on the practical and human security implicationsof the digital divide between Africa and the developed world.
Children who are known to be HIV-positive often suffer stigmatization within their communities, school, and in other part of society. For children whose parents have already died of AIDS—AIDS orphans—this can mean total marginalization and lack of protection of their persons, property, and human rights. Today, the number of AIDS orphans stands at just over 15 million worldwide. In Nigeria alone, 1 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
However, Sachs and Sidibé remain optimistic about the future, having experienced many successes in their work with the Millennium Villages. In some places, early testing and the provisionof the appropriate medicine has ensured that there is no mother-to-child transmission occurring. What are the implications of such success? As stated by Sidibé, “We can fully curb the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and bear witness as an HIV-free generation is born in Africa and the world.”