Each year, 1.4 million women living with HIV around the world become pregnant. Left untreated, they have a 15 to 45 per cent chance of passing the virus to their children during pregnancy, labor, delivery or breastfeeding.

Cuba has become the first country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, the World Health Organisation has said.

Cuba ensure early access to prenatal care, HIV and syphilis testing for both pregnant women and their partners, treatment for women who test positive and their babies, caesarean deliveries and substitution of breastfeeding.

The number children born annually with HIV was 400,000 in 2009. By 2013, the number was down to 240,000 in 2013. But intense effort is needed to meet the global target of less than 40,000 new child infections per year by 2015, health authorities say.

bbabo.Net