Report praises bid to protect babies from HIV

By Peter Orengo

A new UN report has praised national efforts to combat mother to child HIV transmission.

But the report says many HIV positive children still struggle for basic needs, and governments and stakeholders should step up their efforts.

The Children and Aids; The Fourth Stocktaking Report 2009, jointly published by UNaids, Unicef, the UN Population Fund and WHO has data on interventions that protect women and children from HIV and Aids.

The data shows significant progress in both treatment to avoid mother to child transmission and testing of pregnant women.

In Kenya, treatment to prevent mother to child transmission is estimated at 56, up from 37 per cent. Botswana leads with the highest improvement in Africa, at 95 per cent.

Globally, 45 per cent of HIV positive pregnant women receive treatment to prevent them passing the virus to their unborn babies, an increase of nearly 200 per cent since 2005.

In sub-Saharan Africa, links among household poverty, maternal and child health, and HIV, however, remained strong.

State commitment

Countries where governments made strong commitment to address maternal and child health recorded highest success.

The report said progress could be stronger if root causes of vulnerability to HIV, including poverty, gender inequality and sexual violence, are addressed.

Speaking at the UN headquarters in Nairobi yesterday, Unicef HIV and Aids Regional Director David Alnwick said children are now higher on the global Aids agenda.

"Many lives are now being saved due to interventions such as early infant diagnosis and use of ARVs for prevention of mother to child transmission," he said.

Mr Alnwick said the fact Kenya missed out on the Global Fund should not hinder the fight against Aids.

Unicef Executive Director Ann Veneman said: "The challenge is to scale up treatment in countries with high percentage of women leaving with HIV."

Without intervention, HIV-infected mothers have a 35 per cent overall risk of transmitting the virus to their babies during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.