AIDS transmission from mother to child is eradicated in Cuba

Cuba is the first country in the world to have eliminated the transmission of AIDS and mother-to-child syphilis through a specific medical supervision. Explanations.
"It's a celebration for Cuba and for children and families around the world," said Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS director following this news: Cuba became the first country to have eradicated the transmission of AIDS and syphilis between mother and child. "This is a major victory in our long struggle against HIV (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and that an important step towards the goal of a generation without AIDS", has said Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement on the organization's website.
A large medical monitoring. To achieve this success, the WHO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) developed a comprehensive medical plan on island. Pregnant women and their partners had access to screening for HIV and syphilis. In the case of a positive diagnosis, women received antiretroviral treatment and comprehensive prenatal care. HIV-positive women have also benefited from a cesarean delivery, which limits the transmission of mother-to-child compared to vaginal delivery. Alternatives to breastfeeding were also offered.
Bring down the risk of transmission from 45 to 1%. WHO notes that "without treatment with antiretrovirals, a pregnant woman infected with HIV are between 15 and 45% chance of infecting her child", either while she is carrying the child, during the childbirth or breastfeeding. That risk may drop to 1% if treatment is administered to the mother during pregnancy and the child shortly after birth. Nearly 1.4 billion positive women become pregnant each year, and reduce transmission of the virus between mother and infant is therefore an important part in the fight against this pandemic.
Half of children born with AIDS since 2009. These preventive and medical action already seem to bear fruit: the number of HIV-positive newborns in the world has almost halved in four years, passing from 400,000 in 2009 to 230,000 in 2013. "Eliminating the transmission of a virus is one of the greatest achievements in public health," Margaret Chan has stressed on the WHO website. "We expect that Cuba is the first in a long series of countries to validate the end of transmission to children" was so thrilled Michel Sidibé.
Encouraging treatment against syphilis. In parallel, a million pregnant women annually are affected by syphilis. This STIs can cause miscarriages, infections or death of the infant. "Yet simple treatment options during pregnancy, such as penicillin, can eliminate most of these complications," says WHO. But, as in the case of AIDS, the STI mainly affects developing countries that do not always have access to appropriate treatments.