HIV Transmission Mom to Child Eliminated in Cuba: WHO

Cuba achieved a world record on Tuesday when the World Health Organization announced that it was the first country in the world to eliminate HIV and syphilis transmission from mother to child.

WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, commended Cuba's accomplishment, sighting that the elimination of virus transmission is "one of the greatest public health achievement possible," Yahoo News reports.

She said, "This is a major victory in our long fight against HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and an important step towards having an AIDS-free generation."

Indeed, Cuba's victory is an inspiration and proof that eliminating HIV is feasible. However, it was not an easy fight for the country. They exerted effort in raising awareness about maternal care and making universal health coverage and test accessible to all. Their success was attributed to these factors.

According to WHO, health authorities in Cuba have been actively working since 2010 to "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 success does not necessarily mean that there are now zero cases of childbirth with HIV or syphilis. Health authorities defined success as fewer than 50 cases. They allow a small number of cases to persist because antiretroviral treatment used for mothers and children to prevent virus transmission does not guarantee a 100 percent efficacy.

This should encourage other countries to improve their strategies in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

In Cuba, there were only two cases of babies born with HIV and five cases of children born with congenital syphilis in 2013, The Guardian notes.

According to Yahoo News, there are 1.4 million women living with HIV around the world, who get pregnant annually. Without medication, there is a 15  to 45 percent chance of transmitting the virus to their children during pregnancy, delivery or lactation. However, when the mother and child are provided with antiretroviral medicines, the risk of transmitting the virus falls below one percent, Fox News reports.

According to Yahoo, every year, around 400,000 children are born with HIV since 2009. Fortunately, the figure has almost halved in 2013 when only 240,000 children were recorded with congenital HIV.

Although there was an impressive decrease in the count of children born with HIV in the span of four years, the figure is still too far from the global target, which is less than 40,000 new child infections annually by 2015.

Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of the United Nation AIDS agency, is convinced that ending the AIDS epidemic is possible after Cuba's achievement. He is expecting Cuba to come forward and seek validation that they have put a stop to the AIDS outbreak among children in their country.