Cuba's program to prevent the spread of HIV from mother to child has substantially reduced infection rates, Cuban official newspaper Juventud Rebelde cited doctors as saying Wednesday.
Doctors from the Pedro Kouri Tropic Medicine Institute (IPK) in Havana said that while 288 babies had been born to HIV-positive mothers in Cuba, only 30 of them had tested positive, two had no symptoms, 10 died of the virus and 18 are currently being treated.
Ida Gutierrez, who cares for the children at the IPK, said the institute works to reduce vertical transmission by banning breastfeeding and performing cesarean sections on all HIV-positive mothers at 38 weeks to prevent contact between the babies and vaginal secretions.
The HIV-positive mothers are also given the anti-retroviral drug AZT from week 14 of their pregnancy and those who have white blood cell counts below 350 per cubic millimeter receive three anti-retroviral medicines.
Since HIV was first detected in Cuba, 9,039 people have been infected with the virus, 81 percent of them men. A total of 1,550 have died of AIDS, 110 have died of other causes and 7,379 continue to live with the condition. There are 3,427 people suffering from full-blown AIDS on the island.
Source: Xinhua
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