Thailand is the first country in Asia to eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission
For WHO, this a “remarkable achievement” thanks to screening and universal free medication for pregnant women. According to Thai government figures, the number of babies born with HIV dropped from 1,000 in 2000 to just 85 in 2015. Still, there are still half a million HIV positive Thais.
Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Thailand has become the first Asian country to eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission, this according to the World Health Organisation. This is a milestone in a country where half a million live with the disease. Last year Cuba was the first country in the world to achieve this result.
WHO said Thailand's routine screening and universal free medication for pregnant women with HIV was crucial in stopping the virus being passed to new generations.
Describing the elimination as a "remarkable achievement", the world health body said that the Southeast Asian nation had "demonstrated to the world that HIV can be defeated".
If left untreated, mothers with HIV have a 15-45 per cent chance of transmitting the virus to their children during pregnancy, childbirth or during breastfeeding. Taking antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy significantly reduces this to just over 1 per cent.
In 2000, Thailand became one of the first countries in the world to provide free antiretroviral medication to all pregnant women diagnosed with HIV, a practice that extended to the country's most remote areas and to its undocumented migrants.
Thai government figures show that the number of babies born with HIV dropped from 1,000 in 2000 to just 85 last year, a large enough fall for the WHO to declare mother-to-child transmission over.
For Thailand, this is a major turnaround. The country went from 100,000 HIV cases in 1990 to more than a million three years later, fuelled in part by its huge sex trade.
An eventual push to distribute free condoms among sex workers throughout the late 1990s did not achieve expected results and was criticised by the Association of Catholic Doctors.
In recent years, the country has seen a slight increase in the number of sexual transmitted infections and remains one of the countries most affected by HIV.
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18/06/2019 12:42
