Eliminating MTCT of HIV

What is the issue?

A recent study shows complete elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is possible.

How HIV is transmitted to child?

Mother-to-child transmission MTCT is the primary route of transmission of HIV among children.
Babies are infected during pregnancy, labour, delivery or while breastfeeding.

What is the status of MTCT HIV in India?

Currently 5% of babies born to those who are HIV-positive get infected, if transmission rate is below 2% it is considered as elimination.
According to NACO, only about 52.7% of pregnant mothers seek skilled care out of an estimated 27 million pregnancies in a year.
An estimated 35,200 pregnancies occur in HIV-positive women and more than 10,300 infected babies are born annually, without any intervention.

What are the methods to prevent MTCT?

Multidrug Therapy - India is following the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended ‘multidrug therapy’, which is a combination of three drugs — tenofovir, lamivudine and efavirenz (TLE).
Affected women need to take it all their lives and nevirapine syrup for six weeks only for their babies.
Multidrug therapy is usually adequate to drastically reduce a mother’s viral load.
Caesarean - During a baby’s journey through the vaginal passage, contact with abrasions, secretions and blood, which contain the virus, increases the risk of transmission.
Elective caesarean section and no breastfeeding will limits the transmission.

What are the challenges in India?

Doctors recommend that HIV-positive women should not breastfeed as their milk harbours the virus.
For patients from underprivileged classes, replacing the nutrition for the baby without breastfeeding is difficult.
The enormous population in India makes it challenging for health-care workers to reach out to every pregnant woman.
On the other hand, pregnant women too often delay registering for antenatal care.

Source: The Hindu