New boost for battle to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission

A new initiative has been launched to help a number of countries stem the spread of HIV by mother-to-child transmission.

The programme, involving UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the UN's international drug purchase facility, UNITAID, will help scale up HIV testing before and after a child's birth, as well as improving care and drug-treatment for parents and young children infected with the virus.

Initially the scheme will be implemented in seven African countries as well as India, with a total of $21 million (£10.1 million) in funding being provided in the first two years.

Jimmy Kolker, chief of the HIV and AIDS section at UNICEF, said: "If we are to turn the tide of HIV, we must seek to make medicines available to all the women and children who need them."

Philippe Douste-Blazy, chairman of the UNITAIDS board, added: "Unity and leadership are more than ever needed to reduce the transmission of HIV from the mothers to their children."

According to figures published by UNICEF, in 2002 800,000 children under the age of 15 contracted HIV and of those 90 per cent did so through parent-to-child transmission of the disease.

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