What We're Reading: Better Pediatric HIV Services Reduce Infections in Malawi
Posted by
Evan Von Leer
Washington, D.C.
January 21, 2011
In 2002, the Foundation began one of the first programs to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother-to-baby in the sub-Saharan nation of
Malawi. At the time, less than three percent of HIV-positive pregnant women were accessing these critical services.
Photo: IRIN/PlusNews
Flash forward nearly a decade to 2011 and the progress is impressive. Now, thanks in part to a project run by the Foundation, more than than 45 percent of HIV-positive women in Malawi are accessing prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services. The Foundation’s USAID-funded
Call to Action project helped train approximately 1,200 PMTCT service providers since 2006, in three districts in central Malawi.
IRIN/PlusNews recently talked to Foundation country director for Malawi Patricia Mbetu, about the role of the Foundation in the scale up PMTCT services up to this point, and in the future. “Nothing will stop us,” she said when discussing the goal of eliminating pediatric AIDS in her country and around the world.
You can read the entire IRIN/PlusNews article here.
Evan Von Leer is the Foundation’s Online Communications Officer, based in Washington, D.C.