There are an estimated 6,000 pregnant women infected with HIV annually in Vietnam, 35 percent of whom are likely to transmit the virus to their newborn babies, according to a recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Health (MoH).

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The National Committee for AIDS, Drug and Prostitution Control, part of MoH, launched a Month of Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV, calling on pregnant women to take HIV tests for their babies’ health on June 2.

Pregnant women infected with HIV, are on the rise, according to the National Committee for AIDS, Drug and Prostitution Control, saying that approximately 2,000 newborn kids of infected mothers have contracted the virus from their mothers. Appropriate interventions must be taken to prevent mother-to-child transmissions.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong, also Chair of the National Committee for AIDS, Drug and Prostitution Control, instructed agencies to help pregnant mothers access early diagnoses and take timely intervention measures in order to alleviate prenatal HIV transmission.

Services are available at 225 sites across the country, where pregnant women are provided with voluntary HIV tests, antiretroviral drugs to prevent prenatal transmission and powder milk for babies born to HIV-infected mothers.

However, most of HIV-infected mothers in Vietnam are not diagnosed until they have already arrived at health care facilities to deliver their babies, causing difficulty for health workers to give consultation and provide treatment against the transmission of the virus from mothers to children.

Source: Sai Gon Giai Phong