At a press brief in Hanoi on May 13 the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control warned of an increase in the number of pregnant women infected with HIV
As per the Administration of HIV/AIDS Control’s statistics, in the first quarter of the year, the country has over 1,500 new people living with HIV, bringing the total number of HIV-infected people to 230,000. Worse, the rate of pregnant women is on upward trend.
If there is no early invention, the risk of the HIV transmission from mother to child during pregnancy, labor and delivery, known as prenatal transmission and is the most common route of HIV infection in children, will be 15 percent.
The most reason of the increase in the rate of pregnant women is limited people’s awareness, especially discrimination and ill treatment to these women in distant districts; moreover, prenatal diagnosis for pregnant women is low.
To reduce the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child during pregnancy, labor and delivery, under 5 percent in the future the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control will expand consultation and blood tests in countryside communes and special communities, especially in remote villages. When HIV is diagnosed before or during pregnancy, perinatal transmission can be reduced to less than 1% if appropriate medical treatment is given, the virus becomes undetectable, and breastfeeding is avoided
The health sector must carry out mobile tests in districts with high rate of HIV-infected pregnant women and in areas where women can not access to medical tests. Close cooperation between medical clinics and laboratories is needed to ensure that pregnant women living with HIV are treated properly.
It is scheduled that June will be the year’s peak month of mother-children transmission prevention themed “Eliminating HIV transmission from mother to children” in the country.
