Thailand is the first Asian country to have eliminated HIV transmission from mother to child. Thanks to strong political and public investment commitment in the field of public health, has achieved the objectives proposed by the World Health. Already in 2015 the country had exceeded the WHO goal of bringing down HIV transmission rates below 2%. In fact, Thailand has a rate of 1.9%, compared with 20-40% of the 90.
To eliminate mother-to-child transmission, the WHO has proposed a strategy in 4 points. It starts with the prevention of infection in women of childbearing age. In the case of women already with HIV, the organization recommends instead: prevention of unwanted pregnancies; treatments to prevent transmission of the virus from infected mother to child; adequate treatment for women and children with HIV. Thailand has implemented several initiatives focused on these four cornerstones, which have resulted in the achievement of the objective.
In recent decades, the Thai political authorities have intensified their economic efforts for the prevention of HIV infection. In 1988, public spending program against HIV / AIDS was only 640 thousand euro, while in 1997 it was already 76milioni euro. The investments have allowed us to implement initiatives aimed at promoting the use of condoms among young people. The most famous is the "100% Condom Programme", intended for women of reproductive age and decisive for the prevention of HIV infections. The authorities have also launched a campaign on risk behavior information. For pregnant women and for how many have just given birth, he has introduced a series of tests.
he success of Thailand concerns in large part on the large number of antenatal care performance. At the first clinic visit, all pregnant women received an HIV test with results within the day. Tests that can be repeated throughout pregnancy, although the first was negative. Infected women have instead received antiretroviral therapy, designed to prevent transmission of the virus to the baby. During pregnancy, the mother can monitor the health of the future baby by undergoing prenatal screening noninvasive.
The case of Thailand shows that combine HIV and maternity is now possible. Antiretroviral drugs allow fact of running the pregnancy without the virus steps from mother to child. Assisted reproductive techniques, however, allow you to search conception without putting each other at risk of contagion partners.
Source: wired.it