South Africa: New policy saves thousands of babies form HIV

Government has slashed the HIV transmission rate from pregnant mothers to their babies to merely 3.5 per cent, potentially sparing some 67,000 babies from HIV infection. This success is due mainly to the health department vastly improving its programme for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV infection (PMTCT) from April last year. 'We have worked very, very hard to train staff to make the changes and we are so happy with the improvement,' said Precious Robinson, deputy director of government’s PMTCT programme, at the release of the new figures at the SA AIDS conference.