Fewer babies contract HIV
The Department of Health has halved the rate at which newborn babies contract HIV, an achievement which has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
Dr Ameena Goga, who announced the results of the first national evaluation by the Medical Research Council of South Africa, said they found that about 3.5% of babies contracted HIV from their mothers in 2010, compared to 8% in 2008.
About a third of the women giving birth (31%) are HIV-positive, but very few of them are now passing the virus on to their babies as a result of the national prevention of mother to child transmission programme. Read on.