China prevented more than 1,000 infants from getting infected with the HIV virus from their mothers last year, according to a report from the country's health watchdog.
The mother-to-child transmission in the country dropped to 6.1 percent in 2014 from 34.8 percent before the start of The Prevention of Parent-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS program in 2001. In 2014, 1,240 babies were prevented from getting infected with HIV, according to a news briefing attended by Chinese health officials and UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF delegates in Beijing on Thursday.
The HIV test for pregnant women rose to 98.2 percent, and 82.6 percent of HIV-positive mothers have received antiretroviral drugs, Song Li, an NHFPC official said.
However, Song told the Global Times that "due to factors like migration or living in remote areas, many women had not been tested or diagnosed until they reached hospitals for delivery."
Parent-to-child transmissions among all new HIV infections also declined from 1.6 per cent in 2005 to 1.1 per cent in 2014.
Xu Wenqing, a UNICEF Program specialist who has been overseeing a project in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region since 2013, told the Global Times that some women in rural areas still insist on giving birth at home. "Due to some religious beliefs or lack of awareness, some people even reject taking drugs," Xu said.
Xu said in Yining, Yili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, northwest of Xinjiang, some beneficiaries of the PMTCT program have become community coordinators, who try to convince other women to undergo tests as earlier as possible. Yili is one of areas hardest hit by the spread of HIV in China due to the wide use of dangerous drugs.
