AIDS among infants, which only a decade ago took the lives of hundreds of babies a year and left doctors in despair, might be on the verge of being eliminated in the United States, public health officials say.Well done! Now, finish the job... This is a truly significant achievement.
In 1990, as many as 2,000 babies were born infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS; now, that number has been reduced to about 200 a year, according to health officials. In New York City, the center of the epidemic, there were 321 newborns with HIV in 1990, the year the virus peaked among newborns in the city. In 2003, five babies were born with the virus.
Across the country, mother-to-child transmission of HIV has dropped so sharply that public health officials now talk about wiping it out.
"This is a dramatic and wonderful success story," said Dr. Vicki Peters, the head of pediatric surveillance for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This winter, Peters presented a report in Bangkok, Thailand, for World AIDS Day documenting the improvement in New York.
The success in fighting mother-to-child transmission, a sweeping victory for public health officials, was made possible largely because of better drugs, but aggressive public education and testing as well as cooperation at the federal and local levels of government also played a significant role.
Monday, January 31, 2005
US Close to Eliminating AIDS in Babies
From the Lexington Herald:
