By Sola Ogundipe, Chioma Obinna & Gabriel Olawale

THE World Health Organisation, WHO, has validated Cuba as the first country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

In a statement yesterday, Director General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, described the feat as “a major victory in our long fight against HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and an important step towards having an AIDS-free generation.

“Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the greatest public health achievements possible.”

Also speaking, Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, said: “This is a celebration for Cuba and a celebration for children and families everywhere.

“It shows that ending the AIDS epidemic is possible and we expect Cuba to be the first of many countries coming forward to seek validation that they have ended their epidemics among children.”

Pan American Health Organisation, PAHO, Director, Dr. Carissa Etienne, said: “Cuba’s success demonstrates that universal access and universal health coverage are feasible and the key to success, even against challenges as daunting as HIV.

“Cuba’s achievement today provides inspiration for other countries to advance towards elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.”

Statistics

In 2013, only two babies were born with HIV in Cuba, and only five babies were born with congenital syphilis. Every year, globally, an estimated 1.4 million women living with HIV become pregnant.

Untreated, they have a 15 to 45 percent chance of transmitting the virus to their children during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding.

However, that risk drops to just over one percent if anti-retroviral medicines are given to both mothers and children throughout the stages, when infection can occur.

The number of children born annually with HIV has almost halved since 2009— down from 400,000 in 2009 to 240,000 in 2013. But intensified efforts will be required to reach the global target of less than 40,000 new child infections per year this year.

Nearly one million pregnant women worldwide are infected with syphilis annually. This can result in early fetal loss and stillbirth, neonatal death, low-birth-weight infants and serious neonatal infections.

However, simple cost-effective screening and treatment options during pregnancy, such as penicillin, can eliminate most of these complications.

In 2014, WHO and key partners published guidance on global processes and criteria for validation of elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, which outlines the validation process and the different indicators countries need to meet.

As treatment for prevention of mother-to-child-transmission is not 100 percent effective, elimination of transmission is defined as a reduction of transmission to such a low level that it no longer constitutes a public health problem.

An international expert mission convened by PAHO/WHO visited Cuba in March to validate the progress toward the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.