UN agency hails US pledge of $500 million for anti-AIDS initiative
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has welcomed a United States initiative to provide an additional $500 million in the years to come for efforts designed to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has welcomed a United States initiative to provide an additional $500 million in the years to come for efforts designed to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Reacting to US President George W. Bush’s announcement on Wednesday, UNAIDS said the finding would save lives. The agency noted that close to 800,000 babies were infected with HIV last year as a result of mother-to-child transmission, which can be reduced through prenatal and antenatal care, including short course regimens of antiretroviral therapy.
Calling mother-to-child transmission a “significant part of the HIV epidemic,” the agency said the US announcement was a step in the right direction towards reaching the goals set at last year’s UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS. Those include the commitment to halve transmission from mother to child by 2010.