Thailand has become the first country in Asia to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, ensuring an AIDS-free generation. The team – including experts from Australia, Cambodia, China, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, United States and representatives from WHO, Unicef and UNAids – checked on the progress towards elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.
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Meanwhile, Thailand’s Public Health Minister Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn said that the success of Thailand in all but wiping out HIV from newborns will benefit not only Thai people, but everybody living in the country, even though the challenge of how to make elimination sustainable remains.
However if treatment in the form of antiretroviral medicine is given in the crucial stages, the chance is said to be reduced to around 1 percent.
It said the figure was validated to meet World Health Organization criteria for elimination of mother-to-child transmission rates of less than 2 per cent and fewer than 50 new infections in 100,000 births.
The Minister of Health of Thailand was presented with the certificate of validation during a ceremony, which took place in NY on the eve of the United Nations General-Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS.
“Thailand has demonstrated to the world that HIV can be defeated”. The country received validation for this from the World Health Organisation on Tuesday. “As we meet in NY at the High-level Meeting on Ending AIDS to plan the next, crucial phase of the response to HIV, we will draw upon the successes of these countries to highlight the extraordinary achievements that can be made through the rapid expansion of access to life-saving treatment”.
However, this is a breakthrough for a generation of Thai health workers who succeeded in transforming the nation from one of Asia’s most HIV-ravaged societies to one that has proved that such a crisis can be handled effectively. These countries have worked hard to ensure early access to prenatal care, HIV and syphilis testing for pregnant women and their partners, and treatment for women who test positive, as well as their babies. In 2015, this number declined to 85, a fall of more than 90%.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Thailand struggled with a huge HIV epidemic with an estimated 143,000 new infections in 1991.
Previously Cuba was the only other country to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission under the WHO’s criteria back in July 2015. Up to 95% of HIV-infected pregnant women receive antiretroviral therapy in Europe – the highest percentage globally, and more than 70% of infants of HIV-positive women were tested within two months of birth.
Elimination of transmission is defined as a reduction of transmission to such a low level that it no longer constitutes a public health problem.
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In addition to Thailand, WHO also recognized Armenia, Belarus, and the Republic of Moldova for the same achievement.
