Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission Still a Major Concern in India

Mother-to-child HIV transmission remains a major challenge in India.

Despite India's strides in fighting HIV/AIDS, vertical transmission remains a significant concern, warns a leading HIV expert.

Vertical HIV Transmission

However, "vertical transmission () continues to be a major concern, because at least one-third of the women who are found HIV positive, do not reconnect with the antiretroviral therapy (ART) centre or the gynecologist, and thus, cannot be given the medication which can stop the risk of transmission", Dr. Ishwar Gilada, a noted HIV expert, told IANS.

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Notably, it has decreased from over 40 percent in 2010 to 24 percent in 2021."Just two-thirds of the women, or 70 percent, with HIV are being treated with ART. This is unacceptable. This should have been zero or near zero, maybe 1 or 2 percent," he said.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry noted that India has outperformed the global reduction rate of HIV. There has been a 44 percent reduction since 2010 -- with adult HIV prevalence recorded at 0.2 percent and annual new HIV infections estimated at 66,400, the ministry said. India also aims to end AIDS by 2030.

Not being able to detect people who are HIV-positive is another major concern in the country."In India, this status is around 75 to 77 percent. That means 18 percent less than the achievable target of 95 percent remains weak, which may hinder the target of no infection by 2030," the expert said.

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Further, he emphasised the need to boost self-testing to enable people to test HIV at home.

"We need to provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for those people who are at risk of HIV, particularly vulnerable communities like communities like male sex with male or bisexuals or trans people, or people in the jails and demand homes where they are at risk," the infectious disease expert said.He also stressed the need to roll out PrEP as part of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP).

Quiz on HIV / AIDS
Statistics tell us that the world HIV+ population has risen drastically from 8 million in 1990 to a whopping 33 million in 2007! Even more alarming is the fact that young people (below the age of 25) account for half of these infections! This is ...

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