Programme to prevent HIV transmission soon

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 3. The Centre will launch a programme for preventing the transmission of HIV - AIDS virus - from mother to child. The Centrally-sponsored programme is to be launched by August.

It assumes importance as almost eight per cent of the HIV cases are due to transmission from mother to child. The percentage is expected to remain the same, if not increase, considering that HIV prevalence has been increasing among women.

The chances of transmission from an infected mother to her children have been estimated between 13 and 60 per cent.

The infection could occur either during gestation or at the time of delivery and post-natal period, mainly through breast feeding.

As per official estimate, as many as 3.86 million people may be infected, of whom about 25 per cent could be women.

The situation is particularly serious in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, where HIV prevalence has already crossed one per cent among women attending ante-natal clinics.

The main component of the programme will be provision of the anti-retroviral drug, AZT, to women in the last trimester of their pregnancy.

The programme has been under the consideration of the Government for several years now. It remained on the backburner because of doubts over its feasibility in a country like India, where offering to test for HIV and counselling in busy ante-natal clinics may be a difficult proposition.

A major step forward was taken in March last year, when a feasibility study was launched in 11 centres across the country. The study showed that the doubts were misplaced.

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