Ukrainian doctors have managed to significantly reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of the HIV infection and AIDS, as well as the percentage of infected people among the major risk groups, Deputy Head of the State Service of Ukraine on Combating HIV Infection/AIDS and Other Socially Dangerous Diseases Olena Yeschenko has said on the Social Status - Your Health program on Tonis Channel.
She said that today 4% of children born to HIV-infected mothers are HIV positive. However, if pregnant women are tested early for the presence of virus, this figure can be reduced to 1%.
“Two thirds of women are aware of their status during pregnancy. It’s fundamentally important for us to take women under control and include them in dispensary records as soon as possible, detect HIV-positive status and provide the necessary assistance. If this happens in the first trimester of pregnancy, then from the 24th week women get preventive treatment, using medicines fully funded by the state, and they undergo tests that must be conducted before childbirth so as to choose the best way of delivery,” she said.
Yeschenko said that if the woman becomes infected with HIV just before birth, then, because of lack of time for preventive measures, the risk of the baby’s contracting the virus significantly grows.
