Human immunodeficiency virus type-1: mother-to-child transmission. Meeting of World Federation of Scientists in Erice Italy August 2000. Joint Report of AIDS / Infectious Diseases PMP and Mother and Child PMP.

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is an urgent planetary emergency and a world-wide human tragedy. At least 90% of all HIV infections in children are a result of mother-to-child transmission. It has been estimated that 4.5 million infants have been infected since the beginning of the epidemic 3 million have already died and 600000 new infections occur annually. We know that 90% of these infections are currently occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and that the HIV epidemic is reaching Asia and India with the largest populations in the world and it is now difficult to predict how the epidemic will develop in the future. HIV/AIDS has already substantially reversed the gains in infant and childhood mortality in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In resource-poor countries without access to antiretroviral drugs seroprevalence rates of HIV infection in pregnant women are documented to be as high as 40% and transmission rates from mothers to their children range from 25% to 40%. In these countries almost all infected babies die in the first several years of life the infected parents die and the uninfected children are orphans. (excerpt)