Thailand eradicates mother to child HIV transmission

Thailand's Ministry of Health noted that now 98 per cent of HIV-infected women have access to antiretroviral drugs and the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission has fallen below 2 per cent.

In 2000, an estimated 1,000 children were infected with HIV, a number that had diminished by 90 per cent in 2015 with only 85 new child cases in a country that registered 450,000 HIV patients the previous year.

In addition to slashing the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission, the number of HIV-infected women has also fallen from 15,000 new cases annually in 2000 to 1,900 in 2014 an 87 per cent reduction in less than two decades.

The UN has hailed the Thai public health system, which ensures universal access to medical care and provides HIV treatment to both Thai and non-Thai citizens, for playing a key role in combating the spread of HIV.

"Not only Thai children but also children of migrants eligible for healthcare coverage face almost no risk of acquiring the virus from their mothers because of their access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission services," said Thomas Davin, the Unicef Representative for Thailand.