“Close to 15 000 new infections in children are recorded yearly while 40% of the children with HIV are lost within a year,” Tichaona Nyamundaya, a pediatrician at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation told journalists at a recent SAFAids briefing.
In January the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare announced a plan to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015 by ensuring that all women have access to quality life-saving prevention and treatment services.
Nyamundaya encouraged women to visit health institutions within 14 weeks of falling pregnant to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
“Men have a role to play in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission as gender inequalities also contribute to high levels of maternal mortality,” he said.
A 2007 study established that Zimbabwe had a maternal mortality rate of 725 per 100 000 live births linked to high levels of HIV infection and obstructed labour.
While HIV prevalence rate has gone down by 33% in 2001 to 13,7 % last year, the country still has one of the highest HIV and Aids burdens in the world.
