Youngest HIV Patient is Less Than 1 Year Old
Dr Devi said although they had reported this likelihood, there was an increasing chance that a baby could be born without it.
Tuesday 20 August 2024 | 12:40
The Ministry of Health and Services has reported that out of the 552 cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) reported this year, the youngest to have contracted HIV is less than one year old.
This statistic was released by Head of Family Health under the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Dr Rachael Devi yesterday during the opening of their Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Immunisation Coverage Survey Training at the FNU Campus in Tamavua.
Dr Devi said the transmission was basically through mother to child.
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Vaccination surveys
She said this gave importance to the need to have more immunisation vaccination surveys as this vaccination has contributed to low number of deaths of our young children.
Dr Devi said although they had reported this likelihood, there was an increasing chance that a baby could be born without it.
“We’ve had so many mums that came in HIV positive and delivered negative babies,” Dr Devi said.
“There’s a concept we call ‘you equal to you’ where if an individual is positive and they’re on treatment, they take the medication, the viral load suppresses to undetectable and that does not transmit to the partner. “
Dr Devi said the emphasis was on the mothers to come in for booking and get themselves tested during pregnancies.
“This immunisation coverage training goes out to the field, does random transaction of households; so, we’re working closely with the Bureau of Statistics and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO); we’re going to go into a two-week training and roll out into coverage on the ground,” she said.
“For mums out there, don’t be scared, come in and get tested, we’ve had so many babies that were delivered healthy. We are doing testing across the board, but we need people to come forward to get tested. We have lost patients to naivety and those that refuse to get treatment. Get tested and come get your result,” Dr Devi appealed.
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