'Best-Kept Secret' For HIV-Free Africa
Birth Control Better Than Drugs, Researchers Say
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post
NDORI, Kenya -- Giving antiretroviral drugs to pregnant women has long been celebrated as one of the few successful tactics in the war against AIDS in Africa. A single pill for a woman in labor, followed by a sip of syrup for her newborn baby, cuts HIV transmission rates by more than half, potentially saving the lives of millions of children.
But despite sustained financial and political support for the effort, studies show that only about one in 10 infected African mothers has access to the drugs.
As these programs falter across the continent, researchers increasingly agree that far more cases of pediatric AIDS could be prevented with a cheaper, easier and more effective alternative: birth control.
"It tends to be the best-kept secret in HIV prevention," said Ward Cates, head of research for Family Health International, a nongovernmental organization based in North Carolina that has extensive experience in Africa.
The group has found that programs providing antiretroviral drugs to pregnant women prevented 101,000 cases of pediatric HIV between 1999 and 2006. Contraception, meanwhile, averts the births of 173,000 infected babies each year, the group says.
(Continued here.)
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post
NDORI, Kenya -- Giving antiretroviral drugs to pregnant women has long been celebrated as one of the few successful tactics in the war against AIDS in Africa. A single pill for a woman in labor, followed by a sip of syrup for her newborn baby, cuts HIV transmission rates by more than half, potentially saving the lives of millions of children.
But despite sustained financial and political support for the effort, studies show that only about one in 10 infected African mothers has access to the drugs.
As these programs falter across the continent, researchers increasingly agree that far more cases of pediatric AIDS could be prevented with a cheaper, easier and more effective alternative: birth control.
"It tends to be the best-kept secret in HIV prevention," said Ward Cates, head of research for Family Health International, a nongovernmental organization based in North Carolina that has extensive experience in Africa.
The group has found that programs providing antiretroviral drugs to pregnant women prevented 101,000 cases of pediatric HIV between 1999 and 2006. Contraception, meanwhile, averts the births of 173,000 infected babies each year, the group says.
(Continued here.)
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