Fewer AIDS Babies Being Born in America, but Worldwide Transmissions Remain at Epidemic Levels

Worldwide, about 800,000 infants contract HIV through mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy and labor or after delivery through breast milk, according to World Health Organization estimates.

The problem is worst in developing nations, where mothers have limited access to HIV/AIDS treatment. Drugs administered before, during and immediately after birth can usually prevent such transmission, according to health experts. The dramatic decrease in perinatal HIV in the United States serves as evidence of the drugs' efficacy.

CDC figures show the number of HIV/AIDS babies born annually in the United States peaking in 1991 with roughly 1,760. CDC estimates that as few as 280 babies were born with HIV in 2000 -- a decline of more than 80 percent. There is no measure of how many HIV-positive children born in the 1980s and early '90s are still alive.

Despite success in limiting U.S. mother-to-child transmission, experts at CDC and other health organizations worry that as the number of American women living with HIV continues to grow, eliminating such transmission will prove more and more challenging.

Officials hope public education campaigns will encourage more pregnant women to be tested for HIV so that, if necessary, they can access treatment for themselves and drugs to prevent HIV transmission to their infants.

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