Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 28, 2000
Clifford Coonan

"We believe passionately that until a cure is found the best cure is education," Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, said in an interview with Reuters. Of the five million people infected with HIV/AIDS each year, around 600,000 of those cases were transmitted from the mother to the child, often through childbirth itself, Bellamy said after speaking at the launch in Berlin of a United Nations report on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

UNICEF has been working alongside non-governmental organizations to develop pilot projects to address the problem of mother-to-child transmission.

"We've been particularly focusing on prevention through peer-to-peer counseling and training and getting more information," Bellamy said. UNICEF is one of the seven bodies which makes up UNAIDS, the UN agency that spearheads the global battle against AIDS and that published the report.

It showed the disease has infected 36 million people worldwide, including 5.3 million new cases this year, which was 50% higher than medical experts a decade ago had predicted. There were some signs of stabilization, however.

FEAR OF SPREADING PANIC

UNICEF is particularly anxious not to spread panic among mothers who learn that HIV/AIDS can be transmitting during breast-feeding.

"The statistics for areas most heavily infected are that one third of the mothers may be infected. Of those a third might transmit to their child. And a third of the third might be through breastfeeding."

In order to prevent women in developing countries from abandoning breast-feeding en masse, a comprehensive system of testing has to be introduced. However, Bellamy said that this can be difficult because many countries have no tradition of HIV testing.

"How do you explain testing? How do you say to people to come back in three weeks and find out the result? These are often very poor people and they are not going to take a little card from the doctor's office saying come back in three weeks."

"You have to counsel them on what to do and show them that there are a number of alternatives. And tell them that not all women that are infected are going to transmit it to their babies," she said.

Another problem is that women can be stigmatized by the disease. Formula-feeding an infant can often result in a woman being marginalized within the community.

"How do you package that formula so it doesn't become a dead giveaway as she walks back into her community with this little box and everyone goes 'ah, you must have AIDS"' Bellamy said.

SOME SUCCESS STORIES

The main success story so far has been in Thailand, where the policy of education and testing is starting to bear fruit.

"Thailand has really made an impact in rural and urban areas in terms of reducing transmissions and is probably the biggest success."

There are also signs the program is working in Botswana and Rwanda, she said.

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