In a landmark achievement for Caribbean public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) congratulates The Bahamas for becoming the latest Caribbean nation to be certified as having eliminated the mother-to-child transmission of HIV.<\/p>\n
\u201cI congratulate The Bahamas on this outstanding achievement, which solidifies years of political commitment, and the dedication of health workers,\u201d said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. \u201cBy ensuring that children are born free of HIV, we are securing a healthier, brighter future for the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis achievement reflects sustained political commitment and strong national leadership, alongside the dedication and compassion of the health workforce,\u201d said Dr Jarbas Barbosa, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and WHO Regional Director for the Americas. \u201cAs we look ahead, this milestone is not only a moment of national pride but also an opportunity to build on this success, advancing efforts to end HIV and other communicable diseases as public health threats across the Caribbean and the Americas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foundations of success<\/p>\n
The Bahamas achieved this milestone by pioneering a comprehensive and inclusive health-care model. Key to this success has been the provision of universal antenatal care to all pregnant women, regardless of nationality or legal status, across both public and private facilities. This approach is supported by a strong, integrated laboratory network and a rigorous testing protocol that screens women at their first antenatal appointment and again in the third trimester.<\/p>\n
Elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) interventions in The Bahamas are fully integrated into antenatal care standards and norms and implemented under the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programme. MCH coordinates with the National Infectious Disease Programme, which oversees the prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STI). This includes the introduction of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention, also offered to pregnant women. To ensure continuity of care, the health system maintains adequate monitoring for HIV-positive mothers and exposed infants, provides multi-month dispensing of antiretroviral medicines, and offers STI treatment and family planning services free of charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, The Bahamas have been working very hard to address the situation of HIV\/AIDS,\u201d said Dr Michael Darville, Minister of Health and Wellness of The Bahamas. \u201cA lot of people have been involved in us achieving this great milestone \u2013 our nurses in our public health system, our nurses and doctors in our tertiary health-care system and, by extension, all of the clinics spread throughout our archipelago.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Cuba, the first country in the world to be certified, and Brazil \u2013\u00a0certified last year, The Bahamas now joins a prestigious group of 12 countries and territories in the Region of the Americas at the forefront of the EMTCT movement. The Bahamas will continue efforts to sustain these standards through integrated primary care and continuous surveillance.<\/p>\n
The road to elimination<\/p>\n
To receive WHO certification, countries must prove they have sustained the following:<\/p>\n
reducing the mother-to-child transmission rate of HIV to less than 2%;achieving fewer than 5 new pediatric HIV infections per 1000 live births; andmaintaining 95% or higher coverage for antenatal care, HIV testing, and treatment for pregnant women.<\/p>\n
\u201cLatin America and the Caribbean has long been a beacon of progress in this global effort. From Cuba \u2013 the first country in the world to be certified \u2013 to Brazil\u2019s certification last year, and now to The Bahamas, the region continues to lead with ambition and determination. Today, more than half of all countries and territories that have achieved elimination are from this region. This is a legacy of leadership that inspires the world,\u201d said Anurita Bains, Global Associate Director for HIV\/AIDS at UNICEF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bahamas are showing that eliminating mother-to-child transmission\u00a0HIV and other sexually transmitted infections\u00a0is possible,\u201d said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. \u201cThis\u00a0achievement reflects\u00a0political will for\u00a0steady investment in primary health care and the work of health teams and\u00a0people living with and most affected\u00a0by HIV. When women can test early in pregnancy, start treatment quickly, and stay\u00a0in care, every child has a better chance of being born free of HIV\u00a0and other STIs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bahamas\u2019 success is part of the broader EMTCT Plus Initiative, which aims to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B, and congenital Chagas disease. Implemented in collaboration with UNICEF and UNAIDS, the initiative is embedded within PAHO\u2019s Elimination Initiative, a regional effort to eliminate more than 30 communicable diseases and related conditions in the Americas by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a landmark achievement for Caribbean public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) congratulates The Bahamas for becoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-624393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}