Infants

The first WHO guidelines on HIV and Infant Feeding in 2010 recommended the use of antiretroviral drugs to prevent postnatal transmission of HIV through breastfeeding. Since then, almost all countries prioritised in the UNAIDS ‘Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive’ have adopted the approach of promoting and supporting breastfeeding and the provision of lifelong antiretroviral treatment as the strategy to optimise HIV-free survival among HIV-exposed, uninfected infants and children. The 2016 guidelines provide two recommendations and two guiding practice statements and they comment on the implications for: (1) routine monitoring and evaluation, and (2) conflict and emergency settings.

In this report, UNAIDS is announcing that 18.2 million people now have access to HIV treatment. The Fast-Track response is working. Increasing treatment coverage is reducing AIDS-related deaths among adults and children. But the life-cycle approach has to include more than just treatment. Tuberculosis (TB) remains among the commonest causes of illness and death among people living with HIV of all ages, causing about one third of AIDS-related deaths in 2015. These deaths could and should have been prevented.

The Double Dividend accelerates action towards ending paediatric HIV and AIDS and improving child survival. It provides evidence and emerging data to support initiatives that serve HIV exposed children and strengthen service delivery platforms.

Research commissioned by UNICEF through the OHTA Initiative Presented by Laurie Ackerman Gulaid, Consultant

2014 IATT Webinar Series

This presentation from the IATT Webinar Series in December 2014 summarizes research to support the scale up of lifelong ART for pregnant and breastfeeding women. It presents guiding principles, promising practices and key considerations for community-facility linkages.

Report on the external mid-term, formative evaluation of the Optimizing HIV Treatment Access (OHTA) for pregnant and breastfeeding women Initiative in Uganda, Malawi, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

PMTCT & Paediatric HIV/TB Lessons & Results from Using New WHO-UNICEF HIV-Adapted Community Materials

"Together We Can Improve"

A case study on joint community-facility review of PMTCT dashboards in Malawi

Greatly expanded access to routine viral load testing will be a game-changer in the global response to AIDS. Routine viral load tests improve treatment quality and individual health outcomes for people living with HIV, contribute to prevention, and potentially reduce resource needs for costly second- and third-line HIV medicines.

The AIDS movement, led by people living with and affected by HIV, continues to inspire the world and offer a model for a people-centred, rights-based approach to global health and social transformation. And yet, today, amid a swirl of competing and complex global concerns, we confront a serious new obstacle: the oppressive weight of complacency. This is happening when we know that if we make the right decisions and the right investments now, the end of AIDS can be within our grasp. This moment is, however, fleeting. We have a fragile window of opportunity—measured in months—in which to scale up.