Antiretroviral Therapy Helped Reduce HIV Infection Rate from Mother to Child in 7 African Countries

The United Nations brings incredible news this Tuesday, with the announcement that seven countries in sub-Saharan African, known as the world's worst-hit region in the global AIDS crisis, have cut the number of new HIV infections in children by 50 percent since 2009.

This includes the countries of Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Namiba, South Africa and Zambia, according to a statement made by the United Nations AIDS program.

"The progress in the majority of countries is a strong signal that with focused efforts every child can be born free from HIV," said Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS' executive director, via Reuters.

The organization notes that overall, across the 21 priority countries in Africa, less than 130,000 new HIV infections have been found in children since 2012, which researchers believe may be due to a drug treatment in pregnant women who tested positive for the virus.

However, Sidibé said that high numbers of new infections in some areas has stalled progress, especially areas such as Angola and Nigeria.

Yahoo News notes that Nigeria has the largest number of children acquiring the virus in the region, with as many as 60,000 new infections seen in 2012 alone.

Scientists believe that the help of antiretroviral drugs used during pregnancy are the reason for the drastic change. In fact, statistics show that the risk of transmitting HIV is much lower when antiviral medications are used. Transmission rates may be only 1 to 2 percent if the mother takes combination antiviral therapy.