POL Posts: Blogs, Reports & Updates
May 7, 2013

Stories of Children Born HIV-Free in our Mother-to-Child Prevention Program

Alka Subramanian, PhD

Mother's Day is May 12 - give a gift of a healthy baby to a Mom in Zambia. The Power of Love team would like to thank its friends and donors who have supported our pediatric HIV care program in Zambia. With generous support from donors, we have been able continue to improve the lives of several hundred children and families impacted by HIV, AIDS, and malaria. You can learn more about the Mother-to-Child HIV Prevention program on its program page.

The MTC HIV Prevention program is an elements of our pediatric HIV care program. As discussed in our last report, eleven children were born in our MTC program in 2012 and all of them tested negative for HIV. This is remarkable as the newborns all have mothers and siblings who are HIV positive. Of the 23 children born since we launched the MTC program, 22 have been born HIV negative.

Given below are stories of two children born HIV-free to HIV+ mothers in our program. These healthy newborns have confirmed our belief that with proper intervention we can reduce/eliminate new pediatric HIV infections. As always, we appreciate your support as we could not have done this without you.

Emmanuel

Emmanuel was born HIV free in September 2011. His parents and older sister, Charity, are all HIV positive. Charity has been enrolled in our pediatric HIV care program since 2006 and Emmanuel's mother was enrolled in our PMTCT program in early 2011. Emmanuel's mother was provided with counseling, guidance, and monitoring of her medication regimen until Emmanuel was born. She is happy that Emmanuel is HIV negative and participates actively in the Saturday afternoon Safe Park program. She brings Charity to the Safe Park program, where Charity participates in organized games with other children and gets help with her homework.

Bupe

Bupe's mom was identified as pregnant during a weekly home visit for her son Ben, who is enrolled in our pediatric HIV care program. Bupe's mother was enrolled in our program and was monitored and counseled by the Project Nurse. Bupe (which means 'gift') was born HIV free on May 20, 2012. She has been tested three times for HIV (July 5, 2012, October 9, 2012, and December 21, 2012) and all three tests confirmed her HIV negative status. Bupe's mom and family are ecstatic that Bupe is HIV free even though Ben (her older brother) is HIV positive.

Please donate generously to this program so that we can meet our goal of 100% HIV free births, and all 200 HIV positive children can continue to lead healthy and close to normal lives.

Happy Mother's Day.

Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission
Category of this Blog Post 
Women & Children's Health
Post Type 
Stories from the Field

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