Over the last 10 to 15 years, significant advances have been made in implementing comprehensive policies to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child (MTCT) (Table 7.1). This has culminated in the population-level reduction of MTCT (Table 7.2) even in high HIV-prevalence settings (Goga et al., 2015). Consequently, the global agenda has shifted from the prevention of MTCT (PMTCT) to the elimination of MTCT (EMTCT). In resource-limited settings where breastfeeding is a critical child survival strategy, EMTCT was initially defined as a reduction in MTCT to <2% by six weeks postpartum and <5% by 18 months postpartum (UNAIDS, 2011). More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced specific criteria to measure the elimination of MTCT (WHO, 2014):
New pediatric HIV infections due to MTCT of HIV are <50 cases per 100,000 live births.
The MTCT rate of HIV is less than 5% in breastfeeding populations or less than 2% in non-breastfeeding populations.
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