Research shows the number of infants born with HIV has dropped significantly.
Good news for United States babies: new research shows the number of infants born with HIV has dropped significantly over the last twenty years.


The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sharing data that says the number of babies born with HIV in the United States has dropped dramatically over the last twenty years. According to the data, there were only 69 cases of HIV-infected babies in 2013, which is significantly lower than the 216 reported cases in 2002.

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CDC researcher Dr. Steven Nesheim says that previously, late HIV diagnoses of mothers and a lack of the preventative and antiretroviral treatment led to mother-to-child transmission of HIV in recent years.

Dr. David Rosenthal of the Center for Young Adult Adolescent and Pediatric HIV said that still, over 80% of new cases of mother-to-child transmitted HIV are from mothers who are African American and/or Hispanic/Latino. Additionally, nearly 40% of the new cases of HIV in the United States come from Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana and Maryland.

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That all said, Dr. Rosenthal says that there have been great strides made in decreasing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the United States, and he attributes this to early diagnosis of HIV in pregnancy, use of HIV-fighting medicines by the mother when pregnant and the infants of infected mothers being treated with anti-HIV medicines for six weeks after they are born.

He says that many of his patients born with HIV are taking medicines and thriving, and even going on to have children of their own - none of whom are infected with HIV because of the current medicinal intervention.

Imperative to this continued success, however, is the continued work to ensure that mothers receive good prenatal care, and that mothers of all races and ethnicities benefit from the same consistent and top-notch care.