Cuba is first country to eliminate mother to child HIV transmission

Cuba has become the first country to receive validation from the World Health Organization for having eliminated mother to child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

In 2010 all countries of the Americas, including the United States and Canada, committed to eliminating mother to child transmission of these two diseases by 2020. Cuba has been the first to officially achieve that goal, but another 30 countries in the region are close, said Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, at a press conference to announce Cuba’s success.

To achieve official recognition Cuba had to show for at least one year that new infections from mother to child transmission of HIV had fallen below 50 cases in 100 000 live births and …