Over 5300 babies are born with HIV/AIDS annually according to the Director Planning and Strategic Communication at Uganda aids commission Vincent Bagambe told MPs on the HIV Committee chaired by Namisindwa woman MP Sarah Kiyagi that the babies are mainly from positive mothers don’t give birth in health centers.
He said that when mothers go to the hospital for antenatal for the first time and test positive they are given antiretroviral drugs to attain viral suppression so that the risk of transmitting to babies is low, but those who do not go to the hospital chances are very high to transmit to their new born babies.
Bagambe also says that the mother to child transmission rate now stands at 5.7% yet their target is to have it below 5% and has attributed this to young mothers who become positive after they have undergone their first prenatal visit or those who become positive while breastfeeding.
He notes that even though the HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country has gone down over the last decade there is need to address the vulnerabilities among young girls.
He said that out of the 38,000 new infections annually, 37% of the new infections are among young people but young girls account for 79% of these infections..
Mbarara district woman MP Ayebare Margret and Namisindwa woman MP asked the commission to clarify on the cause of these new infections and why babies born to positive mothers are not given medicine to prevent them from becoming positive.
