Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV
Although significantly reduced in developed countries, mother-to-child transmission of HIV causes the majority of childhood HIV cases in the developing world. According to UNICEF, each day 1,800 children worldwide become infected with HIV, primarily through maternal transmission.

A mother infected with HIV has a 30 percent risk of passing the infection on to her baby. Testing is the first step in preventing HIV transmission. To help pregnant women find out their HIV status, Abbott donates rapid HIV tests free of charge to qualifying programs in 69 developing countries, including all of Africa. Rapid testing allows women to learn their status in 15 minutes and increases the opportunity to receive counseling after the test. Local programs can then offer HIV-positive mothers free and convenient therapy to prevent their child from being infected with HIV. Based on feedback from implementing partners, Abbott also has broadened the program to offer free rapid HIV testing to partners and children of women who test HIV positive.

To date, Abbott has donated more than eight million rapid HIV tests to prevention programs throughout the developing world.

Click here for more information about Abbott’s donation program to help prevent mother-to-child transmission, including online donation request forms.

Abbott has been a longstanding leader in improving the lives of children affected by HIV/AIDS; to find out more about Abbott's programs to help children in developing countries, click here.

Abbott is working with Direct Relief International to scale-up the PMTCT donation program.

In addition, Abbott Fund is working with other partners to explore ways to expand PMTCT services to include care, support, and treatment for children and their families.

Abbott Fund works with Academic Model For Prevention And Treatment Of HIV/AIDS (AMPATH, also known as the Indiana University-Moi University, Kenya Partnership in the Turbo and Mautuma areas of Kenya. The main focus of the Abbott Fund-AMPATH partnership is to prevent HIV infections in all members of Turbo and Mautuma including newborns by testing all HIV-infected parents and children and to enroll all who are positive into treatment programs.

Abbott Fund is working with Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) to provide PMTCT services in 70 faith-based health facilities in six provinces in Kenya. Through the partnership, testing, care and treatment will be provided to pregnant women and exposed babies and infants.

The Abbott Fund- Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) partnership in Tanzania and Uganda is working to accelerate enrollment of HIV infected children into care and treatment and develop capacity of health care workers.

The three areas of focus of the Abbott Fund/Family Health International (FHI) partnership in Tanzania and Malawi are the reduction of HIV transmission from mother to child; increase in access to comprehensive care and treatment for HIV infected children; and support of the government in creating an enabling environment through policy formulation and guidelines on pediatric HIV and AIDS management and ensuring the sustainability of scale-up over the life of project.