KIGALI, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The transmission of HIV/AIDS from mothers to children has significantly reduced to below one percent in Rwanda, a senior official said on Wednesday in the country's capital city Kigali.
"Our country has made significant steps in the prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child. The transmission rate has been reduced to less than 1 percent," said Patrick Ndimubanzi, state minister in charge of public health and primary health care, while briefing senators on state of the country's reproductive maternal newborn and child health.
Rwanda's effective interventions and its resolve have led to these positive results, he said.
Ndimubanzi attributed the decline to effective interventions whereby HIV positive pregnant women receive comprehensive counseling, health care and antiretroviral treatment during pregnancy and through the first six months after child birth.
A research conducted in 2017 by the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) indicated that Rwanda's new infections of HIV each year are at 0.27 percent.
The ministry of health, under its 2013-2018 HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan, targets to raise the usage of condoms in non-cohabiting intercourse by 13 percent, increase the fraction of the male adult population that is circumcised from 13 percent to 66 percent and decrease the estimated new infections in children from 1,000 to less than 200 per year.
Rwanda introduced oral HIV testing kit last December, expected to scale up voluntary testing as part of efforts to stem new infections.
