The ketchup sachet-shaped drug saving babies from HIV
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Rosa’s family considers her dead after they found out she lives with HIV.
“They even built a tomb in a cemetery here in Guayaquil (in Ecuador) and take flowers to it every month,” she says.
Rosa, however, is happy, because her one-year-old baby is about to be declared free of HIV.
“I don’t care if my career as a teacher was ruined by this illness. Today I am happy to see my children healthy and studying.”
Rosa is one of many HIV-positive women who gave birth at South America’s biggest maternity hospital, the Enrique Sotomayor Hospital in Guayaquil.
Their babies must be given antiretroviral (ARV) medication within 24 hours of birth, otherwise the risk of the infection being passed from mother to child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or during breast-feeding is around 45%.
Source: BBC Mundo (link opens in a new window)
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