Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV

Each year, mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) accounts for the vast majority of the more than 700,000 estimated new HIV infections in children worldwide annually. Without intervention, HIV-infected mothers have a 35 percent overall risk of transmitting HIV to their child during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.

Access to comprehensive prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services leads to improved safe motherhood and child survival, reduces pediatric HIV infection and promotes family-centered prevention and care. To achieve maximum reduction of HIV transmission, PMTCT services should be available and accessible to all women during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and the critical postpartum period of the first six weeks and beyond.

This four-prong approach to PMTCT is depicted below:

In addition, HIV-infected women and their infants need to receive all PMTCT interventions without broken links in this continuum of care. Community linkages and support help to ensure maximum impact. This package of comprehensive services, referred to as the “PMTCT cascade.”

For more informtion about support for safer infant feeding, and family planning services for women with HIV, please visit the AIDSTAR-One Prevention Knowledge Base.

AIDSTAR-One serves as a leading resource network in comprehensive PMTCT programming for USAID, other USG agencies and partners by providing a platform for global technical leadership and knowledge management. In addition to technical briefs and case studies related to PMTCT that will be available on AIDSTAR-One.com soon, visit related technical areas to access additional resources, including PMTCT Guidelines from several countries.