The Ministry of health says the country is making significant progress in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV initiative.   

According to the Ministry, currently at least 90 % of children born from mothers with HIV in Malawi are not contracting the virus.

This was disclosed by the Head of HIV Prevention in the Ministry of Health, Michael Eliya.

Elliya said: “We are making a lot of progress, if you take women who are coming to attend Antenatal clinics, close to 98 percent are getting tested and about 100 percent of those who are found HIV positive are given antiretroviral therapy which prevents mother to child transmission.”

Elliya highlighted that from where they started marking in 2019 up to this date, the mother to child transmission rate in the general population has significantly been reduced from 30 percent to 6.8 percent.

However, he said 9.8 percent transmission rate is still a concern and needs to be reduced to less than 5 percent.

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is the spread of HIV from a woman living with HIV to her child during pregnancy, childbirth (also called labor and delivery), or breastfeeding (through breast milk).

In Malawi, PMTCT programme started in 2001.