AIDS Spreads to Infants as Most Mothers Fail to Get Treatments - Bloomberg.com

"Drugs that prevent HIV in infants don’t get to two-thirds of infected expectant mothers, leading the virus to spread to 370,000 newborns a year, a treatment advocacy group said.

Only 33 percent of pregnant women with HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, receive antivirals, a strategy proven 15 years ago to block mother-to-child transmission of the disease, said a report released today from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition. The group blamed governments and global health groups for poor coordination, funding gaps and valuing “wealthy women over poor,” said Stephen Lewis, founder of AIDS-Free World and co- author of the report’s preface."