Over a third of the world’s population who are HIV positive live in southern Africa. ACTSA campaigns for support of the region’s efforts to tackle the pandemic. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is one of the lead causes of infection in children. In South Africa alone more than 70,000 babies are born with HIV each year. In the West though, this has been virtually eliminated. In 2000 governments made a commitment to halve global infant infections by 2010, yet they have failed to meet this goal. ACTSA is campaigning for the international community to take immediate action to eradicate mother to child transmission. Eradicating mother-to-child transmission of HIV Throughout the 2010 World Cup ACTSA ran a campaign calling on the new British Government to commit to help eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2014 in time for the next World Cup in Brazil. We wrote to David Cameron and Andrew Mitchell in May informing them about the campaign and asking them to act. You can read the response from Andrew Mitchell on our blog. Find out more about this issue by reading our ACTSA briefing paper on mother-to-child transmission.   Push for the Pool Although the cost of basic HIV and AIDS drugs has gone down in recent years, millions of people need more advanced drugs which are still far too expensive for people and governments in developing countries to afford. In December 2009 UNITAID approved the implementation of an innovative patent pool for HIV drugs. ACTSA has been supporting the Stop AIDS Campaign's calls for a patent pool to make HIV/AIDS treatment affordable. The pool should help to save the lives of millions living with HIV across the developing world who are unable to access the life-saving medicines they need. Thank you to everybody who has supported the campaign. You can find out more at the Join the Push for the Pool website.

Download ACTSA briefing on mother-to-child transmission Links Gender equality Stop AIDS Campaign News More news on HIV