Mother-to-child HIV infection rate rises

The mother-to-child transmission of HIV is on the rise in Ethiopia, the BBC reported on Tuesday. The Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ESOG) revealed this at its 11th annual meeting on "Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in the Context of Safe Motherhood". ESOG president, Dr Feiruz Surur, confirmed that the current number of pregnant women living with HIV had risen by at least 7 percent. Dr Surur said the problem had been exacerbated by the poor state of reproductive health in the country, and 90 percent of an estimated 700,000 children living with HIV had been infected by their mothers.