South Africa has made massive strides in the fight against HIV. One of the country’s flagship interventions has been the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Nevertheless, South Africa still has the world’s largest HIV epidemic. It’s estimated that 7.5 million people in the country have HIV. Women of reproductive age account for more than half of this number – 4.8 million.
Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV requires pregnant women to take life-long antiretroviral therapy (ART) to prevent the onward transmission of the virus to their babies during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.
