Preventing mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is a Health Ministry priority, said Dr. Abbas Sedaqat, head of the ministry’s AIDS Control Office. “All women, and their spouses, who suspect that they are infected must visit the available counseling centers to prevent passing the virus to their children during and after pregnancy,” he cautioned, ISNA reports. HIV can be transmitted from an infected mother to her baby either via the placenta during pregnancy, through blood contamination during childbirth, or through breastfeeding. “With early intervention there is a high chance that the newborn will be completely healthy,” he said.
