Cuban doctors pull off an HIV medical marvel

Americas Now

Hospital in Havana, Cuba

The World Health Organization calls it one of the greatest feats in medicine today. Doctors in Cuba have discovered a way to prevent pregnant women with HIV from transmitting the virus to their children.

W-H-O estimates close to a million and a half HIV-positive women conceive each year and without proper medical care there’s a high risk of passing the infections on to their babies.  The organization says Cuba is the first country to eliminate the transmission of HIV during pregnancy.  

Cuba is known around the world for its healthcare diplomacy.  For more than 50 years, it’s sent thousands of its doctors and nurses to dozens of countries.  It also does extensive medical research – working on new vaccines and treatments. 

The number of babies born with HIV around the world has been almost cut in half since 2009 from 400,000 to 240,000 just four years later.  Now, with Cuba’s latest advancement, that number should be reduced even further.

Correspondent Michael Voss reports from Havana on this major breakthrough in protecting the unborn interviewing both victims of the virus and players behind the scenes.

Cuban doctors pull off an HIV medical marvel

The World Health Organization calls it one of the greatest feats in medicine today. Doctors in Cuba have discovered a way to prevent pregnant women with HIV from transmitting the virus to their children.