In the Vitebsk region in 2008-2009, the diagnosis of "HIV infection" was not made to children born to HIV-infected mothers

November 30, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. In the Vitebsk region, no children born to HIV-infected mothers were diagnosed with HIV infection in 2008 and in January-September 2009. Valentina Ananyeva, head of the AIDS Prevention Department of the Vitebsk Regional Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public Health, told a BELTA correspondent about this. "This is a certain achievement," the specialist emphasized, noting that doctors, whose competent actions allowed women even with this terrible infection to give birth to healthy babies, deserve significant credit for this. The huge role of broad public awareness should not be underestimated either. Over the entire observation period in the Vitebsk region, 73 children were born to HIV-infected mothers, of whom 40 were removed from the register with a diagnosis of "healthy." As of October 1 of this year, 17 HIV-exposed (diagnosis uncertain) and 11 HIV-infected children are under dispensary observation in the region. Among the latter are 9 babies born to mothers infected with the virus, and two adolescents under 18 who were infected through injecting drug use and sexual contact. Today, the Vitebsk region is one of the most favorable regions in Belarus in terms of the epidemiological situation with HIV/AIDS, Valentina Ananyeva noted. According to data as of November 1, 511 cases of HIV infection have been registered in the Vitebsk region. The prevalence rate per 100,000 population was 40.4 (second in the republic). The most stable situation is in the Braslav, Gluboksky, Orshansky, Sennensky, and Sharkovshchinsky districts. The most unfavorable regions of the Dvina region are the Liozno, Tolochin, Gorodok, Dubrovno districts, and Polotsk. Of the total number of HIV-infected residents in the region, 58.1% are men (297 people) and 41.9% are women (214). The main route of infection is sexual contact, accounting for 64%. Moreover, if in 2008, 81% of men and 97% of women were infected sexually, then in the 10 months of 2009, this figure was 82.1% and 100%, respectively. -0-