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Cuba first to eliminate mother-to-baby HIV transmission
- ohitsdom 11y agoThis is pretty great. Only 2 babies born with HIV in Cuba last year, although the article doesn't say how many were born previous years. Only data I could find says as of 2011, 6,200 adults had HIV in Cuba.
- cafard 11y agoI don't know whether the policy has changed since I read of it many years ago, but the Cuban government treated HIV infection pretty much the way the US government once treated leprosy: turn up positive, and you were quarantined.
- pki 11y agoTechnically, this does work doesn't it?
- mikeash 11y agoIt works on everybody you find, but that kind of treatment tends to discourage people from coming forward, which can make things worse.
- meric 11y agoIt was a much better environment inside the sanatorium - free good food, medicines, beds, so it isn't too bad of a choice to come forward - some people even injected themselves with HIV to get into the sanatorium.
- Crito 11y agoThat seems very short-sighted. With (what appeared at the time as) a looming epidemic, what made them so confident that conditions at the sanatorium would be maintained in the future?
- chc 11y agoNot in a much more meaningful way than a gunshot to the head works for curing cancer.
- douche 11y agoFor some kinds of cancer a gunshot to the head is the humane choice
- matthewmacleod 11y agoI suspect not. It seems likely that such a policy would prevent any at-risk patients voluntarily testing, meaning they remain unaware of their HIV status and continue to spread the virus. I'm not sure if there's research on this though - it would be interesting to see.
- pandaman 11y agoIf Cuba is anything like the USSR, preventing voluntary testing does not mean one can remain untested. The government medicine also means you cannot deny medical procedures that the government has prescribed to you.
- amanthewinner 11y agonot entirely accurate, yes you are quarantined, but for 8 weeks of intensive education about your condition and the risks of infecting others. Then you are released and given full access to antiretroviral drugs.
- jws 11y agoSeems to check out with the numbers. 6200 HIV adults and a stable population says something like 3100 are female and with 30 child bearing years and two children over that period about 200 of them should give birth each year. A 1% probability of passing along HIV with the retroviral treatment gives 2 HIV babies a year. (I'm actually a little surprised when a news article's math works.)
- seliopou 11y agoBack in the 1980's there was a group of punk rockers in Cuba called "Los Frikis" that Radiolab did an episode about[0]. Back then, it was prevalent amongst this group to inject themselves with HIV virus as a form of protest against Castro's regime. With 30 years between generations, if any of the Los Frikis had families, their grandchildren would be born around now. I wonder if this news and their acts of protest are related. [0]: http://www.radiolab.org/story/los-frikis/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/los-frikis/
- rlopezcc 11y ago"acts of protest" Yeah... sure...
- meric 11y agoThey injected themselves with HIV to get into the sanatorium where it's a much better life. It was also a message saying they'd rather die than live in the world the government created for them outside. Two of them are still alive, out of around 200, and they're still there, despite the sanatorium being now abandoned. http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/los-frikis-documentary-tells-story-of-cuban-punks-who-got-aids-on-purpose-6926386 http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/los-frikis-documentary-...
- somecrapname 11y agoDisplacement.
- ctdonath 11y agoAnother thread on HN had informative posts describing how diseases have been cured in Cuba by government threatening to kill any doctor who reported an instance of it.
- 0xCMP 11y agoThats one way to do it...
- netrus 11y agoThat's a huge claim, and a short Google-voyage did not show any such claim. It is very counter-intuitive given the overall quality of the Cuban medical system. Do you have a source for that/ link to the HN discussion?
- gdy 11y agoHow do you know that it is true?
- 0xCMP 11y agoSo many Cuba posts/articles these days. I'm still cautious about how this will actually turn out for the cubans or if we'll get a rosy view of what it's actually like over there.
- varjag 11y agoProbably a mix of genuine moment-driven features with lobbying efforts. http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- peeters 11y agoMaybe it's in the article and I'm missing it, but can anyone cite what the WHO considers "eliminate" to mean in this context? All I see is that in 2013 two babies were born with HIV (though seeing as mother-to-baby appears to include from breastfeeding, I'm not sure that number is the full picture). Does eliminate mean there was a single year (2014 I guess) with no mother-to-baby transmission? The reason I'm curious is because just because this year there are no cases, doesn't mean there won't be next year. So I wonder what the definition they're using is.
- peteretep 11y agoArticle says rate down to 2%, which is the lowest achievable when good practice is followed
- wrongc0ntinent 11y agoYou will find more info in the WHO press release here http://who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/ http://who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/... (under "note to editors" some, but there is a separate document mentioned that specifically addresses requirements)
- Tepix 11y agoFantastic news, let's hope other countries soon follow their example!
- dredmorbius 11y agoIf this can be replicated elsewher it's huge. For Zimbabwe, 40% of infant / childhood deaths are from HIV/AIDS. The vast majority of those from mother-to-child transmission. Life expectency in Zimbabwe and numerous other African nations has decreased by about 20 years since the 1980s, falling to levels of the 1940s and 1950s. http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health-profile/zimbabwe http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health-profile/zi... http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/life-expectancy-africa http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/life-expectancy-africa (Poke around that site a bit, but be warned, it's sobering.)