While we are making strides against HIV/AIDS, there is so much more than can be done to save lives around the world. In developed countries we’ve been able to nearly eliminate the chance of babies being infected with HIV, but this isn’t the case for all babies born in many countries in Africa.

Anu Gupta, Director Corporate Contributions, Johnson & Johnson, spoke to Pat Farnack at WCBS 880 about what can be done to help prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in African countries. Anu says that more than 1,000 babies are born with HIV every day, and many of those babies unfortunately will not live very long. Of those born with HIV/AIDS who remain untreated, 1/2 die by the time they are one year old, and 1/3 of those remaining before their second birthday. The tragedy is that these deaths are completely preventable, because it is possible to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease in the first place. 

Moms around the world need to have access to the necessary treatments that can prevent them from spreading HIV to their babies. Anu explained that to help with this, Johnson & Johnson partners with different aid organizations and community groups such as mothers2mothers who know the best ways to reach these mothers. 

You can listen to the interview or download the podcast here – and if you’d like to read more about mothers2mothers, there’s actually an earlier post on JNJBTW about one of the co-founders of mothers2mothers, Robin Smalley, here.