Preventing Mother-to-Baby HIV Infection, Preventing AIDS Orphans
Rotary International will contribute $50,000 and work in collaboration with the Columbia University International Family AIDS Programme on the Mother-Baby AIDS Project in the Dominican Republic.
International funding has overlooked the severity of the epidemic in the Dominican Republic when in fact the Dominican Republic has the highest rate of HIV/ADIS in the Spanish-speaking world and one of the highest rates outside subSaharan Africa. The La Romana Province where the project will be taking place has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the Dominican Republic.
The Columbia University International Family AIDS Programme has been working in La Romana since 1999 and was the first programme to treat pregnant HIVinfected women in the Dominican Republic. Since the launch of programme in 1999, 97 percent of the babies born in their programme have been shown at 19 months of age to be HIV-free. Rotary donations will allow the previous success to be continued and expanded
to prevent the mother-to-baby transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) throughout the Province of La Romana. In the long run, the project will serve as a “global success” model to help lead other global endeavors to strengthen the health care infrastructure and care for HIV-infected women, men and children as well as to build sustainable HIV prevention and treatment model.
Source: A Grant Proposal from the AIDS Committee of Rotary Club District 7230
