Cuba has become the first country to eliminate the transmission of HIV and syphilis from mother to baby.  World Health Organization director general Dr. Margaret Chan calls it “one of the greatest public health achievements possible” and an important step towards an AIDS-free generation.

The birth of HIV-positive babies to HIV-positive mothers has consistently been the most heartbreaking aspect of the AIDS epidemic.  Now, UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said in a statement that experience in Cuba “shows that ending the AIDS epidemic is possible”. 

Over the past five years, Caribbean countries like Cuba have had increased access to antiretroviral drugs as part of a regional initiative to break the infection chain mother-to-child transmission.  Doctors can cut the risk of transmission to just over one percent if antiretroviral drugs s are given to both the mother and the child.

Since the 1980s, Cuba’s Socialist Healthcare System has successfully suppressed the HIV epidemic by shifting from a reactionary quarantine policy to a proactive program of widespread testing and treatment.  Despite its poverty, the system works and Cuba provides basic, quality health care to all citizens.