New Missing the Target Report on Vertical Transmission of HIV
Missing the Target 9 (2011)
The Long Walk: Ensuring comprehensive care for women and families to end vertical transmission of HIV
In December 2011, advocates from four countries (Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia and Nigeria) released a report at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the state of vertical transmission programs in their countries.
The Long Walk: Ensuring comprehensive care for women and families to end vertical transmission of HIV shares community experiences from these four African countries where the gap between the need for and access to prevention of vertical transmission services is among the largest in the world.
Research from this report shows that while there has been a paradigm shift globally, with the link between maternal health and infant survival now broadly recognized and keeping mothers alive now an explicit goal of global programming to prevent vertical transmission, this shift is not yet being mirrored at country or community level. The growing political commitment is not matched by action plans, up-to-date policies or adequate budgets. Even when governments have plans in place to meet these goals, the targets are far from being met and the policies are simply not being implemented on the ground, especially across all four pillars of the UN's comprehensive framework to prevent vertical transmission.
The report also includes updates on progress and remaining challenges from six countries since the Missing the Target 7 report was released in 2009.