Dominica yesterday celebrated its World Health Organization certification for elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.
With the achievement, Dominica joined seven other Caribbean countries that have received the dual validation, demonstrating continuing regional progress against the two diseases, a release from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) said.
During a virtual celebration yesterday, Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said “what we are celebrating here is truly a remarkable achievement. Eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis as a public health concern requires the strengthening of primary prevention and treatment services for HIV and syphilis for pregnant women within an established and successful maternal, perinatal and child health services.”
Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, WHO Regional Director for the Americas and Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), said, “Dominica’s journey to this ambitious achievement represents … years of expanding the capacity of its primary care services to address communicable diseases and adopting harmonized and integrated approaches to improving the health outcomes for women and their children within maternal and child health services.”
While Dominica received the certificate for elimination during the ceremony yesterday, the country was recommended by WHO for certification last September.
New HIV infections among children in the Caribbean declined by nearly 40% between 2019 and 2010 – the year that the Regional Initiative for the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis in Latin America and the Caribbean was launched.
The release said that the seven other Caribbean countries and territories that have received the dual certification are Cuba in 2015 and Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Montserrat and Saint Kitts and Nevis in 2017.
