Around 30 children contract HIV every day in the Asia Pacific region.

UNAIDS Regional Director for Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe Central Asia Eamonn Murphy says no child should begin life with a disease we can prevent, and no family should miss out on the information, services and support to give their children an HIV-free start.

Therefore the World Health Organization UNICEF and UNAIDS have launched the Regional Roadmap for the Triple Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis B in the Asia and Pacific Region.

This resource offers guidance to strengthen national strategies and operational plans to end these three diseases among children in the five years left to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal target.

The roadmap assesses how 21 focus countries across Asia Pacific including Fiji and Papua New Guinea have progressed in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B since 2018.

There were more than 20 cases of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Fiji last year and PNG’s rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission remains alarmingly high at 30%.

Murphy says to achieve this, there should be access to antenatal screening of all women and their partners for the three diseases, prompt treatment, safe delivery and infant feeding options as well as appropriate infant preventative treatments (prophylaxis) and vaccines.

He adds while other countries have demonstrated commitment, they still face significant challenges and require additional support from global and regional health stakeholders to accelerate progress.

UNAIDS estimates that prevention of mother-to-child transmission services have averted nearly 72,000 new HIV infections among children in the region since 2015. Yet in 2023, approximately 10,000 children were newly infected.

The roadmap points to the need for increased syphilis and hepatitis B monitoring as well as for hepatitis B strategies to be integrated into programmes and policies to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

It outlines seven strategic priorities to guide national action, these include policy leadership, universal service access, integration with reproductive and child health systems, community engagement and strengthened monitoring.

It also provides operational guidance to support countries at various stages of implementation, from initial planning to validation and sustainability.

Strengthened social protection mechanisms and implementation of human rights protections are also required.

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