First Lady to champion the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV in Cambodia at the 2011 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS

Cambodia’s First Lady, Her Excellency Dr. Bun Rany Hun Sen, will join First Ladies from around the world to explore the barriers and opportunities to reaching the global community’s commitment to ensuring no infants are born with HIV at the 2011 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS next week.

Held from 8 – 10 June in New York, the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting will review progress and chart the future course of the global AIDS response.

Her Excellency will join the forum for First Ladies to discuss the issue of virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission and meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to discuss Cambodia’s progress in addressing maternal mortality and newborn health.

In Cambodia, only 50 per cent of HIV-exposed infants are able to access life saving interventions. However, with interventions being taken to scale, combining antenatal care and education with HIV testing for women and their families, these figures could dramatically improve.

The effective integration of prevention of mother-to-child transmission activities into maternal and child health services, through what is called the “Linked Response” approach, is already putting Cambodia well on track to ending the HIV epidemic in children. Read Full Story of HACC's website