{"id":44605,"date":"2026-09-04T10:20:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T08:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=44605"},"modified":"2026-09-04T10:20:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T08:20:03","slug":"zambia-closes-in-on-eliminating-vertical-hiv-transmission","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zambia-closes-in-on-eliminating-vertical-hiv-transmission\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambia closes in on eliminating vertical HIV transmission \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zambia is closing in on eliminating vertical transmission of HIV after new government figures revealed that mother-to-child transmission rates plummeted from 34.4% in 2005 down to 6.12% in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to the Ministry of Health&#8217;s 2025 HIV Spectrum Estimate report, the total number of children living with HIV across the country dropped sharply from 187 000 to 59 000 over the two-decade period. Annual new paediatric HIV infections also saw a dramatic reduction, falling from 23 000 cases in 2005 to just 2 700 in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Health officials have attributed the major public health milestone to the roll-out of the Option B-Plus programme, an initiative providing lifelong antiretroviral therapy to pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Reporting on the release, Correspondent Thamo Kapisa noted that Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Kennedy Lishimpi, called for intensified national efforts to push the transmission rate below the World Health Organisation\u2019s official 5% elimination threshold. UNAIDS Representative in Zambia, John Mwale, added that the new data will directly shape the strategic framework guiding the national HIV response going forward.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35015,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-44605","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zambia nears elimination threshold as mother-to-child HIV transmission drops to 6%","published_date":"2026-09-04 10:19:14","news_description":"Zambia nears elimination threshold as mother-to-child HIV transmission drops to 6%","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44606,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44605\/revisions\/44606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}