These guidelines were developed to provide international standards, primarily for low- and middle-income settings, in support of the global scale-up of more effective interventions aimed at prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in resource-limited settings. Once implemented, these recommendations could reduce the risk of transmission from mother-to-child to less than 5% (or even lower) in breastfeeding populations from a background risk of …

These treatment guidelines serve as a framework for selecting the most potent and feasible first-line and second-line ART regimens for the care of HIV-infected infants and children. These guidelines address the diagnosis of HIV infection and consider ART in different situations, e.g. where infants and children are coinfected with HIV and TB, or have been exposed to ARVs, either for …

The purpose of this document is to define WHO’s commitment to global and country support to scale up access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services and to integrate these services with maternal, newborn and child health programs.

Significant programmatic experience and research evidence regarding HIV and infant feeding have accumulated since WHO’s recommendations on infant feeding in the context of HIV were last revised in 2006. In particular, evidence has been reported that antiretroviral (ARV) interventions to either the HIV-infected mother or HIV-exposed infant can significantly reduce the risk of postnatal transmission of HIV through breastfeeding.

The provision of antiretroviral drugs for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission has been rising sharply in low- and middle-income countries. Changes to the World Health Organization guidelines support further extension of these programs.