The Ministry of Health has signed an agreement with the Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes de Productos de Dietética Infantil (ANDI) and the Fundación Española de Pediatría (FEP) to provide free adapted formula milk for HIV-exposed infants.

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Health

The agreement was published in today’s Official State Gazette (BOE).

HIV is transmitted sexually, by exposure to infected blood and by transmission from a pregnant mother to her child during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. The concept of perinatal transmission encompasses all transmission possibilities, including exposure to breast milk during the postpartum period.

The likelihood of neonatal infection has been significantly reduced by screening in pregnancy, antiretroviral treatment (ART) of the pregnant woman and prophylaxis in the newborn. In this context, breastfeeding should be considered as a time of risk for infection.

In these cases, replacing breastfeeding with adapted formula feeding is the only effective strategy to eliminate the risk of HIV transmission according to international and national scientific recommendations.

The Ministry of Health promotes and coordinates actions for the elimination of HIV as a public health problem by 2030, by the Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Control of HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) 2021-2030. Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV is one of the goals of primary prevention.

ANDI has been working since 1977 to support and maintain quality infant nutrition through the participation of the 13 most important manufacturers in our country, who continuously invest in the development of products with high standards of safety, innovation and quality.

The FEP is a mixed charitable and cultural foundation, non-profit and of a permanent nature, which promotes, stimulates and protects welfare and social institutions for the benefit of the most disadvantaged.

The Ministry of Health, ANDI and the EFF share the general interest in mothers with HIV infection receiving free formula milk, to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child through breastfeeding.