successfully prevented if two conditions are met: 1) Pregnant women are identified as carriers before labor has begun; 2) Caesarian section is made and appropriate therapy is begun for carrier mothers and /or their offspring.

The RVF has begun an ambitious program in Georgia to meet these two rigorous conditions in an effort to protect the vulnerable population of neonates from the ravages of AIDS infection. Working collaboratively with the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, the RVF is providing the training and print materials which will enable the country’s health care workers to perform rapid diagnostic screening for HIV/AIDS on the entire cohort of pregnant women, approximately 50,000 individuals annually. Women will be tested at their first prenatal check-up. If rapid screening is positive, more extensive and definitive testing will be performed at the AIDS center of Georgia. This definitive testing, funded by the MOH, will allow the identification of women who will then receive effective antiviral treatment of HIV/AIDS (financed by Global Fund) to prevent perinatal transmission of this virus. Transmission rates are known to fall from 25% to less than 4% for HIV/AIDS when the program is successfully implemented. The VRF donated special surgical kits to the Maternity Houses for the Caesarian Session.

An undertaking of such complexity and national scope – the screening of the entire cohort of pregnant women each year and the need to begin potentially life-saving therapy to mother and/or neonate within demanding time limits – requires for its successful implementation a high level of proficiency on the part of the nation’s health care workers in maternity homes and on the part of the laboratory staff locally and centrally. To these ends, the VRF has committed resources to insure the successful organizational structure of the program and to develop training seminars for the various stake-holders. Working collaboratively with the Ministry of Health and the Georgian National CDC, these training sessions will insure that the goals of the program – the prevention of severe, even fatal viral infection in the newborn – are achieved.

From the start of the project (2006) more than 180,000 pregnant women were tested on HIV/AIDS and 34 HIV carriers were identified and treated. As a result 24 healthy babies were born during the period.

Taking in account the importance of the above activities, the Government of Georgia committed to finance 35% of the project cost in 2009 and take full financial responsibility from 2010.