h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is the one of the most important issues in today's life. Babies born with HIV infected...!! it's not there fault Y dey've to siffer den ?

Actually, it's a terrible thing for a baby to born HIV positive, but if they live in the Western World there is an awfull lot we can do to help them, midically speaking. In this case, there is no reason to not think that the baby will grow up to find a life of fair contentment. As far as the care of the baby goes, it's pretty normal except that you need to take added caution with bodily fluids. The baby is at more risk than the caregiver, a simple cold could be really a problem. Once the baby is stable, and can tolerate it, there are meds that can boost the immune system. He or she is likely to need occasional blood transfusions also, so you could offer at the next blood drive. If the baby lives in some place where there isn't good free medicine availabale, they are in for a rough, (though short) trip. There is a lot we can do even if we are not medical staff. We could work to see that these babies born in more poor areas CAN get HIV meds. By the way, there is some interesting work being done that shows that cheep statin srugs (usually for fat old men to clear the arteries) might hold off HIV for years. Statins are cheeper than mud, so this is welcome. If you are a young person who does not have HIV, you could make an effort to be fairly friendly toward those that do, and to counter tough guys who like to make jokes about HIV. When you vote, you could make global respobsibility a deciding factor. When you buy things, you could resist items made by companies that DON't think of global responsibility. If you are a very wealthy person, you could charter a jet and invite all those baby's to free travel to a more wealthy area. If you own a small shop, or a large shop, you could try to ensure that there is a job waiting for an HIV person if they make it to adulthood. If you are the Pope, you could give the "Alls Okay" sign to using condoms, to lower the rate of new babies being born with it. Look, HIV is a terrible, terrible thing--- but as human problems go, we have faced and survived much more intense threats. There is an awfull lot to be done.

Mother to child transmission of HIV can be prevented with the administration of the apropriate drugs. (There are a whole bunch of these) As you have said in the West HIV/AIDS is a surmountable problem for individuals, as there is infrastructure in place to support people. Unfortunately where I live in South Africa this infrastructure simply doesn't exist.
South Africa has one of the highest infection rates in the world, and yet up untill very recently the government has done very little to prevent mother to child transmission. There has been a major outcry over this issue and many people ask how the government could be so inhumane.
There is a very sad and unfortunate reality in South Africa, that is that we do not have the economic or social capital to deal with all of our socio-economic problems. What would happen if every child who's mother has HIV/AIDS was saved. In 5 to 10 years time when all of these children's parents die, these children will have no homes. Who will pay to take care of all of these hundreds of thousands of orphans. It is a difficult pill to swallow but unfortunately, unless developed countries pledge a lot more support, Africa will be unable to save all of these children.