UNICEF’s Mother-Baby Pack can make HIV-prevention treatment available to mothers and infants who might not otherwise have access to it.

UNICEF’s recently introduced “Mother-Baby Pack” is a take-home box containing all the anti-retroviral drugs and antibiotics needed to protect the health of one mother and child. Color-coding and simple graphics help mothers identify which of the individually packaged medicines to administer during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.

UNICEF is rolling out the Mother-Baby Pack in four sub-Saharan African countries: Cameroon, Kenya, Zambia and Lesotho.

The Pack is an innovative package of easy-to-use antiretroviral (ARV) medicines and prophylactic antibiotics to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS. It greatly expands the number of HIV-positive mothers, and their babies, who can be treated through PMTCT programmes, reaching those who may not return to clinics after initial antenatal visits.

Recently Banda, age 36, told her story to an audience gathered for the launch of the pack, an innovative approach to prevention of mother-to-child transmission, or PMTCT. To learn more about the mother and baby pack, read Banda’s full story here.