Why I love my job - Quote 16 of 20

"I am interested in doing everything that you say. I want my baby to be safe. I am here to get pills to protect my baby."

- 27 year-old Lydia during her first visit to the Baylor clinic here in Swaziland. She is HIV+ and 28 weeks pregnant.

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The prevention of maternal to child transmission (PMTCT) of the HIV virus is cheap and really quite simple. Essentially all babies born to HIV+ mothers can potentially be born without the virus. While such prevention is the norm in the USA and Europe, PMTCT is the exception here Africa.

For want of a few pills, baby human beings are unnecessarily infected with a preventable and deadly disease on their way into the world, many before the first breath.

When I think about this, I do not feel proud. I feel embarrassed and ashamed.