West Bengal has been certified as the number one state in preventing parent-to-child transmission of HIV, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said May 17.
 

"I am proud to say that the central government agency NACO has recently certified Bengal as Number 1 in preventing parent-to-child transmission of HIV," Banerjee tweeted on the HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), an agency under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has played an important role in controlling the spread of HIV and the treatment of AIDS patients since early 1990s.

Banerjee had earlier said that with the implementation of the 'Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission' programme, the state health department enabled 16.5 lakh pregnant women of Bengal in preventing the transmission of HIV to their children. The state health department has been providing free treatment to HIV positive people through Anti-Retroviral Therapy centres in sub-divisional, district and medical college hospitals, officials said.