Sacramento County Launches Campaign to Inform Women About Preventing Vertical HIV Transmission

Sacramento County, Calif., officials have launched a new HIV/AIDS public awareness campaign that will use signs, billboards and brochures to spread messages about how to prevent vertical HIV transmission, the Sacramento Bee reports. "We want to get the word out ... that should you be infected with HIV, you can do something to prevent it [from] being transmitted to your child," Susan Stone, county coordinator for vertical HIV transmission prevention, said. The billboards will feature designs and slogans created by three students enrolled in pregnant and parenting schools and continuation schools in Sacramento County. Copies of the illustrations will be displayed in schools and doctors' offices where they can be viewed by "women of child-bearing age." HIV-positive pregnant women have a 25% chance of transmitting the virus to their infants, but that risk is cut to 2% with proper testing and treatment (Yost, Sacramento Bee, 6/1).