The Caribbean nation of Cuba has made significant progress in fighting HIV, the disease that causes AIDS. Through the use of certain drugs, Cuba has stopped the disease from spreading from an HIV-positive mother to her baby. The World Health Organization hailed the breakthrough, as it could revolutionize how HIV and AIDS are treated around the world. Without this treatment, HIV-positive mothers have a 15–45 percent of transmitting the disease through birth. The treatment lowers the risk to just over 1 percent. There is still no cure for AIDS, but scientists believe the disease could be eliminated by efforts like this one that prevent people from being infected with HIV in the first place.
