Years ago, working pediatrics as a nurse, I used to care for the little boys with hemophilia who were unintentionally infected with HIV through the clotting factor that they needed to live. So heartbreaking. The fact that the unborn babies can be saved from this fate is one reason I wanted to switch and work in obstetrics.
For years, obstetricians in the US have treated HIV+ pregnant women, successfully saving the babies from transmission of the virus. I worked for years, in a hospital with 7000 births a year, serving women of all incomes, nationalities, and ages. (Prenatal care is free for the poor.) Never did we have a baby born with HIV. Many states, including Florida, test all pregnant women for HIV and treat them (free) to save their babies, if indicated. We had one HIV+ patient recently who delayed prenatal care until her 30th week of pregnancy, yet because of treatment, her infant was born virus-free.
I am happy for Cuba and their babies, but I am not leaping up and down in glee about their healthcare system. I know 2 US nurses who were physicians in Cuba before escaping to the US. The straw that broke the camel's back for them was when the wife lost her second baby at 20 weeks because she was not allowed to go on bedrest despite an incompetent cervix and the history of prior late fetal losses . She lost the baby while doing a very long cardiac surgery, and was expected to be at work the next day. Since she could not finish the surgery because she was miscarrying, a surgical tech finished, and the patient died. The doctor was reprimanded for leaving, though she was hemorrhaging. My friends have told me some pretty horrific stories about unlicensed people doing surgeries, as well as experimental treatments without consent of the subject.
From the article in the OP:
"HIV transmission from mother to child during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding has also been significantly reduced in the USA through treatment and early screening. The USA does not usually seek approval from organizations like WHO, according to Beyrer. But the CDC reported in 2010 that only 162 children living with HIV under the age of 13 were confirmed as having been perinatally infected in 46 states combined."
...And that was 2010, ages ago in the march towards knocking out HIV.
Shock report: Cuba is not the medical paradise advertised « Hot Air