According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), an estimated 34
million people were living globally with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) towards
the end of 2011. The new infection rate of HIV decreased by 50% from 2010 – 2012, with the
biggest contributing factor being the reduction of child infections (UNAIDS, 2012a:8). In
2010 the number of newly infected children, in South Africa, decreased by up to 59%
(UNAIDS, 2012a:42). This reduction in the infection rate can mostly be attributed to the
implementation of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) policy in South
Africa, where 75 – 100% of HIV infected mothers receive PMTCT care (UNAIDS,
2012a:43). PMTCT care has been made available in 95% of all antenatal and maternity
facilities throughout South Africa (Goga et al., 2010:2). During 2010, in the Northern Cape,
16% of infants were exposed to HIV, of which 1.4% were HIV infected. The Northern Cape
Province had a 90% PMTCT coverage at antenatal facilities and 99.3% of all pregnant
women were tested for HIV infection (Goga et al., 2010:33).