TAIPEI: A 5-month-old boy known as "Heibao" grows healthier day by day under the care of staff at Taipei's Home of Mercy Infant Centre.

Heibao has had a hard life, what little of it he's had. His father died shortly after he was born. His mother is in jail. Both parents were drugs addicts.

His mother was an HIV carrier. Because he received no pre-natal or neo-natal care, Heibao contracted the potentially deadly human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) too.

"Heibao is the youngest HIV-carrier in Taiwan, said Chiu Shu-mei, the director of the infant center.

But what is to come of the infant? Now comes the work of finding a home for the baby and even more importantly, adoptive parents.

Chiu doesn't think there is much chance of the little boy's being adopted by parents on Taiwan, because he observes that there are prejudices against AIDS and adoption.

Heibao's best chance in life is to be adopted by parents from abroad and that's what the Mercy Infant Centre hopes to arrange. Even if such parents can be found, the process usually is protracted into two and even three years.

Heibao is doing pretty well. He is healthy and developing normally aided by a daily drug cocktail. Perhaps the most tragic element to the story is that had Heibao's case come more quickly to the attention of authorities, HIV might have been prevented. He received no medical attention until he arrived at the Infant Centre after his mother was arrested.

Receiving medication before and after birth is critical for such infants, as proper medication in those critical periods reduces the chances of them becoming HIV-positive to under 1 percent, said Chiu, a veteran social worker who has been taking care of AIDS patients and handling AIDS-related affairs for more than 10 years.

The Department of Health (DOH) in 2005 implemented a number of measures to stem mother-to-infant HIV transmission during pregnancy. These measures focus on three major areas - disease screening, medical treatment and health care.

As a result, 95 babies born to HIV-positive mothers have tested free of the disease between 2005 and 2009, according to DOH statistics.

The department estimates that the risk of mother-to-infant HIV transmission during pregnancy drops from 45 percent to 2 percent if the mothers adopt preventive medical care.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 03/28/2009 page4)