Cuba is the first country in the world to stop the transmission of the AIDS virus from mothers to their babies, the World Health Organization said Monday. 
 
 Cuba's also stopped the transmission of syphilis from mothers to newborns -- two feats that show it's possible to control epidemics of both infections. 
 
 "Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the greatest public health achievements possible," said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. "This is a major victory in our long fight against HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and an important step towards having an AIDS-free generation." 
 
 "Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the greatest public health achievements possible." 
 
 Babies can be infected with HIV at birth or by breastfeeding if the mother is infected. If the mother gets HIV drugs before and after giving birth, and if the newborn is given drugs, the risk falls to less than 1 percent. 
 
 But that means the mother must have been tested and know she is infected, and of course the drugs must be available. 
 
 WHO estimates that 1.4 million women with HIV become pregnant every year. Without treatment, there's as much as a 45 percent chance that they will infect their newborns. 
 
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 Globally, 67 percent of all pregnant women infected with HIV in low- and middle-income countries were able to get the drugs to protect their babies in 2013, WHO said. "The number of children born annually with HIV has almost halved since 2009 - down from 400,000 in 2009 to 240,000 in 2013," WHO says. 
 
 In the U.S., testing and treatment of pregnant women has made mother-to-child transmission rates plummet by more than 90 percent. In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, 162 children were infected at birth. CDC says 14 percent of Americans with HIV don't know it. 
 
 "It shows that ending the AIDS epidemic is possible." 
 
 Cuba's success should encourage donors and governments to redouble their efforts, WHO said. 
 
 "It shows that ending the AIDS epidemic is possible and we expect Cuba to be the first of many countries coming forward to seek validation that they have ended their epidemics among children," said Dr. Michel Sidibé, executive director of the United Nations AIDS agency UNAIDS. 
 
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 Similarly, stopping syphilis transmission is easy if women get antibiotics to treat the infection. WHO says nearly 1 million pregnant women worldwide are infected with syphilis annually. That translated to 360,000 babies who were born dead or died soon after birth, were born prematurely or who were born infected in 2012. ||||| A nurse (L) hands out a red ribbon to a woman, to mark World Aids Day, at the entrance of Emilio Ribas Hospital, in Sao Paulo December 1, 2014. 
 
 HAVANA The World Health Organization on Tuesday declared Cuba the first country in the world to eliminate the transmission of HIV and syphilis from mother to child. 
 
 The WHO said in a statement that an international delegation that it and the Pan American Health Organization sent to Cuba in March determined the country met the criteria for the designation. In 2013, only two children in Cuba were born with HIV and five with syphilis, the statement said. 
 
 "Cuba's success demonstrates that universal access and universal health coverage are feasible and indeed are the key to success, even against challenges as daunting as HIV," PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said in the statement. 
 
 Cuba's Communist government considers its free healthcare a major achievement of the 1959 revolution, although ordinary Cubans complain of a decline in standards since the fall of the Soviet Union, the country's former benefactor, in 1991. 
 
 The PAHO and WHO credited Cuba with offering women early access to prenatal care, HIV and syphilis testing, and treatment for mothers who test positive. The two organizations began an effort to end congenital transmission of HIV and syphilis in Cuba and other countries in the Americas in 2010. 
 
 (Reporting by Jaime Hamre; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Lisa Von Ahn)
– On at least one aspect of health care, the world's most advanced nations can now take a back seat to Cuba. The World Health Organization says Cuba has become the first country to eliminate mother-to-baby transmissions of HIV, reports NBC News. The same holds true for syphilis. Cuba did so not through some experimental treatment but through rigorous prenatal screening of pregnant women. Those who tested positive were given HIV drugs before and after giving birth, and their newborns were treated as well. When that happens, the percentage of infected babies falls to under 1%. "Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the greatest public health achievements possible," says WHO chief Margaret Chan. "This is a major victory in our long fight against HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and an important step towards having an AIDS-free generation." Cuba's policies didn't completely wipe out such transmissions—two babies were born with HIV in 2013, and five with syphilis—but the numbers met WHO's criteria for certification, reports Reuters.