A ketchup drug that checks mother-to-child HIV transmission

Quito 

A programme involving the Ecuadorian government, the VIHDA foundation in Guayaquil and Duke University in North Carolina has saved at least thousand babies born from HIV-positive mothers from the threat of AIDS. 

The programme is enabling newborn babies to take their medicines efficiently - via a pouch that looks just like the small ketchup sachets you get at fast food restaurants. 

According to the UN, mother-to-child transmission in the developing world creates 260,000 new infections in children every year.

Their babies must be given antiretroviral (ARV) medication within 24 hours of birth, otherwise the risk of the infection being passed from mother to child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or during breast-feeding is around 45 per cent.

Rosa's family considers her dead after they found out she lives with HIV.

Rosa, however, is happy, because her one-year-old baby is about to be declared free of HIV.

"I don't care if my career as a teacher was ruined by this illness. Today I am happy to see my children healthy and studying."

Rosa is one of many HIV-positive women who gave birth at South America's biggest maternity hospital, the Enrique Sotomayor Hospital in Guayaquil.