By Wendy Anders

Costa Rica became a signatory to the new global Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS at the 2016 High Level Meeting on Ending AIDS held in New York, June 8-10.

With this, the country committed to increase AIDS prevention activities to significantly reduce transmission over the next five years, and to become the second country in Latin America after Cuba to eliminate mother-to-child transmission, said the Costa Rican Ministry of Health in a press statement.

UN Member countries agreed to wipe out the AIDS epidemic by 2030 by focusing on HIV prevention; treatment, attention, support; and human rights and gender equality. The United Nations reporting system estimates that Costa Rica had 10,000 AIDS cases in 2015.

Costa Rican Health Minister Dr. Fernando Llorca Castro said his office has officially requested that the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) start the evaluation process to certify the elimination of mother-to-child transmission in Costa Rica.

CONASIDA, Costa Rica’s National AIDS Council, estimates in an April 8, 2016 report that 80 percent of the 7,344 new HIV infections in Costa Rica from 2002-2014 were in men, and of these new cases, 77 percent are currently receiving treatment. The report also states that there were no cases of mother-to-child transmission among the 50 HIV+ women who gave birth in Costa Rica in 2015.

As part of efforts to improve HIV prevention, in May 2015 the Costa Rican Social Security Bureau (CCSS), the state entity that runs all public health clinics and hospitals, approved and adopted guidelines to distribute male condoms to all people seeking public health services.

Global Fund Advocates Network (GFAN) cited in an advocacy brief The United Nationals Global Fund for AIDS’ efficacy in leveraging a $11.2 million commitment from the Costa Rican government towards funding for local HIV prevention organizations serving MSM (men who have sex with men) and transgender women, the country’s two most vulnerable populations for HIV infection.