UNFPA praises Thailand for MMR and HIV vertical transmission reduction

BANGKOK, August 17 (TNA) - The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), now the United Nations Population Fund, has praised Thailand for the potential in the reduction of the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and the HIV vertical transmission rate from mothers to their newborns. Country Director for UNFPA Thailand Marcela Suazo expressed her appreciation to the Thai Kingdom's success at the 4th TICA forum, held at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangkok on August 16 to mark the 47th anniversary cooperation between the ministry's Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA) and UNFPA under the South-South Cooperation framework. Suazo said that the most outstanding and successful cooperation between UNFPA and Thailand for almost the past 50 years has been seen in the area of the maternal health. Suazo acknowledged that the MMR in Thailand had considerably dropped to 20 per 1,000 childbirth cases in 1990, from 115 per 1,000 childbirth cases in 1980, while the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vertical transmission rate from mothers to their newborns in the country had remarkably fallen to 1.9 per cent in 2015, from 20-40 per cent in 1990. According to the UNFPA country director, the successful reduction in both the MMR and the HIV vertical transmission rate from mothers to their newborns has manifested the Thai Kingdom's potential and strong partnership with UNFPA over almost the past five decades. (TNA)