Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a scourge which continues to fatally wound the physical, cultural, social, economic, political, and spiritual health achievements, hopes and aspirations of individuals, families, communities and nations. This review describes the utility of antenatal surveillance for monitoring and evaluating prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission programs in resource limited countries and generalized HIV epidemics. Population-based data sources regarding the incidence and morbidity that are associated with perinatal HIV infection are improving and indicate that prevention efforts have been enormously successful. There have been major advances with the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, and this review summarizes the successes and current challenges and provides suggestions for future directions. Viewing preventing the mother-to-child transmission as a gateway to family-based HIV care and treatment will help strengthen ties between these programs. Site-specific interventions to increase the uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs based on experiences in sub-Saharan Africa are discussed. Lessons learned can apply to many resource-constrained settings.Read More