leverages their core competencies for the cause of HIV.

The mandate of Connect is to engage the private sector and forge public private partnerships (PPP) for the cause of HIV and TB; and to complement the work done by the National AIDS Control Programme phase III (NACP III). NACP III had identified two areas where the need for private sector involvement was felt critical. These areas were insurance and the pharmaceutical sectors. Connect actively works with both the insurance and pharma sectors and leverages their core competencies for the cause of HIV.

Connect actively partners with pharma companies for its prevention of parent to child transmission (PPTCT) of HIV. Other than sexual transmission, sharing of contaminated needs and syringes and transfusion of infected blood products, PPTCT is the fourth route of transmission for HIV and currently the second most important source of HIV transmission.

It was estimated that 14 percent of the total HIV positive cases in India were children between the age group of 0-14 years, the vast majority of whom were believed to result from parent-to-child-transmission (1). With an estimated 27 million pregnancies per year in India, and 0.31 percent prevalence rate among ANC attendees, there were roughly 102,600 infected pregnancies per year. In the absence of any intervention, an estimated cohort of 30,700 to 35,000 infected babies would be born annually (2). This was the scenario, when Connect initiated its PPTCT work in 2007.