Culture

The Plastic Pouch That Stops HIV

Researchers have found a better way to deliver antiretroviral medication to babies—via a disposable pouch like a ketchup packet.
Fundación VIHDA

The waiting room in Ecuador’s Enrique Sotomayor hospital has the feel of a Department of Motor Vehicles: chimes going off every minute to summon the next patient in line, benches crammed with pregnant women and their families, and peeling paint under fluorescent lights.

The noisy hallways in the largest maternity hospital in South America lead past a courtyard where a Virgin Mary statue presides, past a nursery with wall-to-wall bassinets, past a room the size of a gymnasium outfitted with beds for new mothers, and to a dingy pharmacy that offers a simple yet innovative treatment: a single-serving dose of antiretroviral medication for newborns.