HIV-positive women in B.C. have a better chance of giving birth to an uninfected baby than women anywhere else in the world.

The B.C. Women's Hospital & Health Centre has some of the best results in the world for treating pregnant women infected with HIV. In the past five years, only two B.C. babies have been born with the virus, according to statistics from the hospital's Women and Family HIV Centre.

For HIV-positive women who are able to take the safest drug cocktail during their pregnancies, the results are even better: no babies in the province have been born with HIV since 1997.

"Other programs are catching up, but we were the first," said Jan Christilaw, president of B.C. Women's. "It's something we're absolutely, extremely proud of. There's no question B.C. Women's is a leader in HIV care for the country."

Dr. Jack Forbes, co-director of the Women and Family HIV Centre, said the infection rate among newborns has plummeted, from 22 per cent to less than three per cent. Canada's national rate is 3.8 per cent.

"We're hoping for less than two per cent, and we're nearly there," Forbes said. "This is a very effective program and we're hugely proud of it.

"I'm putting myself out of a job -- I'm a pediatrician."

He said the centre records about 25 babies a year born to women who are HIV-positive. Some women are unable to follow the drug therapy that is most effective in reducing their viral load, and some don't know they are infected before their babies are born. But for those women who get treatment, the benefits are clear.

"We know if all HIV-positive women are taking the drug therapy, the transmission rate is zero," Forbes said.

Since 1997, 305 HIV-positive women have had babies in B.C.; eight delivered infected babies. Of those, three women were not tested for the virus during their pregnancy and four became infected with HIV during their pregnancy. One woman tested positive for HIV, but didn't believe the results and refused to take the drugs that would have prevented her baby from acquiring the infection.

Forbes said B.C. led the country in offering every pregnant woman an HIV test and was the first to establish a centre to care for adults, pregnant women and babies in the same facility, to improve treatment.