Prevention of mother-to-child transmission - Technical update
In the context of AFRO Transformation Agenda which aims at meeting health’s needs and expectations of people in Africa Region, quality of care is a key performance indicator in the implementation of Reproductive, maternal, new-born, child and adolescent programs. However, quality of care can be compromised during the scaling up phase of health programs or initiatives.
The Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) program has made tremendous progress in scaling up ART in pregnant women living with HIV, building on the 2011-2015 Global Plan towards the elimination of new infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive. ART coverage in PMTCT moved from 36% in 2009 to 77% in 2015, which has resulted in 1.6 million new infections in children averted globally. Important lessons were learnt in the process that have informed the rollout of “Treat All”, as recommended by the 2016 WHO Consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection.
WHO, UNICEF and other partners of the interagency task team the elimination of MTCT (IATT) convened a large country-led workshop in August 2016 on ‘Gathering knowledge and best practices from B+ to Treat All.’ The meeting brought together 20 country[1] teams from across the Africa Region. Based on operational considerations for scaling up and enhancing quality of care in the 20 participating countries, key messages and best practices emerging from field have been summarised in this technical update to guide program managers and stakeholders in quality PMTCT intervention.
[1] Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
