HIV Transmission From Mother To Baby Less Than Two Percent:

By Macushla N. Pinder -
Nassau, Bahamas:

Just over 100 pregnant women were identified with HIV last year, a figure that has remained virtually the same in recent years, but the vast majority of their babies were born without the virus that causes AIDS, health officials say.

According to Bernadette Saunders, senior nursing officer in the Department of Health and Bahamas representative to the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Centre, of the 105 pregnant women who were identified with HIV in 2005, only two of their babies are infected with the virus.

Mrs. Saunders explained that the infections in the babies were mainly the result of the mothers not accessing the available healthcare.

"These are women who are afraid to come for care in the first instance because they know they are HIV positive. There is still a stigma surrounding the disease here in The Bahamas," she said.

"Again, these are women who may have gone to the antenatal clinic and are afraid to go back or those who attend the clinic very late in their pregnancy. They need to come early in order to start the treatment on time."

From 1994, mother to child transmission of HIV has steadily decreased in The Bahamas from 30 percent to 10 percent, to now less than two percent, according to health officials.

This means that health officials have been able to prevent 98 percent of babies from contracting HIV from their infected mothers.

But officials say they are determined to push that figure to 100 percent.

"We will not be satisfied until we have reduced this rate to zero percent. The treatment works. It is available and it is free for everyone to access it," Ms. Saunders told the Bahama Journal following the opening ceremony of the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV Adaptation Pilot Workshop.

The weeklong workshop that is bringing together senior officials from the Ministry and Department of Health along with partners from Guyana, Jamaica and Suriname, is aimed at identifying the successes, gaps and lessons learned in implementing national PMTCT training programmes.

The goal is also to draft preliminary national PMTCT training plans and identify steps to start their rollout and develop a preliminary plan of action for enhancing PMTCT curriculum and materials.

"We now have a curriculum that has all of the country’s policies and protocols as it relates to mother to child transmission, one that would be available to nurses, doctors, social workers and pharmacists," Ms Saunders said.

Officials are hoping to have a final Prevention Mother-To-Child Transmission curriculum for The Bahamas in place by December.

"We have looked at all the materials that we would like to include in this curriculum. We have developed some of our policies as it relates to the prevention of mother to child transmission and we have a document," she said.

"When we pilot this document this week, the participants will actually give us feedback and so I think the end of the year is achievable for the final document to be in place if we continue to work at this pace."

The PMTCT has been touted as an important component of the HIV prevention programme.

Officials say there are between 39 million and 40 million people who have tested positive for HIV globally.

"We can only [win] this struggle through awareness and dissemination of factual information to all our healthcare providers," Dr. Herbert Orlander, a dermatology specialist, reminded.

Bringing remarks on behalf of Health Minister Senator Dr. Bernard Nottage was Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Elma Garraway, who said The Bahamas is achieving many successes in addressing HIV/AIDS.

"Only two weeks ago, the Lyford Cay Foundation in collaboration with the Clinton Foundation presented a new CD4 machine, which would not only help to improve the quality of life for persons living with HIV, but also add years to their lives," Mrs. Garraway said.

The machine is used to measure the blood’s content of CD4 cells that indicate how well a patient’s immune system is functioning and how far AIDS has advanced.

26 September 2006

health