BY JABULANI KAMNGOYA10:38:21 - 16 August 2007
The National Aids Commission (Nac) has revealed that last year nearly 30,000 Malawian babies were born with HIV, the virus that transmits Aids.
National Coordinator for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMCT), Michael Elia confirmed that this staggering figure was a result of the lack of specific interventions against mother to child transmission.
“Currently Malawi has a prevalence HIV infection rate of 14 percent and this has contributed to the situation,” he said.
Elia said that the ministry of health has put in place some interventions to help change the situation this year.
“We have intensified our efforts in the administering of Nevirapine to pregnant women who are HIV positive. Out of 13,000 pregnant women who were diagnosed with the virus, nearly 9,000 of them accessed Nevirapine to prevent the transmission of the virus to the unborn babies,” he said.
According to Elia, out of 134,000 pregnant women who were tested for HIV last year, 13,000 tested positive and only 69 percent of these women had access to Nevirapine, a drug meant to prevent transmission of HIV to unborn babies.
“Nevirapine was administered to 9,000 mothers and the therapy was also extended to the babies after they were born,” he said.
“Right now, we have put in place some strategies to prevent transmission during child birth. We also aim to avoid prolonged labour and other traumatic experiences which increase the chance of transmitting the virus,” he added.
The ministry of health is on a campaign to encourage all pregnant women to go for HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) to safeguard their lives and that of their unborn babies.
