Access To HIV/AIDS Care For Mothers And Children In Sub-Saharan Africa: Adherence To The Postnatal PMTCT Program

ADHERENCE TO THE POSTNATAL PREVENTION OF MOTHER TO CHILD TRANSMISSION (PMTCT) OF HIV/AIDS PROGRAM IN SUB SAHARAN AFRICA 

      The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and other medical industries in Sub Saharan Africa has been providing access to mothers and women about the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) program and they also provided them with basic guidelines in Sub Saharan Africa continuously but in spite with their efforts to reach out, the prevalence of HIV transmission is still rampant in most communities of Sub Saharan Africa. The comprehensive programs for HIV/AIDS care for mother requires 8 weeks postpartum check up and they are very honored about the mothers who completed the program they are the responsible parents who do not want their babies to suffer the consequence of transmission of their disease, the prevention of HIV/AIDS is in their hands that shows their love to their child.

      In their test and assessment of 2008 they have found out that the influence of commitment coming from mothers who would like to adhere to the Postnatal Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission from mothers 24 years old and below the statistic shows that out of 289 only 110 adhere to their program which is only about 38% of its total. While mothers ranging from 25 years old and above they have reached 95% adherence. Among the age group the mature people are the one who take advantage of the opportunity of being cured or at least prevent the disease transmission. It is important for these mothers that they should be motivated by their spouse to adhere to Postnatal PMTCT program; they can drive their wives to this engagement.

      Government and Non Government volunteers have been encouraging mothers to stand up and be diligent in their Postnatal PMTC program participation because the effect of such conditions can bring even more dangerous factor in life of a child when a baby is born with such disease. They offered an improved social support, medical counseling and other advice just to make the mothers understand the importance of this program. They have also offered improved antenatal and intra partum PTMCT services because they believed that this can be the best answer for the prevention of morbidity and mortality rate among newly born children in Sub Saharan Africa. According to World Health Organization in Uganda alone there are about 1 million people living in HIV/AIDS and most of them are women that make them more prone to disease transmission during pregnancy.

      The transmission risk of this disease can grow as high as 48% in Uganda and even if mothers are breastfeeding does not guarantee reduction of risk from HIV/AIDS transmission although it can guarantee that the child is given a sufficient food supplies needed. Failure of breastfeeding can also endanger the baby even more in their health conditions. Zimbabwe also has the highest numbers of HIV/AIDS infection in the world so they have also made a survey in 2006 to 2007 but the data has only been collected in 2008. The result was out of 147 women who have this disease only 95 or only 65% of them where attending the Anti Retro Viral (ART) program. As expected the adherence of women is low in this country, mostly women find it hard to attend such training program because they have their own reasons and mostly they do not have time.

      In the low income community in Sub Saharan countries in Africa they should have participated in the almost free program for their cure. Again in the study of 2008 in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe in their population they are able to encouraged more than 10,000 pregnant women to learn about antenatal care this includes training package, counseling and testing so they can be spiritually and psychologically conditioned to take the program. This also includes a follow up training after the delivery to make sure the baby will be protected and cured. In one area, the result was very accommodating of about 246 HIV/AIDS infected women all of them continue to participate.   

      There are also times that the participants struggle for such challenges in commitment when 46% says they experience long waiting time, 35% says that the laboratory testing is not reliable, 12% experience the problem in transportation and transportation expenses and most of all half of them may say they do not understand the long process. These women who suffered other problem usually disregard the treatment and settled in their day to day priorities which are usually their family and their jobs. Even with the effort of medical professionals and government to bring about cure the adherence of women to the Postnatal PMTCT program still remains unconditional and only the most interested and motivated women have been thoroughly served.   

References:

http://www.jiasociety.org/content/13/1/38                                             

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09540120802707467#preview

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277953609003335 

http://www.countriesandcities.com/regions/sub-sahara-africa.htm