July 12, 2005

Doreen Kambangaji-Phiri
Lusaka

The provision of anti retroviral drugs (ARVs) to positive women in clinics has improved the prevention of paediatric HIV/AIDS, Lusaka Health District director, Dr Moses Sinkala has observed.

In an interview yesterday, Dr Sinkala said the provision of ARVs had also raised a lot of hope for positive mothers who are now able to look forward to a healthy life.

"Positive women are given a nevirapine tablet which they take at the onset of labour while the child is also given the nevirapine syrup immediately after birth," he said.

He observed that in the last year, the district had recorded an increase in the acceptance of counselling and testing especially in high-density areas where medical personnel had previously faced problems in convincing women to be tested.

Dr Sinkala said the district had also made tremendous strides in improving antenatal care, which included the training of midwives in counselling and also the provision of basic medical supplies such as testing kits for HIV and syphilis.

He said that they were also able to meet the partners and offer Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) through the Prevention Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme.

"Through this programme we are also able to identify those who need special care and treatment in the household and offer the necessary help," he said.

However, Dr Sinkala said more effort still needed to be done in order to encourage more women to be tested so that they could spare their babies from contracting the disease.

He urged women who had undergone the test to share their experience with other women in order to fight the negative attitude that some women have towards being tested.

Dr Sinkala urged the media to continue disseminating information on HIV/AIDS, as it was a major player in the fight against the disease.

Last week, health minister Dr Brian Chituwo said 39 per cent of pregnant women were giving birth to positive babies.