New Telegraph

Low antenatal care uptake threatens HIV gains -Experts

…says 63% HIV positive women don’t access PMTCT

There are fresh indications the successes being recorded in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country may be eroded, if more pregnant women fail to access timely Ante Natal Care (ANC) services in health facilities.

An assistant Director, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Gbenga Ijaodola, who expressed fears over the number of pregnant women diagnosed with HIV at the point of childbirth, noted that 63 percent of HIV positive women do not have access to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) services, due to failure to uptake antenatal care services.

Speaking at a media dialogue organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday in Calabar, Cross River State, he noted that based on 27,909 DNA samples collected within two months in 2020, about 490 Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) of HIV was recorded out of the 19,715 results received.

Ijaodola, who explained that a good number of women who tested negative to HIV in the early stages of pregnancy during Ante Natal Care are found to be positive to the virus when retested just before delivery, stressed that nobody was above getting infected, as several factors could be responsible for contracting the virus at any point in time.

Giving further clarity, he noted that out of a total of 2,504,478 pregnant women who tested for HIV, 249,679 pregnant women tested negative but out of 41,509 pregnant women who were retested, 149 were found to be positive to the virus.

He said: “Nigeria contributes 22,000 new HIV infections among children. Three in four pregnant women in Nigeria are not captured at Ante Natal Care.

“Two thirds of expected pregnancies are not captured in the PMTCT reporting system, however, over 90 percent of pregnant women who do not show up at health facilities reporting PMTCT get tested for HIV. Only 28 percent of HIV exposed infants had access to early infants diagnosed in 2020.

“Pregnant women have lost confidence in the formal public health sector but they have to play down the perception they have and try to come in as early as possible. If they come in early we will be able to test and prevent transmission of HIV to their children.

“We are trying to do testing at birth and push those for treatment; and at six weeks, we will retest both the negative and positive.”

Associate Professor/Consultant Paediatrician, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Dr Atana Ewa, who noted that HIV was one if the major causes of infant and childhood mortality and morbidity in Africa, raised concerns over the increase of HIV infections through men who have sex with men (MSM).

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