Million dollar project aims at zero new HIV infections among infants

Efforts to reduce HIV infections from mother to child and boost survival chances of HIV positive women received a major boost with the launch of a $2m (over Shs 5bn) initiative on Monday.

The initiative, ‘Optimizing access to simplified HIV treatment to reduce new HIV infection among children in Uganda’, will support national roll-out of Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT) Option B+.

This is a treatment prevention strategy that promotes Anti-Retroviral treatment for life for all HIV positive pregnant women, irrespective of their CD4 count.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Option B+ offers higher protection against mother to child transmission in future pregnancies and a prevention benefit against sexual transmission to HIV negative male partners in discordant relationships.

Launched by the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) with support from UNICEF, the project aims at complementing the already existing initiatives over the next two years.

“Uganda is still being plagued with a high burden of HIV and women aim disproportionately more affected than men,” said Dr Alex Opio, the assistant commissioner health services in the ministry of Health. “We are aiming at reducing vertical transmission (at birth) so that we can achieve zero new infections.” 

However, Opio was concerned that male involvement in the programme remains the biggest challenge in rolling out Option B+ as many men are reluctant to accompany their wives to health facilities. To involve them, the ministry has held awareness campaigns and is providing antenatal services outside working hours so that men are able to escort their women to the health facility.

Currently, over 5,000 women, mostly in south western Uganda, have been enrolled on option B+ with a target of 70,000 by the end of the year. The strategy has four prongs to ensure that no baby is born with HIV. These include prevention of HIV among women of child bearing age, prevention of unwanted pregnancies by provision of family planning methods, provision of drugs for positive women and care and support.

The programme will also target selected districts in Karamoja region (Abim, Kaabong, Amudat, Nakapiripirit and Napak), eastern Uganda (Kamuli, Iganga and Mayuge), north Eastern (Kween) and south western Uganda (Mitooma, Kabale, Bushenyi and Rukungiri).

The project will also increase access to high quality HIV services after ascertaining one’s HIV status. EGPAF President Charles Lyons said putting all HIV-infected pregnant women on treatment will help close this gap. 

Dr Edward Bitarakwate, the EGPAF country director said that many infants born with HIV are missing out because they are not started on treatment early (a contrast to the recent miracle baby who turned HIV negative in the US).  Option B+ has been considered to support HIV women live longer and prevent infection to their babies. In Uganda, Option B+ will officially be launched on March 22.

The new project is part of a two year grant to accelerate the introduction of Option B+ onto the existing PMTCT programmes in Cote d’Ivore, DRC, Malawi and Uganda. UNICEF is co-ordinating the project with the ministry of Health in these countries based on WHO guidelines.