100 HIV-free births excite Gwagwalada

Authorities in Gwagwalada area council of Abuja are hoping to push forward a programme that helped prevent HIV transmission to more than 100 babies born to HIV-positive mothers last year. The Leadership Development Programme Plus, implemented by the group Management Sciences for Health, piloted in 10 health centres in Gwagwalada for six months last year, […]

Authorities in Gwagwalada area council of Abuja are hoping to push forward a programme that helped prevent HIV transmission to more than 100 babies born to HIV-positive mothers last year.

The Leadership Development Programme Plus, implemented by the group Management Sciences for Health, piloted in 10 health centres in Gwagwalada for six months last year, sought to increase the number of women attending antenatal care and testing for HIV as well as their partners testing for HIV.

Of 159 exposed babies born to HIV-positive mothers within the six-months of the programme, only two were born positive, according to results from early infant diagnosis.

Mothers of both babies did not take part in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV which the LDP+ entailed, said Dr Douglas Okoye, who worked on an oversight team for the programme.
Early infant diagnosis results for 39 other babies are still being awaited, but the researchers express hope the results will be negative.

LDP is part of MSH’s Programme to Build Leadership in Nigeria’s Health System (PLAN-Health), a five-year, $25 million programme funded by the US government in Gombe, Akwa Ibom and Abuja to help healthworkers channel their leadership skills toward improving health benefits for local populations.

Even before the six-month period for LDP+ in Gwagwalada elapsed last May, results from the pilot inspired a similar project in Kwara last year.

It began by training two healthworkers each from the 10 health centres to change workplace attitude and make their hospitals more accessible to women seeking antenatal care, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services after testing, as well as partners testing and enrolling for treatment, most using drugs provided by Institute of Human Virology Nigeria.

Antenatal attendance saw “small improvement” of at least three percent in two of the health centres, along with “huge improvement” in seven other centres where it doubled or tripled records in nine months before the LDP+ started.

But it fell by 11% in one health centre, Dagiri, after it started charging for ANC around the same time the project started in October 2012.

Uchenna Eze, a healthworker at Old Kutunku health centre, attributed flagging attendance to interest and finance.
“Most of the women were not coming because they don’t have money, don’t feel welcome when they come and didn’t feel the need for primary health care centre,” she reported at the dissemination of results before the council.

 “We are looking at a situation where in no distant time every mother in Gwagwalada will be aware of PMTCT,” said Dr Okoye.

But the involvement of men in antenatal care, PMTCT and care is seen as crucial to successful HIV prevention programme, according to MSH.

 “You still have a lot of men to get tested and be part of the programme,” said Catherine Fischer, director for MSH’s PLAN-Health programme.

The council called last week for a proposal from its health department to “help us see how we can push this forward,” said council chairman Abubakar Giri.

“Gone are the days Africans viewed HIV as the Medusa of our generation. We are now giving life and hope to those unborn,” he said in comments delivered by council secretary Usman Yahaya.

“The stigma is gradually being removed. People are seeing it is nor and we can sit and find ways to deal with it. If we can sit and deal with malaria, we can sit and remove HIV from our unborn children.”

Nigeria has one-third the global burden of children born with HIV, with estimates indicating up to 150,000 babies born HIV-positive each year.