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Delivering medical care to children in the remote villages of Africa.
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Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV
Mother to Child Transmission of HIV is easily preventable
WMF has been chosen by UNICEF to deliver this vital programme; Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT) constitutes roughly 30% of all HIV infections in Malawi every year. Every year in Malawi 30,000 children are born that are infected with the HIV virus. A large part of these infections can be prevented.
The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme is a cornerstone in the scale up of the HIV programmes. PMTCT is not only the single biomedical intervention with the proven potential to significantly reduce the overall incidence of HIV transmission but it also informs thousands of women and their partners on their status and helps them accessing treatment and support services.
"HIV/AIDS has become one of the major killers of children, responsible for up to two thirds of all under-five deaths in Malawi. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) is the most important source of HIV infections in children. Without any intervention, one third of these children will die by their first birthday and a half by their second birthday. Almost all of these infections could be prevented and mortality markedly reduced by the delivery of a comprehensive package of prevention and care interventions. The current coverage and uptake of services to prevent the transmission of HIV infection in most resource limited settings, including those with a high burden of HIV infection, is still too low to have a meaningful impact on the epidemic among children."
Joint Mission for PMTCT and Paediatric Treatment, Malawi, Oct 2005
Mother to child HIV transmission occur in three ways:
1.Parentally (During Pregnancies)
2.Perinatally (During delivery)
3.Breast feeding (Through milk)
Our PMTCT Programme
Nkhotakota District has an estimated population of 273,000 of whom over 92% live in a rural envoronment where 90% of the mothers deliver their children in the villages, assisted by TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants), most of whom will not have received adequate training. The entire district has just two hospitals, the St. Annes Mission and government hospital which are both located at the district headquarters, with a kilometre of each other.
The two hospitals have health centres which are intermittently distributed. They are not adequate to serve the rural population. People still have to travel on foot to reach the nearest health centre which can be as far as 30km away. Many areas are impassable during the rainy season making it impossible for patients and health personnel to reach them.
World Medical Fund's PMTCT programme operates through the current Mobile Children's Clinic via our trained PMTCT Community Nurse and clinicians.
Our PMTCT programme identifies HIV positive pregnant mothers in the clinic areas by offering VCT (Voluntary Counselling and HIV Testing) and educates them about prevention of transmission of the virus to the child. The key element is that we also work closely with the TBAs providing urgently needed training.
When the mothers to be reach the 32nd week of their pregnancy, they are given a Nevirapine tablet to take as soon as labour commences. The new born child must also receive Nevirapine, in the form of syrup within 72 hours of birth.
These simple measures drastically reduce the chances of transmission of HIV from the mother to the child.
Useful links:
Mother to Child Transmission of HIV is easily preventable
WMF has been chosen by UNICEF to deliver this vital programme; Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT) constitutes roughly 30% of all HIV infections in Malawi every year. Every year in Malawi 30,000 children are born that are infected with the HIV virus. A large part of these infections can be prevented.
The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme is a cornerstone in the scale up of the HIV programmes. PMTCT is not only the single biomedical intervention with the proven potential to significantly reduce the overall incidence of HIV transmission but it also informs thousands of women and their partners on their status and helps them accessing treatment and support services.
"HIV/AIDS has become one of the major killers of children, responsible for up to two thirds of all under-five deaths in Malawi. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) is the most important source of HIV infections in children. Without any intervention, one third of these children will die by their first birthday and a half by their second birthday. Almost all of these infections could be prevented and mortality markedly reduced by the delivery of a comprehensive package of prevention and care interventions. The current coverage and uptake of services to prevent the transmission of HIV infection in most resource limited settings, including those with a high burden of HIV infection, is still too low to have a meaningful impact on the epidemic among children."
Joint Mission for PMTCT and Paediatric Treatment, Malawi, Oct 2005
Mother to child HIV transmission occur in three ways:
1.Parentally (During Pregnancies)
2.Perinatally (During delivery)
3.Breast feeding (Through milk)
Our PMTCT Programme
Nkhotakota District has an estimated population of 273,000 of whom over 92% live in a rural envoronment where 90% of the mothers deliver their children in the villages, assisted by TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants), most of whom will not have received adequate training. The entire district has just two hospitals, the St. Annes Mission and government hospital which are both located at the district headquarters, with a kilometre of each other.
The two hospitals have health centres which are intermittently distributed. They are not adequate to serve the rural population. People still have to travel on foot to reach the nearest health centre which can be as far as 30km away. Many areas are impassable during the rainy season making it impossible for patients and health personnel to reach them.
World Medical Fund's PMTCT programme operates through the current Mobile Children's Clinic via our trained PMTCT Community Nurse and clinicians.
Our PMTCT programme identifies HIV positive pregnant mothers in the clinic areas by offering VCT (Voluntary Counselling and HIV Testing) and educates them about prevention of transmission of the virus to the child. The key element is that we also work closely with the TBAs providing urgently needed training.
When the mothers to be reach the 32nd week of their pregnancy, they are given a Nevirapine tablet to take as soon as labour commences. The new born child must also receive Nevirapine, in the form of syrup within 72 hours of birth.
These simple measures drastically reduce the chances of transmission of HIV from the mother to the child.
Useful links:
We rely entirely on your donations to continue our vital work.
wmf world medical fund
UK registered charity number 1063756
Our Mission:
To work with local communities to develop cost-effective, on the ground solutions to the problems faced by the world's most vulnerable children. Delivered in a practical way, sensitive to local culture, with minimal administrative costs.
We cannot do it without your help - we rely on your donations to continue our vital work.
To work with local communities to develop cost-effective, on the ground solutions to the problems faced by the world's most vulnerable children. Delivered in a practical way, sensitive to local culture, with minimal administrative costs.
We cannot do it without your help - we rely on your donations to continue our vital work.
Taking health care where none exists