Cameroon: Collaborating to Prevent Mother-to-Child HIV Infection
By, Elvis Tah, The Post (Buea), January 30, 2007
It not only steals life. It steals life from spouses, children and grandchildren. That is HIV/AIDS. And that is why the Government of Cameroon has ratcheted higher the priority of preventing the transmission of the dreadful virus from mother to child.
The Government, therefore, will start scaling up anti-retroviral prophylaxis in pregnant women using bi-therapy this year.This will commence after a good number of health personnel must have received training nationwide from both private and public health centers.
A medical doctor from the Buea Provincial Hospital Annex, Dr. Pascal Nji Atanga, made this declaration at an international workshop on Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT, HIV/AIDS) held at the University of Buea from January 22 to 24 2007.
The seminar organised by the Health Bridge Foundation of Canada and sponsored by the Canadian Government through the Canadian Ministry of Health, falls within the framework of encouraging collaboration in the prevention of mother-to-child infection of HIV/AIDS in 16 countries in Africa.
Dr. Atanga said the HIV/AIDS epidemic is highly feminized in Cameroon with a ratio of 100 infected men to 170 infected women.He said the prevalence in pregnancy varies from six percent to 17 percent depending on the province.
Dr. Atanga told participants that the main objective of Cameroon (PMTCT) program is to reduce by at least 50 percent the number of HIV infected babies born to mothers who are HIV positive by the year 2010.
He, however, regretted that most spouses of positive women often refuse testing and there are a lot of dropouts in antenatal care and the labour room.He stated that in one centre the antenatal prevalence was 22 percent but that of the delivery room was 8.7 percent.
He explained that the reason for this discrepancy is that some women deliberately hide their antenatal results when they get to the delivery room.
In a presentation, Dr. Ismael Ngnie Teta, Health Specialist and Professor of Faculty of Health Science, University of Ottawa, Canada, reminded participants that for postpartum care for women who are HIV-infected, there should be continuous routine health care including pap smears and monitoring for vaginal infections; monitoring and treatment of opportunistic infections, malaria and tuberculosis and referring to anti-retroviral treatments when indicated.
Another resource person, Dr. Paul Mkandawire, a medic from the Presbyterian Synod Health Department, Malawi, said the PMTCT in Malawi provides preventive therapy to 80 percent of eligible infants until they are confirmed HIV negative.
He said they equally provide nutritional counseling to all HIV infected pregnant and lactating mothers.The seminar which drew participants from Canada, Tanzania, Malawi and a host of lecturers in the Faculty of Health Science, students of Medical Laboratory Technicians, MLT, of the University of Buea, UB, was coordinated by Dr.Ismael Ngnei Teta and Dr. Eric Achidi, Head Of Department Health Sciences, UB.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200701300804.html
It not only steals life. It steals life from spouses, children and grandchildren. That is HIV/AIDS. And that is why the Government of Cameroon has ratcheted higher the priority of preventing the transmission of the dreadful virus from mother to child.
The Government, therefore, will start scaling up anti-retroviral prophylaxis in pregnant women using bi-therapy this year.This will commence after a good number of health personnel must have received training nationwide from both private and public health centers.
A medical doctor from the Buea Provincial Hospital Annex, Dr. Pascal Nji Atanga, made this declaration at an international workshop on Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT, HIV/AIDS) held at the University of Buea from January 22 to 24 2007.
The seminar organised by the Health Bridge Foundation of Canada and sponsored by the Canadian Government through the Canadian Ministry of Health, falls within the framework of encouraging collaboration in the prevention of mother-to-child infection of HIV/AIDS in 16 countries in Africa.
Dr. Atanga said the HIV/AIDS epidemic is highly feminized in Cameroon with a ratio of 100 infected men to 170 infected women.He said the prevalence in pregnancy varies from six percent to 17 percent depending on the province.
Dr. Atanga told participants that the main objective of Cameroon (PMTCT) program is to reduce by at least 50 percent the number of HIV infected babies born to mothers who are HIV positive by the year 2010.
He, however, regretted that most spouses of positive women often refuse testing and there are a lot of dropouts in antenatal care and the labour room.He stated that in one centre the antenatal prevalence was 22 percent but that of the delivery room was 8.7 percent.
He explained that the reason for this discrepancy is that some women deliberately hide their antenatal results when they get to the delivery room.
In a presentation, Dr. Ismael Ngnie Teta, Health Specialist and Professor of Faculty of Health Science, University of Ottawa, Canada, reminded participants that for postpartum care for women who are HIV-infected, there should be continuous routine health care including pap smears and monitoring for vaginal infections; monitoring and treatment of opportunistic infections, malaria and tuberculosis and referring to anti-retroviral treatments when indicated.
Another resource person, Dr. Paul Mkandawire, a medic from the Presbyterian Synod Health Department, Malawi, said the PMTCT in Malawi provides preventive therapy to 80 percent of eligible infants until they are confirmed HIV negative.
He said they equally provide nutritional counseling to all HIV infected pregnant and lactating mothers.The seminar which drew participants from Canada, Tanzania, Malawi and a host of lecturers in the Faculty of Health Science, students of Medical Laboratory Technicians, MLT, of the University of Buea, UB, was coordinated by Dr.Ismael Ngnei Teta and Dr. Eric Achidi, Head Of Department Health Sciences, UB.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200701300804.html
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 11:28 am
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