HIV: Early infant diagnosis coverage low- Group

The National Coordinator of the Association of Women Living with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria, Assumpta Reginald, has said that the uptake of antenatal care, facility delivery, and early infant diagnosis coverage of human immunodeficiency virus is low.

Reginald, however, said the low uptake of facility-based services by mothers is not peculiar to women living with HIV.

Reginald said this on Thursday in Abuja at the advocacy workshop for mentor mothers on uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

She said “I am aware that the ongoing national strategic plan is moving forward to plan for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This is an extremely good development. We are, however, still far from this vision.

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“In 2020, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission coverage was 37 per cent. The uptake of ANC, facility delivery, and EID coverage is still very low. This low uptake of facility-based services by mothers is not peculiar to women living with HIV. The national data on the use of facility by women reflects that what you see with women living with HIV is a reflection of what is happening in Nigeria.

“There is evidence of good practices that success of PMTCT programming in Nigeria. All the evidence for improving maternal uptake of facility services points to the need to invest in community structures and systems. PMTCT or Elimination of mother-to-child transmission as it is called now, will require active community engagement to make the needed difference.

“We as community members have a huge concern about the poor will to invest in community systems to drive what concerns us. Investments in community systems to drive PMTCT is poor, inconsistent, and done with tokenism. It is a bridge of our rights to care to know about best practices and not institute this.

“Nigeria has success stories to tell about how the Mentor Mothers program can make the needed paradigm shift with PMTCT services. We can build on the lessons learnt with the Mentor Mothers program and bring this program to scale up. However, building and bringing to scale up cannot be done with the current practices of poor remuneration or inconsistent engagement of mentor mothers.

“Mentor mothers need to be developed as a national program with all systems and structures to support its implementation. Community systems and structures also need to be given the due visibility to drive and do what it is specialized to do.

“The USAID localisation agenda, PEPFAR, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Global Fund all speak to the need to strengthen community response and ensure the community owns their response. If there is any place where the realisation of this localisation agenda needs to be grounded in Nigeria, it is with the PMTCT programme. Funding of facility care services to the exclusion of community care services cannot move the country from a PMTCT programme paradigm to the EMTCT programme paradigm.

“Women having positive babies is not a data matter. It is a source of emotional turmoil for any woman. The emotional and physical pain of nursing a child who could have been born HIV Negative is not what anyone here will want to go through. We all have the responsibility to spare all women from such agony when we have the tool and the technical knowledge to make it happen.”

According to her, PMTCT policymakers and programmers need to develop the will to make the needed change happen.