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Sub-Saharan Africa holds 90% of the HIV-infected children worldwide and most of them are infected through vertical transmission. This project set out to assess the extent of clinic-level PMTCT prophylaxis coverage in the resource-limited setting of the Free State province, in South Africa. Adherence to treatment during the single-dose nevirapine regimen for HIV-positive pregnant women, as well as accuracy of clinic records so as to inform better service implementation were measured. A total of 1572 mother-infant pairs were included in a cross-sectional survey carried out in rural antenatal and delivery services from two health districts between 2007 and 2008. In the findings, the clinic records under-estimated maternal HIV prevalence in mothers. Also,19.4% of the HIV positive women recorded to have been offered nevirapine during labor, did not actually ingest it. The more frequently a woman sought antenatal care during pregnancy, the more likely she was to ingest nevirapine. Women who had at least 4 antenatal visits were 4.5 times more likely to adhere than women who attended services only once. Interventions are needed to improve antenatal care uptake and routine data quality.
About the author
Dr Nobubelo Ngandu has a PhD in HIV Computational Biology and an MPH in Epidemiology. Her current main research interests are in HIV molecular evolution and Epidemiology in the context of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This book presents her MPH mini dissertation, which used data from South Africa during the use of Nevirapine prophylaxis.
