The Hindu : National : Institutional deliveries key to prevent mother-to-child transmission

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Wednesday, Apr 18, 2007
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National

National

Institutional deliveries key to prevent mother-to-child transmission

Special Correspondent

``Women need to be counselled before and after the test, and much also depends on risk perception''

NEW DELHI: A major challenge in preventing the mother to child transmission of HIV infection is the lack of institutional deliveries. Though the number of such infections is still low, controlling it depends heavily on institutional deliveries since the treatment is available only at the health centres.

Talking to reporters after the launch of ``Towards Universal Access — Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in health sector'' brought out by the World Health Organisation, the UNAIDS and the UNICEF, Sujatha Rao, Director-General, National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) said of the 27 million births annually, only 12 per cent of the expectant mothers had been tested last year. Of the 46,000 found HIV positive, only 50 per cent had access to medical care.

Ms. Rao said carrying out the test on 27 million women was not an easy task and neither was it required for all. ``Since it is voluntary, we need to counsel the women before and after the test, and much also depended on the risk perception. We are now focusing on the high-risk population such as women whose husbands migrate for work,'' she said.

High prevalence

According to Ms. Rao, some high-HIV prevalence States such as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had done exceedingly well in checking the disease due to the high percentage of institutional deliveries and expect the percentage of institutional deliveries to touch the 100 per cent mark in the next two years.

To improve the institutional deliveries, the Government will now introduce a `voucher system' wherein a pregnant woman could go to a private hospital for delivery and the cost would be paid by the Government. Under the National Aids Control Programme (NACP-III), the focus will be on the 186 districts identified as ``high risk.''

India is believed to have between 50,000 to 1 lakh HIV-infected children, of whom 43,000 are under the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART). Ms. Rao said India already had one PCR machine and would acquire six more to help in testing an infant for HIV infection. In the present system a test can be conducted only at 18 months. ``India has also taken the lead in drafting guidelines for treating HIV positive children and these are now being circulated globally,'' she added.

She said there were 4,300 testing centres at present and the 5,000 mark would be reached by the end of March next. However, the requirement was 15,000 if the facility had to be provided at the doorstep.

The Government was also involving the private sector in this initiative, she said.

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