02 Nov 2014

Coordinator of the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) and ARV therapy programmes at Francistown District Health Management Team says it is vital for expecting mothers to make use of the ante-natal programmes offered in hospitals and other local clinics.

In an interview recently, Mr Victor Letsholathebe said some of the services covered in ante-natal programmes included pre and post counselling of HIV testing, general advice on how to take care of the unborn baby, general information on PMTCT and others. 

Mr Letsholathebe noted that as expectant mothers register for the ante-natal, they were encouraged and advised to undergo HIV testing and screening of other diseases. He said the purpose of the HIV tests is to enroll expectant mothers who tests positive for the PMTCT at an early stage.

 In this era of the HIV and AIDs pandemic, she added, the PMTCT has proved to be the number one saviour of babies who are born to HIV positive parents.  Mr Letsholathebe said though the programme has made positive strides; there are some HIV positive expectant mothers who are reluctant and tend to be shy to make use of the programme. 

“Some expecting mothers know they are HIV positive and do not enroll for the PMTCT programme, they only come to the hospital when they are due for delivery. Such factors compromise government’s efforts towards the prevention of HIV new infections,” he said.

Mr Letsholathebe also stated that others stay home and only to deliver at home, the practice he regards as unsafe.

“Giving birth is a very sensitive process which needs to be executed by well-trained people in a safe environment. The reason why there are trained midwives is for them to take care of the delivery procedure, they know what to do if any complications arise,” he said.

He also raised a concern about some people who still indulge in risky practices such as unsafe sex, continuous pregnancy of positive mothers and having sex with multi concurrent partners.

The risky practices that people indulge in always defy the efforts to sensitive and educate people about HIV and AIDS, he added.

 “We always come up with campaigns and public talks, as a way to reach out people and avail information that can help them make informed decisions. 

Despite the efforts, we continue to receive cases of new infections and the most hit hard are youth aged between 15 and 35 years.

 This clearly indicates that people do not take the advice in a serious manner,” he said

Furthermore, Mr Letsholathebe said zero new infections, zero AIDs related deaths and zero discrimination goals would be achieved if people change their mindset and refrain from risky practices and make use of information imparted to them. ENDS