A HIV free society.
Elimination of Mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV and Keeping mothers Alive by the year 2015.
Reduce rate of MTCT of HIV to less than 5% (Virtual elimination of HIV)
Reduce maternal mortality by 50%
What the program does
The program is currently implementing the four-pronged approach to Prevention of Mother to child transmission;
- Prevent HIV among women of reproductive age
- Prevent unintended pregnancies among women living with HIV Prevent HIV transmission through antiretroviral treatment during pregnancy and breastfeeding
- Treatment, care and support for mothers living with HIV, their children, partners and families
The PMTCT program provides policy guidance on identification, prophylaxis and treatment regimens for use by HIV positive pregnant and breastfeeding women. It therefore works to improve quality and coverage of PMTCT services both at the facility and community. This includes building capacity of the County Health management teams to train and supervise PMTCT services both at facility and community levels. The program creates platforms for PMTCT service awareness and demand through initiatives such as ‘Kata Shauri’ and community PMTCT.
PMTCT program is involved in resource mobilization for critical areas that require funding and are of great impact on PMTCT service provision such as the Mentor Mother initiative; it focuses on highlighting Evidence Based Initiatives and best practices which can then be adopted and scaled up in other as a strategy to improving general PMTCT service delivery.
Through integration of HIV services, the program is working towards ensuring that the HIV positive mother and her infant are followed up through ANC, Labor/ delivery at a health facility, postnatal period and the HEI through CWC at the MNCH Department for 2 years, then the pair is transferred to CCC for continuation of care which will include the sexual partner.
While at MCH, HIV care that is 4 pronged in approach will apply to the HIV positive mother, while the infant receives comprehensive Child Health Care that includes all the antigens it is eligible to getting, growth and development monitoring and all the laboratory workups.
Since 2002 the program has seen rapid acceleration and expansion of access to Prevention of Mother to child transmission services. Currently the program oversees 4761 sites that offer comprehensive PMTCT services that include counseling and testing for HIV as well as provision of antiretroviral drugs for prophylaxis and treatment to pregnant and breastfeeding women and their infants. These sites comprise GOK, FBO & Private facilities.
Through this, the program has been able to achieve coverage of Counseling and testing of over 80% in MNCH settings and provision of ARV prophylaxis/treatment of 60%. Since inception of the program has averted an estimated 50,000 new child infections
Key Strategies to improve coverage of PMTCT interventions, which are being targeted in the eMTCT initiative, are;
- Provide leadership in coordination of the eMTCT initiative as well as Increase capacity and commitment of county leadership in accounting for HIV positive women and their children
- Improving access and demand for PMTCT services
- The launch of ‘Kata Shauri’- a PMTCT communication strategy developed in response to a formative research that showed poor knowledge of PMTCT across the country. The program seeks to inform the general population on what PMTCT is so as to increase behavior change in the country. Various advertisements are running on different media channels to disseminate messages of how women who are infected with HIV can prevent transmitting HIV to their unborn child.
- Integration of Services and Strengthening of Linkages
- Community participation and increasing health facility and community linkages
- Strengthening of the Monitoring and evaluation systems
EMTCT Stock Taking Meeting (April 2015)
PMTCT Service Quality Assessment (SQA)
Review of elapsed framework and development of new framework