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PMTCT (Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS) is one of the most powerful weapons in HIV prevention toolbox and has produced excellent results in improving maternal and child health.

PMTCT consists of following HIV-positive women during pregnancy, during breastfeeding and following the child up to 6 months after weaning. The aim of this PMTCT is to have a healthy child 6 months after the period of exposure to HIV.
As antiretroviral drugs become more widely available, this prevents HIV-positive women from infecting their babies before or after giving birth. An HIV-positive woman who is correctly following her ARV treatment, her viral load becomes undetectable and therefore can conceive and give birth to an HIV-negative child if she follows the PMTCT protocol.

PMTCT activities at Service Yezu Mwiza

We advise any woman of our active line childbearing age to take ARV treatment properly in order to have an undetectable viral load before conception. During pregnancy we closely monitor the correct intake of ART, whether the viral load remains undetectable and the health status of the mother and fetus.
After delivery, the newborn is put on ARV treatment for prevention, we also advise on feeding the newborn and the infant, if the mother chooses breastfeeding, it must be exclusive for the first 6 months by continuing ART, we also advise her to diversify the diet from 6 months and weaning at 12 months.
A mother who breastfeeds her baby

Regarding the follow-up of the child, from birth, the newborn is placed on ARVs for 12 weeks for prevention and receives Cotrimoxazole syrup until the end of PMTCT. In addition, we provide clinical follow-up (monitoring the appearance of any sign that could lead to suspicion of HIV infection) and biological follow-up (PCR1 test at birth to detect cases of early transmission, PCR2 at 6 weeks, serology at 9 months and finally another serology at 18 months and exit from PMTCT.
"From October 2018 to September 2019, out of 38 HIV-positive women, 35 children out of 38 presentations left PMTCT with negative serology, which gives us a 92% success rate; the remaining 3 we could not know their serologies because they are lost to follow-up". Says Dr. Bella, Head of Martin Royackers Clinic.
"We are very pleased to see that today all the women under PMTCT in our active population are giving birth to HIV-negative children. We are delighted with this success rate, it is thanks to the combined effort and involvement of the staff in the proper conduct of PMTCT". She adds