ACCORDING to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 370,000 children under the age of 15 were newly infected with HIV in 2009 through mother-to-child transmission. However, in Guyana, HIV/AIDS transmission from mother to child pre and post-partum is at a relatively stable rate.
In 2001, the National Aids Programme Secretariat (NAPS), and the Maternal Child Health Department of the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with UNICEF and PAHO, launched the PMTCT Programme in Guyana, with only eight clinics at three hospital sites in Regions 4 and 6.
Today, Guyana’s PMTCT Programme has in excess of 100 sites in eight regions and, to date, has 156 sites nationwide.
Currently, efforts made to decrease and ultimately prevent the spread of HIV are still of national priority. The PMTCT programme, aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child during pregnancy, is one of the most successful HIV programmes in Guyana.
Through this programme, pregnant women receive counselling and are given Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARD) to reduce the risk of them passing on the virus to their unborn children.
The drug Zidovudine, a universally acknowledged HIV treatment drug that blocks the reverse transcriptase enzyme and changes HIV’s genetic material into DNA, is provided free of charge, without discrimination, to all HIV patients.
This drug is also critical in stopping the transfer of the virus during breastfeeding, a process for which the ministry has stringent guidelines that must be adhered to.
Post-partum detection and treatment of new-born babies, which was not available in Guyana in 2001, is today standard practice at all HIV clinics. New-born babies can now be tested via DNA testing at birth, and if proven HIV positive, are immediately administered liquid formulations of the ARV treatment.
The Ministry of Health’s dream of giving every child the opportunity of living an HIV-free life through their PMTCT interventions fully incorporates safe motherhood and childcare initiatives. While the success of the PMTCT is not an area usually vented enough, the programme continues successfully, with 97% of women having access to antenatal services.