Programme
Intervention
Running a PPTCT (Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission) of HIV/AIDS in Eleven districts of West Bengal by raising community awareness, increasing access to medical care for affected mothers. The program provides outreach support to reach the affected parents/mother through regular follow ups. Counseling and testing of pregnant women in the Integrated Counseling and Testing Centres (ICTCs). HIV positive pregnant women are given a single dose of Nevirapinetablet at the time of labour and the new born infant is given a single dose of Nevirapine
The program Outreach workers(ORWs) are mainly(>80%)reactive & act as support group for mothers or parents who seek medical aid.
Mobile Application is used for Monitoring & Health Mangement
The main aim of the program:
- Prevention of transmission of HIV in young people & women of childbearing age
- Prevention of unintended pregnancies in HIV positive women
- Prevention of transmission from an HIV positive woman to her infant
- Treatment for opportunistic infections or ART as indicated
Nearly five per cent of infections are attributable to parent-to-child-transmission. It is estimated that out of 27 million pregnancies every year, nearly 49,000 occur in HIV-positive mothers.Currently, 40% of HIV-infected women enrolled in national prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program in India are loss to follow-up (LTF) before they can receive single dose Nevirapine.It is estimated that 70,000 children below the age of 15 are living with HIV in India and 21,000 children are infected every year through parent-to-child transmission Most children are infected with the virus while still in the womb, during birth or while breastfeeding.Without interventions, there is a 20-45% chance that a baby born to an HIV-infected mother will become infected
In the absence of a prevention programme, an estimated 64,800 children are added to the HIV pool per year
Gender norms and inequalities influence all aspects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic
Lack of integration among departments like RCH(Reproductive Child Health) ; RHM (Rural Health Mission) also creating problems in HIV/AIDS Prevention
The innovation of the program lies in the following facets
- Involvement of PLWHA as outreach workers who are the keys to reaching out to women and ensuring that they make people Aware, Educate and Assist them and thus minimize the opportunity of the HIV virus to spread to more lives.
- Outreach approach, used to ensure that HIV-positive women who are tested are followed up before, during and after an institutional delivery, and provided with anti-retroviral prophylaxis
- Periodic training of Out Reach Workers on techniques, methods etc to keep them updated with present scenario and motivate them to work better.
- Tracking of LTF (Lost to Follow up)
- Promoting women’s empowerment and encouraging male involvement. The key elements of empowerment programming includes improving women’s access to information, skills, services, and technologies; encouraging participation in decision making; and fostering a group identity that can serve as a source of collective power for women. Such interventions can be integrated into existing reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programs