TAC Gauteng march for Improved Martenl Health 02-11-07 |
Dear Journalists
TAC Gauteng will march for improvements to maternal health and the mother-to-child transmission prevention programme in Ekurhuleni District on Monday.
Date: 5 November
Time: 9am to 2pm
Meeting point: Golden Walk Dog Park (across from the Germiston Post Office)
End point: Germinston Civic Center.
For comment or further details, please call Lefa Thlame on 073 696 0532 or 011 339 8421.
For comment, please also call Nomfundo Eland on 021 788 3507.
Below is the draft of the memorandum that will be handed over.
Regards
Nathan Geffen
Memorandum to Gauteng Premier Mr Mbhazima Shilowa
Improve Maternal Health and the Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission (PMTCT) Programme
We are marching today to demand that the Gauteng Provincial Government improves maternal health and the mother-to-child transmission prevention programme.
We wrote to you on 10 October 2007. In that letter we said:
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) reiterates its concern that the Gauteng Provincial Department of Health has not yet implemented a dual antiretroviral (ARV) regimen for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT).
The aim of the PMTCT progamme is to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV from the mother to her baby. The combination of two ARV regimens, as introduced in the Western Cape Province, can lower the infection rates of newborn infants to around 5% and is recommended by the World Health Organisation, the South African Medicines Control Council and Medical Research Council.
The PMTCT programme is also an excellent opportunity to provide better health care to women with HIV. Therefore, pregnant women who enroll in the programme and are HIV-positive should be enrolled in the provincial HIV monitoring programme. Pregnant women with CD4 counts below 350 should be offered Highly Active ARV Treatment (HAART).
Even though these demands are in line with the HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Strategic Plan 2007-2011 (NSP), to date we have not received a positive answer from the Gauteng Provincial Government..
In Ekurhuleni, the capacity exists to improve the programme as follows:
a.. Every pregnant woman entering a public Maternity Obstetrics Unit should be offered an HIV test and HIV counselling. This counselling should include giving condoms to pregnant women, information on safer sex, an explanation that pregnant women have the right to choose to continue their pregnancy or terminate it and an explanation of what the PMTCT programme offers to HIV-positive women.
b.. Women who test HIV-positive should be given accurate information on infant feeding options so they can make an informed decision whether to exclusively breast-feed or use formula milk. Women who choose to breastfeed should be offered highly active antiretroviral treatment for the duration of the breastfeeding period. Women who choose to use formula milk should be given six months free supply.
c.. Women who test HIV-positive should be offered CD4 counts. Women with CD4 counts below 350 should be offered highly active antiretroviral treatment.
d.. The single-dose nevirapine regimen should be improved. At least two antiretroviral regimens for PMTCT should be used.
e.. Babies born to HIV-positive women should be given PCR tests at six weeks of age to determine their HIV-status. Babies who test HIV-positive should immediately be placed on highly active antiretroviral treatment. This is in line with the findings of the CHER study, conducted in South Africa, that treating children as soon as their HIV status is known reduces mortality.
f.. The programme needs to be properly monitored and the results of the programme should be published. The NSP commits to measuring annually the percentage of pregnant women tested for HIV, percentage of HIV-positive women who receive antiretrovirals to reduce the risk of transmission, the percentage of children born to HIV-positive women and the percentage of children born to HIV-positive women who receive PCR tests. All of this can and must be done in Ekurhuleni.
We ask you for an answer to our demands by 26 November 2007.
Signed: