The Programme Manager, Rivers State Agency for the Control of AIDS (RIVSACA), Dr Naaziga Francis, has stated that ownership of the PMTCT processes is a major means of checking the spread of HIV in the society.

Dr Francis, who spoke recently, shortly after a PMTCT Focal Persons meeting organised by the state AIDs and STIs control programme (SASCP), stated that ownership of the PMTCT process by all stakeholders will ensure, for instance, that follow-ups are made to all, or most, HIV positive pregnant women and their children.

Ownership of the process, he explained, means that all processes put in place “to make it easier for both identified HIV pregnant women and their children access necessary health care should be closely followed to ensure that they succeed”.

Such processes, he said, include knowing the number of positive women and children.

“If you know the number of (HIV positive) women and children, you have to follow them up since you know them by name and in person.

“If you do a proper follow-up, you can also project their date of delivery, and subsequently call them to find out if they actually come to deliver in he facility, or go somewhere else. You can then know what to do either case”, he said.

He further stated that another process is proper documentation of the data of HIV positive women and their children.

Noting that lack of proper and reliable documentation of HIV positive women and their children is a major challenge, which, he said, can only be overcomed if it is diligently done from the point of diagnosis, and followed up accordingly from stage of stage..

On his part, the Coordinator of ARV Services at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Dr Alali Dan-Jumbo, said beyond documentation being done at various stages, there is also the need to motivate the PMTCT Focal persons at various levels.

“It is a well known fact that anything not documented, even if you have done it, will look as if it has not been done.

“We need to motivate the focal persons at various levels: whether it is in PMTCT, or Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E). The main challenge, I think, is at the point of reporting what you’re doing.

“This is because, most times, some persons will see writing these reports as extra work, and may not do it diligently. When his happens, it affects reliable documentation”, he. said

In her presentation on the PMTCT situation in Rivers State, the PMTCT Focal person, SASCP, Mrs Agnes Dum-Igoni, stated that PMTCT has recorded poor performance due to low Antenatal Care (ANC) service uptake, and sub-optimal ART coverage among identified positive pregnant women.

Others, according to her, are low rates of facility deliveries, low uptake of early infant diagnosis services and low reporting of services rendered especially from some health facilities providing PMTCT and unskilled providers.

She, however, noted that if all hands are on deck, most of these issues identified will a thing of the past.

By: Sogbeba Dokubo