As part of efforts to improve prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS coverage, the Rivers State Government has inaugurated 115 PMTCT healthcare providers to work in the 23 Local Government Areas (LGA) of the State.
The inauguration, which took place during the week in Port Harcourt, has a 5-man team in each LGA to monitor the availability of testing capacity in various facilities in the State.
The team comprises the Medical Officers of Health (MOH), Deputy Primary Healthcare Coordinators, HIV/AIDS Desk officers, Local Action Committee on AIDS (LACA), as well as Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Officers of the 23 LGAs.
In his goodwill message, the Director, Disease Control, Primary Healthcare Management Board (PHCMB), Dr. Ekanem Nyaranwo, charged the healthcare providers to monitor the quality of Mother-To-Child-Transmission(MTCT) of HIV/AIDS services delivered by antenatal care providers in health facilities, Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), and other unskilled provider locations in the communities to ensure that all pregnant women in the State are captured.
“I want to say here that only abou two percent of our pregnant women attend antenatal care services. You need to get to the healthcare facilities to ascertain their HIV status.
“The team should ensure that every pregnant woman seen by all service providers are tested, and testing services rendered at unskilled providers’ platforms, when diagnosed positive, should be linked to treatment”, he said.
In her presentation on the “Role of the LGA Team in PMTCT Scale-up”, Dr. Mekele Igwe, the HIV/AIDS Desk Officer, PHCMB, explained that each team at the LGA will support and monitor the utilization of the dual HIV kits at service delivery points.
They are also to develop a schedule to ensure that all antenatal care providers are visited at least once every six months, and to ensure that reporting of data generated from every service delivery point is submitted to the hub facility monthly in order to ensure accurate reporting at the LGA.
While inaugurating the teams, the South-South Coordinator of Journalists Alliance for PMTCT in Nigeria (JAPiN), Sogbeba Dokubo, charged the various teams to improve on PMTCT coverage towards ensuring elimination of MTCT in Rivers State.
She noted that “every single pregnancy is important for us to get to the point that no child in Rivers State is born with HIV”.
In his response, the Obio/Akpor Medica Officer for Health, Dr. Stanley Amadi, who spoke on behalf of members of the team, thanked the organizers of the programme, assuring that they would do everything possible to overcome the challenges facing PMTCT programme in the State.

By: Sogbeba Dokubo