Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association (Johannesburg) - May 16, 2002
"It is very painful for us to see children dying on a nearly daily basis due to this disease," project co-ordinator Anna Mowayo said at the launch of the programme at the hospital's maternity section.
"It is very sad to see children dying and you cannot do anything for them. Our people were burning out. When you see a baby gasping day in and day out it really hurts. It makes you feel that you want to get out of this profession." The expansion of the pilot project would give hope to HIV-positive women and their unborn babies, Mowayo said.
"It will help us to really do something for our patients."
She said an average of four children a week died at the hospital due to Aids-related complications. Between 200 and 500 pregnant women visited the maternity section per month.
Until recently, the government had 18 pilot sites countrywide (two in each province) for the provision of nevirapine to curb the transmission of the HI-virus to the unborn babies of pregnant women.
Gauteng was expanding the number of its sites, with three extra ones launched to date in the greater Pretoria area.
Dr Zola Njongwe, chief health department director for the Tshwane/Metsweding region, said all five acute admissions hospitals in the area would be providing nevirapine by Friday, as well as their satellite clinics.
These were the Kalafong, Pretoria West, Ga-Rankuwa, Soshanguve and Pretoria Academic hospitals.
Women visiting these hospitals and clinics would be counselled and tested for HIV. They would then be advised on taking nevirapine and on the safest feeding options available for their babies.
Mowayo said babies treated at the hospital would be observed for a period of six months and then examined again at the age of one year to monitor their progress.
Njongwe expressed relief that political tensions around the prevention of mother-to-child transmission programme had eased.
"This has freed health workers to apply their minds to how we should save children," she told the launch.
"We are here to ensure there are no more Nkosi Johnsons," Njongwe said, referring to the 12-year-old South African Aids activist who died of the disease in June last year.
The government recently appealed against a Pretoria High Court ruling ordering it to provide nevirapine to HIV-positive women at all public hospitals and clinics with the capacity to do so.
It has indicated, however, that it would start providing anti-retroviral drugs to rape victims shortly.
The focus now should be on convincing women to be tested for HIV so that they could be treated, although nevirapine did not prevent the transmission of the disease to unborn babies in all cases, Njongwe said.
About 49 percent of pregnant women refused to be tested for the disease. Of those tested, about 25 percent were HIV-positive.
Women should also be counselled on options such as abortion or sterilisation after birth, she added.
"Our ultimate aim is to have no HIV-positive mothers, if possible. It is no good for the mother or for her child."
Njongwe said it would be tragic if children saved by means of nevirapine contracted Aids later in life.
"It is our responsibility to act as advocates to our patients," she told hospital staff.
"We must make sure these children remain HIV-negative for the rest of their lives."
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