AEGiS-USIS: PEPFAR Prevents Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

PEPFAR Prevents Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV

USIS Washington File - January 30, 2008
Stephen Kaufman

Washington -- Soon after Tatu Msangi, a registered nurse from Tanzania, discovered she was pregnant, she also learned she was infected with the HIV virus. In recent years, she would have faced the prospect of passing the virus on to her unborn child. However, her ability to participate in a U.S.-funded program to prevent mother-to-child transmission has ensured that Msangi's now two-year old daughter Faith is HIV-free.

Msangi has since become a counselor at her hospital for other expectant mothers, and has used her story as an example and an inspiration to those who are HIV-positive that they also will be able to protect their children from a pandemic that has been devastating to Tanzania and elsewhere around the world.

The Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) program, involving anti-retroviral treatment for infected mothers and their children, is one of several programs funded by the five-year, $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), announced by President Bush in 2003. Since then, PEPFAR has provided treatment for more than 1.4 million men, women and children.

At his State of the Union address in Washington January 28, Bush renewed his call to double the funding for PEPFAR over the next five years to $30 billion, saying the program "can bring healing and hope to many more." Msangi and Faith witnessed the speech at the U.S. Capitol at the invitation of first lady Laura Bush. (See "Tanzanian Mother, Daughter To Be Guests at State of Union Speech.")

As a beneficiary of PEPFAR and now a worker in trying to prevent mother-to-child transmissions, Msangi welcomed Bush's call for increased funding so that help can reach more who suffer from HIV and AIDS.

"All people are important and they need this service. We really need this service because when you prevent one person from being infected, you have saved many," she told America.gov.

MSANGI REPORTS POSITIVE RESULTS IN TANZANIA

Msangi said PEPFAR's program of HIV prevention, care and treatment has yielded many positive results in Tanzania. Along with PMTCT efforts, the counseling program she has been involved with has helped those with HIV accept and understand their condition and contributed to erasing fear and stigma from their neighbors and co-workers.

Before the program, she said, many were fearful of getting tested for HIV. Now "everybody is tested when they walk in for a prenatal checkup. So it seems that it is normal now for everybody to do it [and] the program helped much to reduce stigma among the communities," she said, adding, "Without stigma - you are free."

As a counselor, Msangi informs those without HIV that abstinence is the best method for remaining free from infection, but she also gives instructions on the proper use of condoms.

Those who are infected receive care and treatment, and Msangi counsels pregnant mothers on how they can prevent the transmission of HIV to their children.

PEPFAR is "run very well," she said, and the prevention of mother-to-child transmissions "really works in Tanzania." Msangi praised the program's ability to track and follow up on those children who have been exposed to HIV, including those in remote areas of the country.

"They have a system clearly to follow those exposed children to come to the clinic until they go to be tested and they are proved negative," she said.

Asked about improvements she would like to see, Msangi said she wants PEPFAR to expand more into remote regions of Tanzania. "There are some areas where they cannot even afford to get bus fare to travel far away to seek the services. So if the service is there, nearby, so many more can be saved and enjoy the service," she said.

PEPFAR is the largest international health initiative ever initiated by one nation to address a single disease. Currently, the United States is focusing the program on Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia.

When the program was first announced in 2003, it was estimated that only 50,000 people were receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

Thanks to PEPFAR, as of September 30, 2007, approximately 1,445,500 men, women and children are receiving life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, including 1,358,500 in the 15 focus countries. Sixty-two percent of those treated in the focus countries are women and girls and nearly 86,000 are children under age 14.

For more information, please visit the PEPFAR Web site.

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