Some years ago the government finally agreed to implement a prevention-of-mother-to-child transmission of HIV programme - generally known as PMTCT of HIV. This was done with some fanfare, in spite of the fact that they had been forced into doing so by court cases brought by activist groupings such as the Treatment Action Campaign. At that time, various independent health NGOs undertook pilot studies to look at how effective these newly implemented programmes were. There were problems - mainly in the health systems that were supposed to carry the programmes. There were not enough counsellors and testing equipment, which meant that women were falling through the net, with the result that their babies were born HIV positive. A recent study published in an online AIDS research journal shows that nothing much has changed - women are still falling through the net because of health systems failures. A lot is written about the stigma and fear associated with HIV and AIDS. Indeed, it is the reason always given by government for not amalgamating HIV and TB services - something that South African experts desparately want to happen in order to start to contain the two epidemics. But this paper specifically states that, in the case of PMTCT, stigma and fear have little effect on the failure of the programme - it is health system failure that is responsible. How many more such studies are going to be needed before our Department of Health stops fiddling while its people burn? People are falling sick and dying. The system is failing. We need action now.
Bridget Farham, https://www.bizcommunity.com