Campaign to control HIV transmission to newborns

Concerned over the rise in cases of transmission of HIV virus to newborns from HIV-infected mothers, the Union Health Ministry is gearing up to launch a nationwide scheme to control the transmission at the early stage. 

The campaign, likely to be launched in the first month of next fiscal, aims at testing women for HIV infection at the time of preganancy.

Talking to Millennium Post, Rakesh Kumar, joint secretary in the ministry, said: “Since India is in better position from other countries in HIV-infected cases, there is enough scope to control the transmission of deadly virus by testing expecting mothers. The ministry, in coordination with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), is planning to engage auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) to conduct HIV test on expecting mothers.”

To make the programme a success, NACO head NS Kang has lined up a series of initiatives such as imparting trainings to ANMs, procurement of testing kits and creating awareness about testing benefits among targeted group.

Kumar added: “The HIV test will be as simple as pregnancy test. As we have about 18,000 Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) with 83 per cent antenatal care coverage, the ministry has planned to provide testing kits to ANMs, who will also aware expecting mothers about its benefits. If detected positive to HIV, an expected mother will be treated and monitored.” 

Those who test postive to the virus will be treated with Option B+, which has the potential to reduce percentage of infected pregnant women from 15-41 to one per cent.

At present, there are 35,000 HIV positive pregnant women, of which only 13,000 were detected and the virus was detected in 5,000 babies, an alarming figure.

At present, the HIV transmission rate in the country is 4.5 per cent, which is far from the WHO target of one per cent. The Ministry has set a target to complete 90 per cent testing of expected mothers by 2020 and treatment to those mothers would directly reduce the viral transmission load. The cost of testing kit, which is being procured by NACCO, ranges from Rs 10 to Rs 14 only.