The Sunday News
Sukoluhle Ndlovu, Midlands Correspondent
EFFORTS to reduce the mother to child transmission of HIV are yielding results with statistics showing that six percent of pregnant mothers who tested for the virus in the second quarter of the year in the Midlands Province were positive.
This comes amid revelations that the national figure has also significantly dropped. This was heard at a National Aids Council third stakeholders meeting in Gweru last week where out of 23 014 pregnant women, a total of 1 429 were found positive.
About 90 percent of the pregnant women got tested for HIV.
Provincial Monitoring and Evaluation officer in the Ministry of Health and Childcare, Mr Tuso Tanda said 90 percent of pregnant women were tested for HIV in the province during the second quarter of the year.
Mr Tanda also said the Ministry of Health and Child Care had embarked on the exercise to encourage pregnant women to test for HIV in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT).
“As the Ministry of Health and Chid Care, we have embarked on a drive to encourage pregnant women to test for HIV in order to prevent unborn babies from getting the virus,” said Mr Tanda.
He said without treatment, the likelihood of HIV passing from mother-to-child is 15 percent to 45 percent adding that with antiretroviral treatment and other effective PMTCT interventions the percentage could be reduced to below five percent.
Mr Tanda said Midlands Province managed to surpass the target of reducing mother to child transmission although he did not mention the figures.
“The Midlands Province has so far managed to go beyond its target of HIV negative newly born babies born from positive mothers,” he said.
He said Zimbabwe had greatly improved in reducing the mother to child transmission. In 2006 the transmission rate stood at 30 percent and it has significantly dropped to 6,7 percent.
Kwekwe remains the district with the highest number of HIV positive pregnant women after it recorded 289 positive women out of 3 712 women who tested. According to statistics, Mother-To-Child Transmission (MTCT) accounts for over 90 percent of new HIV infections among children.
