Integrating prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission into antenatal care: learning from the experiences of women in South Africa.
In 1999, for the first time in South Africa, a Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission (MTCT) prevention programme was implemented at the routine primary care level and not as part of a research protocol. A total of 264 women attending prenatal care in these clinics were interviewed in Xhosa using a standardized questionnaire. All had been offered HIV testing, and 95% had accepted. Women who had not been tested were four times more likely to believe that in the community families reject HIV-positive women (p<0.005). Of women who tested, 19% were HIV positive and 83% had told their partner that they had taken the test. HIV-positive women who had not disclosed testing to their partners were three times more likely to believe that, in the community, partners are violent towards HIV-positive women (p<0.005); 86% stated that they would have taken AZT if found to be HIV positive. Only 11% considered that the use of formula feeding indicated that a woman was HIV positive. In conclusion, routine prenatal HIV testing and interventions to reduce perinatal HIV transmission are acceptable to the majority of women in a South African urban township, despite an awareness of discrimination in the community towards HIV-positive women.
Etiebet
M-A
MA
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. mary-ann.etiebet@yale.edu
Fransman
D
D
Forsyth
B
B
Coetzee
N
N
Hussey
G
G
D000328:Adult; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001942:Breast Feeding; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011181:Postnatal Care / Q000379:methods; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000379:methods*; D013019:South Africa; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014505:Urban Population; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015215:Zidovudine / Q000627:therapeutic use
D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D015215:Zidovudine