Under the strategy, Wife of the Lagos State Governor, Dame, is to be unveiled as the face of PMTCT/Maternal Health in the State.
The strategy will also provide an update on progress towards elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission, eMTCT, of HIV in the State in the light of the global plan targets highlighting achievements and gaps.
Goal of the initiative, which is being carried out in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, United Nations Joint Programme on HIV and AIDS, UNAIDS, United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and other relevant stakeholders, is to catalyse high level support for eMTCT of HIV and maternal deaths through the mobilisation of strategic stakeholders, including women of influence, to improve the demand for quality PMTCT services and to encourage healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies.
Lagos is working to achieve this goal to tackle concerns that in spite of existing facilities and services, the State contributes significantly to the unacceptably high national maternal deaths and the national burden of HIV, due to low utilisation of PMTCT and Family Planning services.
HIV prevalence
Data from the Lagos State Bureau of Statistics, show that with a population of 21,883,048, Lagos, with a HIV prevalence of 5.1, is one of the 12+1 States that account for 70 percent of the nation’s burden of children born with HIV based on the 2010 National HIV Sero – Prevalence Sentinel Survey.
In a statement the Lagos State Ministry of Health, noted that the campaign will enable infected pregnant mothers to have increased access to services to prevent their babies from being infected, as well as to encourage more families to embrace family planning practices.
The campaign will also stimulate commitment of critical stakeholders and provide vital information on PMTCT and a directory of functional PMTCT sites in the State.
Further, it was gathered that UNAIDS is committed to revolutionising HIV prevention policies and practices that will ignite policy makers, opinion leaders and community gate keepers to focus on populations and programmes that will make a difference attaining zero new infections.
One of such programmes is the elimination of vertical (mother-to-child) transmission of HIV and the reduction of AIDS-related maternal death by half in 2015. This mandate is clearly in line with that of UNAIDS “3 zeros” target of zero infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and UNFPA: delivering a world where every birth is safe and where every woman is treated with dignity/respect.
Projected population figures for Lagos State in 2012, showed 1,060,225 women got pregnant in that year. At an HIV prevalence of 5.1 percent, about 54,071 pregnant women are living with HIV approximately one-third of whom would, in the absence of any intervention to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, pass on the virus to their babies.
This translates to 16,468 preventable HIV infections among infants in the State in 2012 alone.
With a maternal mortality ratio of 555/100,000 live-births, Lagos State has a burden that is higher than the national figure of 545/100,000 live births, a development that negates UNFPA’s mandate of a world where every birth is safe and every child is born free of HIV.
It is against this background that the UN health agencies are supporting the State government to convene the high-level meeting of women decision-makers in the State and other critical stakeholders to identify their roles in eMTCT and maternal deaths.
Recommend us on Google!
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment