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Many pregnant women in Thyolo are now willing to go for voluntary HIV testing before giving birth, Medecins Sans Frontiers’ (MSF) IEC coordinator Veronica Chikafa has said.
Chikafa was speaking during an open day at Nansadi in the district, saying all this has come following the introduction of a Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission [of HIV] project by her organisation.
“So far the progress is going on well with most clients going through the whole process,” she said, describing the response as overwhelming.
According to her, the process starts with pregnant mothers going through the Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT).
“After that, mothers who test positive are given neverapine tablets at 36 weeks and the babies are also given neverapine at 72 hours,” she said.
To avert a crisis where mothers could transmit the virus to their breast feeding babies, Chikafa said MSF provides the mothers with milk.
She attributed the project’s success to the mothers’ willingness to know their sero status so that they can live positively.
Jennifer Mphoka, a mother who has tested positive for the virus, said knowing one’s sero status makes them more conscious in what they do.
“People in the villages have the misconception that most of these sicknesses are caused by witchcraft which is not the case. If only they could go for testing, they could live longer other than waste money on witchdoctors,” she said.
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