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Unite for Children --- Unite against AIDS

Maltati's story

Maltati is a 25-year-old mother of two. She found out she was infected with HIV when, seven months pregnant with her second child, she went to the hospital near where she lives in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, south-eastern India.

Maltati didn’t know what HIV or AIDS was. When a female counsellor at the Guntur General Hospital explained the facts to her, she felt depressed and angry. “But then she told me that I could have a healthy baby, and I felt better,” Maltati said.

For Maltati, the process involved more counselling sessions, one tablet of the potent drug Nevirapine (NVP) during delivery, and postnatal visits to the hospital to check on her health. For Kisan, her newborn son, it meant an oral dose of NVP shortly after birth, and a blood test to check for the presence of HIV infection after 18 months.

Maltati dutifully followed the advice. At the age of 18 months, Kisan was tested for the virus: the result was negative.

The hospital where Maltati gave birth is one of 37 centres in Andhra Pradesh to offer the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, a programme that is supported by UNICEF. The aim of PMTCT is to cut the transmission rate to newborns from 30 per cent (the rate without any intervention) to less than 10 per cent. With a transmission rate of 11 per cent, the Guntur General Hospital is nearly on target.

PMTCT is a ‘programme-in-progress’. Currently, there are about 300 facilities across India providing the service. The goal is to expand that to 780 by December 2005. UNICEF, in partnership with individual state National AIDS Control Societies, funds the training of medical teams on all aspects of HIV and AIDS, and provides the NVP given to mother and baby. PMTCT centres offer voluntary testing and counselling (VCT) for HIV/AIDS, often the only places where such services are available and accessible to women.

http://www.unicef.org.uk/campaigns/campaign_sub_pages.asp?page=42
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posted by here I am @ 9:04 PM