The Philippine Experience
Pregnant women living with HIV are at high risk of transmitting HIV to their infants during pregnancy, during birth or through breastfeeding. Over 90% of new infections among infants and young children occur through mother to child transmission. About half a million babies become infected with HIV. To translate, more than 1,600 children under 15 years of age become infected with HIV everyday, mostly through mother to child transmission.
In the Philippines according to DOH National AIDS Registry, total cumulative number of PMTCT transmission documented in the Philippines are 47 cases belonging to the age group 1-11 years old. Although the numbers may still be low, it is the most opportune time to set up health systems and structures to respond to the needs.
In August 2009, Department of Health (DOH) has signed Administrative Order 2009-16 entitled “ Policies and Guidelines on the Prevention of Mother to Child transmission (PMTCT) of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The said guidelines will help ensure LGUs, treatment hubs, social hygiene clinics and rural health centers in setting-up a PMTCT unit in their respective health facilities. It is hoped that a more coordinated mechanism be installed to address the HIV continuum of care needs of PLHIV.
Currently, the PMTCT initiative is supported by Global Funds Round 6 Initiative, DOH as the Principal recipient and Remedios AIDS Foundation (RAF) as its sub-recipient (SR). Consultant team who worked for this initiative were : Dr Nerissa Isabel Sescon, FPCP Infectious disease consultant , Dr Thelma Laot FPPS RITM Consultant and Dr Jojo C Sescon, MD FPOGS Consultant.
For the third quarter of 2009, series of PMTCT capacity building workshops to popularize PMTCT were conducted targeting various health service providers from among the 13 treatment hub areas and social hygiene clinics, six (6) treatment care and support NGO partners nationwide. Follow up PMTCT orientation workshops are upcoming this November 2009 for the LGUs, Center for Health Development (CHDS).
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UNAIDS/WHO AIDS epidemic update: December 2007. Geneva, UNAIDS, 2007 http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArchive/2007/default.asp (accessed October 25 2009)