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* Key step: preventive counsel
Previously, to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child, as well as the
contamination exposure for midwives during baby delivery, clinicians had to
silently test HIV for pregnant women. For any positive HIV test, practicians
found it very difficult to explain and persuade their families to do the
preventive treatment for infants before delivery. Thanks to the efficient
dissemination in this campaign, most of pregnant women voluntarily follow the
test.
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Those infants who have
been delivered by HIV-infected mothers will undergo post-delivery
tracking to prevent any possible contamination exposure to HIV. |
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In an interview with Doctor
Nguyen Manh Hoan, head of maternity 1 of Dong Nai general hospital, he said
“Thanks to the campaign, the medical counsel and HIV screening test for pregnant
women are far easier. From early September till now, we have already managed to
hold many prevention consultancies for hundreds of pregnant women. Through these
talks, the fact was that there remained a lack of HIV prevention knowledge among
many pregnant women. There were many of them simply thinking that there’s no way
for them being infected provided that their husbands remain faithful to them.
When they were informed that HIV is able to transmit through beauty services
such as acne removing, nailing, haircutting, face shaving,… many pregnant women
were terrified to realize that they have had many times to use these services.
* Just like a leverage…
The campaign’s objective is to guarantee
that 90% of pregnant women have access to the HIV/AIDS consultancy; 60% of
pregnant women have access to voluntary HIV consultancy and testing; 100% of HIV
infected pregnant women and their children have access to the prevention service
of mother-to-child transmission of HIV; 90% of HIV-infected pregnant women and
their children will be followed up and cared after delivery. However, these
objectives are hard to gain as the number of HIV-infected patients throughout
the province has not been totalized yet. Moreover, many pregnant women doing the
prenatal check-up and giving birth at maternity ward in a lot of hospitals are
not sure to doing the test voluntarily or being tested to screen HIV since
testing sticks are limited.
Also stated by Doctor Nguyen Manh Hoan, the objective is hard to achieve since
medical sources have been provided interruptedly; the counseling is not
persuasive enough for mothers to take preventive medicines for their unborn
children; some of mothers thought that their children are not sure to be
infected and they were afraid that the medicine may cause bad effects on their
children; and practicians are warned not to tell the truth about their disease,…
Even in Dong Nai general hospital, the provided testing sticks can be run out
within one week and anyone that requires to test HIV has to buy testing stick
with the price of 25,000 VND/stick.
Concerning this issue, Doctor Vo Thi Kim Loan, director of AIDS prevention and
control center, added “The campaign aims to increase the public and mother’s
awareness towards mother-to-child transmission of HIV, particularly those
pregnant women who have had no access to ARV treatment. However, HIV testing
sticks are currently provided by HIV/AIDS prevention and control office are
insufficient. The center is now asking for more supply from them and raising
fund by itself to buy a certain amount of sticks. In fact, the campaign is the
pushing effort on the prevention activities in the upcoming time. HIV-infected
pregnant women will undergo the preventive treatment from the pregnancy period
to the pre-delivery. The infants after birth will undergo the continuing
treatment and receive free supply of milk within 6 months as a substitute for
breast milk. Those kids of HIV-infected mothers will be followed up until they
are 18 months old in order to define whether they are uninfected. The campaign
as well as its prevention activities has created a great chance to please any
HIV-infected parents and reduce the risk of public transmission…”.
Reported by Dong Nai
Newspaper, Translated by TV