Policy Brief NO. 3 JUly 2012
increasing the Uptake of HIV Testing in Maternal Health in Malawi Fabian Cataldo, Felix Limbani and Monique van Lettow Key Points • The key to reducing the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission is improving the uptake of HIV testing among women who have an unknown HIV status. • Pregnant women present themselves at labour wards with unknown HIV statuses and do not receive HIV testing as a result of one or more of the following factors: peer pressure, stigma surrounding testing positively, household power relations, lack of knowledge about HIV and other system-related barriers to access to care. • Findings from this study have operational and policy-level implications for the improvement of ongoing prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programming in Malawi. • The success of Option B Plus, the new PMTCT program in Malawi, depends on adequately organized health services and PMTCT service delivery. There is the
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potential to improve both by integrating cultural values and addressing current attitudes towards testing and perceptions associated with the consequences of test results.
Introduction Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is the primary means of HIV infection in children. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that 20 percent of all children born in sub-Saharan Africa are exposed to HIV; among those children, 130,000 new HIV infections occurred in 2010 (UNAIDS, 2010).