‘34 per cent kids of HIV moms are not tested till 18 months’
A National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) report has revealed that only 66 per cent of children of HIV positive mothers are tested till 18 months while 23 per cent of such vulnerable babies become untraceable and the remaining 11 per cent die before attaining 18 months of age. The report was published after Naco officials in Maharashtra studied around 11,000 HIV positive mothers along with their newborn babies.
As per Naco, it is mandatory to do all necessary tests till 18 months to find out if the baby of an HIV positive mother is HIV positive or not. According to experts, delay in providing treatment may lead to deterioration in health of the child which can lead to its death.
Ram Malkani, HIV expert from Jaslok Hospital, said, “A newborn infant with a HIV positive mother is given Nevirapine, a syrup, till six weeks of age. At the end of six weeks, CPT is initiated which continues till 18 months. Following this, using all three Rapid Antibody Tests, a confirmatory test of the baby is done. If the test result is positive, immediately, paediatric ART is stated.”
After a pregnant mother is found HIV positive, till 18 months from her delivery, the newborn is kept under observation. Also, NGOs regularly counsel parents to continue with the testing. “Early ART can help in improving mortality rate of the child. Delay in treatment increases chances of mortality,” said Dr Udaykumar Jadhav, another HIV expert.
The Naco report says that in 68 per cent of the cases where children died before 18 months, their mothers were illiterate in addition to being HIV positive. “To ensure higher rates of follow-up and retention in care of HIV-exposed babies at 18 months, we regularly counsel the couples. There are several NGOs working with us who mainly do the job,” said Dr Srikala Acharya, Director of MSACS.
However, the project has suffered another blow in the form of staff crunch. The number of incomplete tests among such vulnerable newborns may further increase as many NGOs working to spread awareness among HIV positive parents have stopped their programmes due to shortage of funds. The Asian Age in its report “Fund crunch puts infants at risk” dated Nov 30, 2015 had reported how due to lack of global funding, the awareness programme for HIV positive pregnant mothers had stopped in the state.
Case Studies Case 1: Ayesha Khan,*2-year-old succumbed to HIV in Malad last month. Both her parents are suffering from HIV but were unaware about their condition until Ayesha’s mother conceived her. After her delivery, her parents never followed up for her testing, which ultimately led to her death.
Case 2: Rani Gatkare* gave birth to a girl child but their happiness didn’t last long as like Rani and her husband, she was also diagnosed with HIV. However, now, no one knows about the baby’s whereabouts. Neither the government bodies nor NGOs can trace them or the baby.
*Names changed to protect identity
