SA has charted steady and significant decreases in mother-to-child HIV transmission rates but prevention of mother-to-child HIV (PMTCT) campaigns may still be starting HIV-positive mothers on treatment too late. [s]Health-e[/s] reports that according to the latest research by the [b]Human Sciences Research Council[/b], more than twice as many new HIV infections occur in urban informal settlements than in the cities they border. To bring PMTCT services closer to mothers, the [b]Tshwane Department of Health[/b] is conducting outreach to these informal settlements. The campaign provides HIV counselling and testing, and referrals for pregnant women who test HIV-positive in hopes of catching women who might slip through cracks in the PMTCT programme.
[link url=http://www.health-e.org.za/2014/04/14/women-still-falling-pmtct-cracks]Full Health-e report[/link]