Dream in PMTCT male involvement campaign

The Disease Relief through Excellent and Advanced Means (Dream) has called on men in Malawi to get involved in Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) if Malawi is to eradicate the Aids pandemic by 2030.

Dream National Director Lawrence Alumando made the call on Wednesday after a big walk organised in Blantyre to sensitise more men to participate in the prevention of the spread of HIV from mother to child.

In September 2015, Heads of State and Government and High Representatives meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York made a declaration to end the pandemic by 2030.

Alumando said to achieve this, men need to be actively involved in protecting the next generation by accompanying their wives to antenatal clinics to receive HIV-related services together.

“Lack of male involvement has led to some women living in secrecy or ending up defaulting treatment for fear of being discovered by their husbands and eventually lose their marriage,” he said adding that the development has been a setback in as far as the implementation of Option B+ is concerned.

Option B+ involves starting all HIV infected expected mothers on antiretroviral therapy (ART) for life, regardless of clinical stage or CD4 count.  This has proved to have helped suppress the viral load thereby minimizing chances of a mother transmitting the virus to her unborn child.

On his part Senior Chief Kapeni of Blantyre who participated in the big walk called on local leaders to take a leading role in encouraging men to take part in protecting children from HIV.

He pledged to organise meetings with other local leaders so that they take the message across the board.

“There are many cases of men divorcing their wives accusing them of bringing HIV into the family. This is because in most cases women are the ones who get tested first especially when accessing antenatal services. It’s high time men put their egos down and starting moving with the change,” said Kapeni.

Opened in 2005 dream has 13 health facilities all over the Malawi providing comprehensive HIV services to 13 000 clients.

 

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