EXPECTANT mothers who have concerns about their potential HIV status have been urged to undergo testing within their first trimester of pregnancy.
This crucial step can significantly reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission, says WHO Fiji National Sexual Reproductive Health Laboratory and Surveillance Programme officer Dr Joseph Mun Reddy.
Dr Reddy said efforts had been made to strengthen the Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTC) program.
“So, we’re working with both the obstetrics and gynaecology and the paediatrics team to ensure we are making timely diagnosis of children born to HIV positive mothers and obviously, if you actually are focused and more targeted in your resources, then we will definitely find more cases,” he said.
“We want to identify them, put them on treatment and then ensure that they are virally suppressed and safe.”
Dr Reddy said the current point of care testing allowed people to enter a safe space, ask for a point of care screening program and receive the test results in just 15 minutes.
“They will get to know their HIV status and then immediately be linked to care because it’s the linkage to care that we also advocate for,” he said.
“There are still a lot of people who have been diagnosed in Fiji, but who do not even know that they have been diagnosed and are positive.
“So, we also encourage people who have already been tested, but do not know their status to go back to the health facility and ask for the result and if they can even be retested if they don’t have a track record of that.”
