Health care providers trained on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS

Within the framework of its ongoing project on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, the Cameroon Baptist Convention, CBC, Health Board has been training health care providers on the “Option + “ in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

The four-sessions training took place in Bamenda and Kumbo recently with the objective to train health care providers from 29 health facilities across the region on Option B+ in order to enable them acquaint with this new Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT> protocol.

Built out of the backdrop of the scale up of Option B+ in the Northwest Region, a total of 185 personnel were empowered in this task-shifting-initiative.

Running five days each per session, participants were refreshed on modules to gain more knowledge on several domains. This included generalities of HIV, HIV counseling, Management of HIV infected women in Mother-Child-Health (MCH) services, management of infants born to HIV positive women in MCH services, Antiretroviral Therapy, adherence and defaulters, Care of the health care worker and monitoring and evaluation.

These modules were ably handled by medical doctors, the Option B+ manager and M&E/PMTCT supervisors of the project.

Addressing each of these groups of trainees, the Director of the CBC Health Board Professor Tih Pius Muffih indicated that the trainings are geared towards improving PMTCT in communities, a move by the Cameroon Ministry of public health.

The scale up expands the pilot phase of Option B+ which hitherto was implemented only in two health districts of Kumba and Bamenda.

Indicating that the Northwest region is one of the favoured regions for this scale up to be effected, Prof Tih called on the participants to own the service, put hands on deck to ensure a successful implementation phase, be fulfilled with the services of intervening in PMTCT and work as supervisors for it to be successful.

Urging the nurses to be proactive given the shortage of Doctors in the country, Prof Tih gave the example of Malawi, a country with proven record of Option B+ success where the interventions of nurses in such extensive health care endeavors have been very successful.

On his part, the NW regional Delegate for Public Health Dr Ndiforchu Victor informed participants that the government has ensured the continuous availability of drugs for patients, and it is up to them to do their work well after the training.

They promised doing their utmost best in involving the staff in their respective health facilities in a similar training in order to work towards best results. Some participants acknowledged having benefitted a lot from the training.

Dr Bawe Edwin for his part said “I am a medical doctor working at the Bafut district hospital. Concerning my pre knowledge on Option B+, I was aware that there was a pilot survey which was going on and a few centers were implementing it. I was eagerly waiting for an opportunity like this where there will be an integration of the Option B+ in other centers and also Task Shifting that is, not only doctors have to prescribe anti-retroviral drugs, but we have trained skilled midwives and nurses who are also involved in the process. I was aware initially that Option B+ was for the pregnant women and that it involves giving anti-retroviral drugs to prevent Mother to Child”.

Option B+ is about giving a single drug combination that is, the TELE; Tenofovir, Lamivudine and Efavirenz as a fixed dose combination for the pregnant woman as soon as she is detected HIV positive.

Before Option B+, Cameroon has been using WHO Option a protocol for PMTCT whereby a pregnant woman after visiting the facility is pre-counselled and tested for HIV. The post counseling ensues after the results are ready and prior to disclosing these results to the women. If the pregnant women turn out to be HIV positive, they receive ARV prophylaxis.