HIV in Maternal and Child Heath: Concurrent Crises Demand Cooperation
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Published in the journal:
HIV in Maternal and Child Heath: Concurrent Crises Demand Cooperation. PLoS Med 7(7): e32767. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000311
Category:
Editorial
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000311
Summary
article has not abstract
In June, PLoS Medicine published a series of articles on interventions to tackle the burden of maternal, neonatal, and child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa and how to implement those interventions most effectively [1]–[6].
Reducing child mortality and improving maternal health are two of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed to by 191 UN member states. The lack of progress on these goals so far means that the 2015 targets for maternal and child health are unlikely to be met. In the midst of a flurry of conferences (World Health Assembly, Women Deliver 2010, Countdown to 2015 in 2010, Global Health and Global Metrics, Pacific Health Summit, and the G8 meeting in Canada) in which politicians, scientists, and public health specialists are assessing global MDG progress, one questions the extent to which these issues can ever be addressed by considering each as separate from the others. The need to adopt a more integrated approach to global health problems is starkly illustrated by the confluence of HIV/AIDS and maternal health: A recent, updated analysis of maternal deaths worldwide revealed that without the HIV epidemic there would have been an estimated 61,400 fewer maternal deaths in 2008 [7].
Indeed, Robert Black and colleagues, writing on maternal, neonatal, and child health in Africa in the PLoS Medicine series, point out a need to identify and address specific infectious disease problems as part of a stepwise process toward strengthening health systems [2]. They cite a previous study by Joy Lawn and colleagues in South Africa that reported approximately 300,000 mothers with HIV/AIDS giving birth every year, with the toll of HIV infection contributing to 57% of all child deaths. According to the same article, 7.2% of all 6-week-old infants attending their first immunization were already HIV-infected, despite a national program launched in 2000 to provide single-dose nevirapine to HIV-positive women in labor and to their infants postnatally. If South Africa were to scale up interventions for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) with appropriate feeding choices to cover 95% of mothers and newborns, more than 37,000 children could be saved each year, say the authors [8].
Although tackling HIV is a priority within the MDGs, it is linked to other infectious diseases—namely malaria and tuberculosis— and is not specifically included in the MDGs for maternal and child health. While it is clearly crucial to reduce the global burden of infectious diseases, the inclusion of HIV as only part of an infectious disease–specific health goal isolates HIV infection from the population of vulnerable women and children it affects. A stronger recognition of the linkages between HIV and maternal and child health is necessary to improve the health of these affected populations. In an example of how this can be done, last year WHO and UNICEF issued a joint statement calling for routine home visits for all newborn babies in their first week of life, especially for low–birth-weight babies and for HIV-positive women and children [9]. New WHO guidelines on PMTCT [10] emphasize the need to tackle HIV in the context of maternal and neonatal health. However, according to the HIV/AIDS charity Avert, issues surrounding implementation of PMTCT are complex and are closely linked with the stigma surrounding HIV infection. Of particular concern is the need to reach women in need of PMTCT and the provision of suitable guidance on key issues such as infant feeding. The reasons women may not access PMTCT need to be investigated more thoroughly, but they include not being offered an HIV test or refusing to take an HIV test, failure to return after a test for follow-up visits, and not adhering to self-administered drug regimens [11].
It is clear that tackling HIV as it affects all populations should not eclipse other health problems, but governments, funders, and NGOs should consider maternal and child health with the same urgency as they have the global HIV crisis. Concurrent crises should provide opportunities for synergy in global health programs, rather than competition for attention and resources. During meetings in April of this year, the Global Fund recognized the interconnectedness of maternal and child health with their core mandate around HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, and on 20 May 2010 called for new projects to link the health of women and children with disease-specific initiatives to produce a cross-cutting agenda [12]. They recommended “integrated approaches to achieve the health-related MDGs and improve health outcomes for women and children” [13]. Such approaches might include HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria interventions that are applied throughout the continuum of prepregnancy, pregnancy, birth, and childhood, and training of local health workers to promote women's access to information related to HIV and sexual and reproductive health. These types of approaches would integrate rather than separate HIV from maternal and child health.
The July issue of PLoS Medicine also features two magazine articles that further highlight the importance of tackling HIV in the context of women's and child health. Agnès Binagwaho and colleagues provide an update on the Rwanda Learning Collaborative on Child Health, which aimed to increase access to and quality of PMTCT services in the Eastern Province of Rwanda using a collaborative learning model [14]. According to the authors this quality improvement initiative provides an organizing tool to mediate change with government and NGO support. Also in this issue, Scott Kellerman and Shaffiq Essajee examine different mechanisms for HIV testing in children, arguing that a focus on child testing apart from PMTCT is long overdue [15].
Change is afoot. In his opening address to the delegates at the Women Deliver 2010 conference, Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, said that “If we integrate HIV into maternal health programs, we can make huge progress on almost every global development goal. We can stop mothers from dying of HIV and dramatically reduce maternal mortality. Let's join together.” [16]. At the same conference, Melinda Gates pledged US$1.5 billion over the next five years to stimulate investment into integrated women's and child health programs [17]. And, ahead of the G8 conference in Canada, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director for Management and External Relations Jan Beagle called for an integrated approach bringing together MDGs 4, 5, and 6 and said that “As HIV is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age, the global response to AIDS can and must be leveraged more effectively to meet women's health needs” [18]. It seems that the time has come to stop tackling infectious diseases, specifically HIV, in isolation from other health goals, and instead to examine the opportunities for integrating and scaling up delivery of HIV prevention and treatment services within the context of maternal and child health care.
Zdroje
1. The PLoS Medicine Editors 2010 Maternal Health: Time to Deliver. PLoS Med 7(6) e1000300 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000300
2. KinneyMV
KerberKJ
BlackRE
CohenB
NkrumahF
2010 Sub-Saharan Africa's Mothers, Newborns, and Children: Where and Why Do They Die? PLoS Med 7 e294 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000294
3. FribergIK
KinneyMV
LawnJE
KerberKJ
OdubanjoMO
2010 Sub-Saharan Africa's Mothers, Newborns, and Children: How Many Lives Could Be Saved with Targeted Health Interventions? PLoS Med 7 e295 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000295
4. WhitworthJ
SewankamboNK
SnewinVA
2010 Improving Implementation: Building Research Capacity in Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health in Africa. PLoS Med 7(7) e1000299 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000299
5. RudanI
KapiririL
TomlinsonM
BallietM
CohenB
2010 Evidence-Based Priority Setting for Health Care and Research: Tools to Support Policy in Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health in Africa. PLoS Med 7(7) e1000308 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000308
6. BennettS
SsengoobaF
2010 Closing the Gaps: From Science to Action in Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Africa. PLoS Med 7(6) e1000298 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000298
7. HoganMC
ForemanKJ
NaghaviM
AhnSY
WangM
2010 Maternal mortality for 181 countries, 1980–2008: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5. Lancet 375 1609 1623
8. ChopraM
DaviaudE
PattinsonR
FonnS
LawnJE
2009 Saving the lives of South Africa's mothers, babies, and children: can the health system deliver? Lancet 374 835 846
9. WHO 2009 WHO/UNICEF joint statement: Home visits for the newborn child: A strategy to improve survival. Available: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2009/WHO_FCH_CAH_09.02_eng.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2010
10. WHO 2009 Rapid advice: Use of antiretroviral drugs for treating pregnant women and preventing HIV infection in infants. Available: http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/mtct/advice/en/index.html. Accessed 10 June 2010
11. AVERT 2010 Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). Available: http://www.avert.org/motherchild.htm. Accessed 10 June 2010
12. Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights 2010 Global fund to emphasise maternal and child health, family planning. Available: http://www.wgnrr.org/news/global-fund-emphasise-maternal-and-child-health-family-planning. Accessed 10 June 2010
13. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 2010 Scaling up investments in women and children to accelerate progress towards MDGS 4, 5, and 6. Available: http://www.theglobalfund.org/documents/performance/GF_Support_MDG_4_5.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2010
14. KimJY
LimY
RichM
StulacS
BoscoNJ
2010 Improving Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Care and Related Services in Eastern Rwanda. PLoS Med 7 e302 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000302
15. KellermanS
EssajeeS
2010 HIV Testing for Children in Resource-Limited Settings: What Are We Waiting For? PLoS Med 7 285 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000285
16. UNAIDS 2010 Women deliver conference focuses on MDG5. Available: http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/FeatureStories/archive/2010/20100608_Women_Deliver.asp. Accessed 23 June 2010
17. FoxM
2010 Gates foundation gives $1.5 bln for women's health. Available: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65658R20100608. Accessed 10 June 2010
18. UNAIDS 2010 Linking maternal and child health to AIDS ahead of G8 summit. Available: http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/FeatureStories/archive/2010/201005226_Ottawa_G8.asp. Accessed 10 June 2010
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