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Friday, April 26, 2002 - Web posted at 7:19:05 pm GMT

Nevirapine project underway

HEALTH Minister Dr Libertina Amathila says 24 women are already part of a pilot treatment programme at Katutura Hospital aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Briefing Parliament about the progress made on the pilot project, Amathila said it started on March 15.

Of the 24, seven women and their babies have already received treatment with Nevirapine, a drug that prevents HIV-positive mothers transmitting the virus to their babies.

Two men are also receiving treatment with their partners.
The pilot programme will eventually cover 250 mothers in Windhoek and another 250 in Oshakati.

A dose of Nevirapine - a tablet given to mothers during labour and a teaspoon of syrup to the baby within the first 72 hours of birth - can cut HIV infection rates.

HIV-positive mothers involved in the project will be allowed to breast-feed for the three months they are on the treatment with their partners.

If the CD-count (a test for the level of HIV infection) of the women drops to 300, they will receive AIDS treatment, Amathila said.

Apart from providing Nevirapine, the pilot projects will establish the baseline data for measuring the effectiveness of intervention for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission while it will reduce early orphanhood.

Amathila said health personnel at Oshakati State Hospital are receiving training in counselling and how to monitor the progress of each patient through the pilot project.

Once the training is completed, 250 mothers, their partners and babies will be put on the programme.

She said the ultimate aim is to "roll out the programme" to the rest of the country.

"We are just learning. Once we roll out hospital by hospital, we will be ready. We will have specific teams in each hospital to deal with the programme," she said.

Amathila ruled out running the programme from clinics because of its complexity.

The programme was made possible with the help of a German pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim, which donated the drugs.

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