“We saw a lot of improvement there because the country at the time … [wanted to] make sure that no-one child is born with HIV. And then later on, we forgot that by the way, infants will get infected even through breastfeeding.
“Then we started seeing the rise postnatally of children with HIV. This rise was attributed to mothers getting infected postnatally and there were no retests done when they went for healthcare services in the clinics.”
She said that while new guidelines to prevent vertical transmission were published in 2023, this was a revision of previous guidelines introduced over the years and were an improvement “based on the science presented to us”.
Since then, healthcare providers have been able to track infections better and ensure more children are placed on treatment.
This treatment, dolutegravir (DTG), is a transition from the old method, which was found to be unpalatable for babies and was thus difficult for parents to administer.
“We are still tracking the data and if we look at the transition to DTG, as per the data that was produced in March 2024, our target was 63% in terms of transitioning or the uptake of DTG for children living with HIV nine years and below. In March, we … reached that target. So there is an improvement in terms of transitioning children to DTG.
“The intention is to ensure that 95% of all children that are infected are tested. So we need to find them. At the current stage we’re standing at 82%. We need to make sure that we link all of them to treatment and care,” she said.