Angelina is petite and pretty. She looks down as she clutches her shawl around her shoulders. She is five months pregnant, but you wouldn’t know it. Her bump is so small on her tiny frame. She is sitting with about 30 or 40 other women in the section of Isiolo District Hospital in Kenya that deals specifically with preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child.The women are laughing and joking and there are children running around their skirts. Many are Muslim, with brightly coloured scarves wrapped around their hair. Angelina doesn’t wear a scarf and is not from the Muslim area of town. She lives in a rural area of the district, Chumviere, with her husband and two children. Gabriel is 4 years old and Sabina 2 years old.
Two months ago Angelina was vomiting and feeling very weak so came to the clinic for medicine. Whilst there, she was advised to return to be properly registered in order to receive comprehensive maternal heath care offered by the hospital. This morning she walked the 8km journey from home in order be tested for HIV and to receive the pre- and post-test counselling that is part of the services offered to pregnant women in Isiolo.
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The maternal health service checks the health of the mother, ensuring that they are getting enough nutrients, makes sure the baby’s heart beat is steady and that the baby is lying correctly, and finally they routinely counsel and test all women for HIV. Whilst there is still stigma and fear associated with HIV, in Isiolo the women are prepared to get tested in order to do the best for their baby.
Angelina knew little of HIV, but the idea of the test made her nervous. She had seen a friend, who had been married to a soldier, return to her village and die because of AIDS not long before.
“I fear it because I know it is deadly, but I am convinced I am negative,” she said.
In the counselling room, Angelina sits nervously between two tall Muslim women, for whom this process wasn’t nearly as strange or nerve wracking. They lived in the town and already know about HIV, how it was transmitted, and what they could do to protect themselves and their children. Enrolled Community Nurse, Christine Echwa, 28, counsels the women and easily breaks from Swahili to Angelina’s local language to put her ease. Christine explains what HIV and AIDS are, how HIV is transmitted and how transmission can be prevented and the implications of being either HIV positive or negative.
Angelina’s eyebrows knitted together when she heard that it was possible to infect her baby whilst in labour, through delivery and through breast feeding. She remained silent whilst the other women questioned Christine.
“Do you have any questions, Angelina,” Christine asked gently in Angelina’s local language, “do you understand?”
“Yes perfectly,” Angelina replied, looking at her feet.
If she wasn’t nervous before, she certainly looked it now. Christine explains that many women from rural areas such as Chumviere still didn’t understand the seriousness of HIV. And when they do become informed, their reaction was often of disbelief and denial. For Angelina though, the result is a happy one as her HIV test was negative. She is now registered with the hospital’s Maternal Heath Unit so that when she is ready to ask further questions, nurses like Christine will be there for her.
Although the PMTCT section of Isiolo’s District Hospital has seen a 10 fold increase in the number of women attending in the last 2 years, fewer than one in ten of HIV positive pregnant women in developing countries have access to the PMTCT (prevention of mother-to-child transmission) service and so babies continue to be born HIV-positive. UNICEF wants to increase access to these services to reach at least 80 percent by 2010, but needs funds to do it.
 Just 78 pence, could help provide the drugs needed to give to both mother and baby during and just after labour, that help prevent transmission of HIV and reduce risks from one in three to one in ten.
Just 26p will allow the vital counselling session post a woman’s HIV test which explains test results, implications, and if necessary, provides referral for social support services.
Just 52p will provide a pre-HIV test counselling session and group talk.
For as little as £2.10, you could provide a pregnant woman with a vital HIV test.
For as little as £7.00, anti-retroviral drugs can be given to the pregnant woman as early as the 28th week, for 12 weeks, that will reduce risks even more.
Donations can be made by logging on at Unicef
January 2007
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