Taita Taveta cuts mother-to-child HIV transmission to 7.4%, aims below 5%
Key points
- County health officials say mother-to-child HIV transmission in Taita Taveta fell from 10.8% to 7.4% over the past year.
- The next published target is below 5%, with elimination as the longer goal.
- CECM Alfred Mlolwa told workers to find mothers and children and keep them in care, including via Nyumba Kumi and chiefs.
- Director Elvis Mwandawiro credited community dialogues and earlier antenatal attendance; training sat under the US-supported Stawisha Pwani project.
A baby still catching HIV in delivery is a system failure with a decimal point. Taita Taveta officials say that rate — mother-to-child transmission — dropped from 10.8 per cent to 7.4 per cent in a year, and they now want it under five per cent, Eastleigh Voice reported.
Health CECM Alfred Mlolwa told a training of public health officers, Community Health Promoters and Community Health Assistants that every level of the system has to find mothers and children who need services and keep them on care. He put community work on the same footing as hospital clinics and asked staff to use Nyumba Kumi, chiefs and other local structures for information and follow-up. Chief Officer Violet Mkamburi pressed promoters to get residents onto the Social Health Authority register and to show what services they actually deliver. County director Elvis Mwandawiro tied the drop to community dialogues and to women starting antenatal care earlier in pregnancy. The session, supported by the US Department of State through the Stawisha Pwani Project, closed with a work plan on prevention-of-mother-to-child-transmission indicators. None of the speakers, in this account, published the raw numerator and denominator behind 10.8 and 7.4 — how many births, how many infants tested, how many lost to follow-up.
7.4 per cent is still infants in the gap
A three-point fall is real only if testing coverage went up, not if fewer babies were tested. SHA registration is a payment rail; it is not a nevirapine dose.
Health desk: Health. Verified percentages, named officials and Stawisha Pwani support from Eastleigh Voice.
The county should release the infant-test denominator with the next scorecard. CHPs should have a public list of ANC defaulter-tracing visits, not only a workshop work plan.
National HIV programme should say how Taita Taveta’s 7.4% sits against the national MTCT estimate so one county’s slide is not mistaken for the country’s.
Readers should cross-check any deadline, fee, court date or programme claim against primary gazettes, agency circulars and court records before acting on this report.
Official gazettes, court rulings and agency circulars may update these facts after publication; readers should verify any deadline, fee or court date against primary sources before acting.
Based on Eastleigh Voice reporting of the county health briefing. Rates are official claims pending a published numerator and denominator.
