In Uganda, the Ministry of Health has launched a new project to address the issue of breastfeeding, as many mothers worry about post-natal transmission of HIV to their baby through breast milk.
Health programmes to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their children face a major challenge in establishing continued care from the time of pregnancy up until the child is two years of age. The Partnership for HIV Free Survival initiative was launched on 9 August, following World Breastfeeding Week, with the theme of strengthening community support for optimal breastfeeding towards a healthy well-nourished and HIV-free generation.
The event was an opportunity to solicit support from local leadership in the promotion of breastfeeding, HIV treatment, care and support. Stakeholders, development partners and communities were also called upon to join the national initiative towards elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive.
Keeping children and mothers alive
The national initiative is part of a global plan called HIV free survival developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO)*.
Uganda also recently launched the WHO’s option B+, which is an approach to eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV that is currently being rolled out in the country. There are also national guidelines that provide strategies on supporting mothers and babies living with HIV.
UNICEF reports that 18% of all new HIV infections in Uganda occur through mother-to-child transmission. It also observes that interventions to prevent this exist in only half of Uganda’s clinics.
The danger of not breastfeeding
More than one-third of deaths in children under the age of five are the result of under-nutrition, with sub-optimal breastfeeding as one of the primary causes. Yet simple, inexpensive solutions applied during pregnancy and the first 1,000 days of a child’s life present a window of opportunity in which early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding and continued breastfeeding can have a major impact and help save babies’ lives.
During the commemoration of the World Breastfeeding Week, Doctor Elioda Tumwesigye, Minister of health, said: “The recent demographic health surveys show that our infant and young child feeding practices have not been good.” He explained how only 52.5% of babies are breastfed within the first hour of birth, 63% are exclusively breastfed up to six months and 67% of babies below ten months receive complementary feeding. The impact of these numbers is reflected in another statistic with 49% of children between six months and two years being anaemic. This indicates a high risk of mortality for infants and young children.
According to UNICEF: “HIV infected mothers who choose not to breastfeed from birth…should be provided with specific guidance and support for at least the first two years of the child’s life to ensure adequate replacement feeding”. They emphasize programmes that strive to improve conditions that would make replacement feeding safer for HIV-infected mothers and families.
