Every mother’s dream is to have a healthy baby. NSACP provide services for antenatal mothers to deliver a baby free of any mother to child transmitted STD in collaboration with Family Health Bureau and Maternal and Childcare services of Ministry of Health.
NSACP provide services for Antenatal women for prevention, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. With the implementation of the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission program island wide service provision and testing of pregnant mothers are integrated for the maternal and child health care package though the local medical officer of health.
Services provided
- Prevention information for adolescents, premarital counselling, and antenatal mothers.
- Providing IEC material to all antenatal mothers at the clinic and mother who attend STD clinics.
- Screening every pregnant mother who attend the antenatal clinics with HIV and syphilis testing.
- Providing treatment and care services and follow up to antenatal mothers who are diagnosed with syphilis, HIV, and other Sexually transmitted infections.
Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and syphilis in Sri Lanka
The elimination of MTCT of HIV and syphilis will help to improve a broad range of maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes and also directly contribute to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), specifically MDGs 4 and 5, which aim to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health, and MDG 6, which aims to reduce the spread of HIV, malaria, and other diseases.
Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV programme was launched in the year 2002. In 2013 this programme was improved as EMTCT programme and measures were taken to scale up testing services among pregnant women throughout the country aiming at reaching >95% testing of pregnant women for HIV by end 2016. Most of the provinces of the country have already initiated the programme. Sri Lanka has satisfactory MCH services with more than 99% of the antenatal population receiving antenatal care and delivering in health care institutions. The term “validation” is used to attest that a country has successfully met criteria for EMTCT of HIV and/or syphilis at a specific point in time. “Validation of EMTCT of HIV and/or syphilis” implies that countries will also need to maintain ongoing, routine, effective programme interventions and quality surveillance systems to monitor EMTCT of HIV and/or syphilis.
Global indicators for validation for the elimination of MTCT of HIV and syphilis.
Impact indicators:
- <50 new paediatric HIV infections per 100,000 live births
- <50 new congenital syphilis cases per 100,000 live births
- Mother to child HIV transmission rate <5%
- ANC coverage at least one visit >95%
- Coverage of HIV and syphilis testing of pregnant women >95%
- ARV coverage of HIV positive pregnant women of >95%
- Treatment of syphilis seropositive pregnant women >95%
Process indicators:
According to the available statistics Sri Lanka has already achieved the impact indicators and ready for application for the WHO validation certificate.
