Malawian HIV-sufferers 'deliberately getting pregnant'
13/06/2008
The Guardian has uncovered a disturbing new trend in Malawi, where HIV-positive women are reportedly getting pregnant in order to secure access to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
Approximately 14 per cent of the country's population is currently living with HIV/Aids, leading to the deaths of some 80,000 citizens every year.
While the World Health Organisation (WHO) has praised Malawi for being among Africa's foremost providers of ARV treatment, still just one in three citizens in need of the treatment has access to it.
And according to a recent article in the Guardian, many women living with HIV now appear to have found a dangerous loophole that dramatically improves their chances of benefiting from the drug.
The paper reported that large numbers of female Malawians are "knowingly getting pregnant" because they are aware it will give them access to lifesaving ARV drugs such as nevirapine.
In the absence of such treatment, approximately one in three babies born to an HIV-positive mother will contract the disease - prompting the WHO to trump prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) as a global health priority.
But as Kelita Kamoto, the ministry of health's head of HIV/Aids, explained to the Guardian, the new trend embodies a dangerous and seemingly-desperate strategy.
While the odds of receiving treatment are undoubtedly improved, still just 19,000 of the 26,000 HIV-positive women who attended prenatal clinics in 2007 secured ARV access.
Furthermore, numerous women fail to maintain the strict drug regimen necessary to ensure the best protection. "They are lost to follow-up," Dr Kamoto bemoaned, which ultimately leads to a boom in HIV-positive infants.
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