DFID is increasing its focus on preventing mother to child transmission of HIV. The UK funds prevention of mother to child transmission programmes in Africa through UNICEF and through budget support.
In Zimbabwe, DFID is initiating a £25 million project designed to address maternal and newborn health in a comprehensive way including diagnosing HIV in pregnant women, improved obstetric care, increasing access to drugs and other pre and postnatal health services, nutritional monitoring of mother and baby with treatment for mother, father and child if they have HIV.
In Malawi, where DFID is the major donor in the health sector, with an investment of £100 million over the period 2004-10, a rapid scale up in prevention of mother to child transmission services is taking place with the aim that every pregnant woman visiting a health facility will have access to HIV prevention and treatment services. During 2005, 5,000 of 7,000 HIV positive pregnant women received a complete course of Anti Retro Viral prophylaxis. The aim is also that more HIV positive pregnant women offered help to prevent mother to child transmission are referred for care and support services—currently only one third of women are referred on. The Government, UN and other partners in Malawi are working to overcome the very real constraints associated with cultural beliefs and practices, weak health systems and structures, scarcity of health staff in the country, poverty and stigma.
In addition to core funding to UNICEF, DFID has provided over $1.5 million to an ‘Accelerating Action for Children Affected by HIV and AIDS’ programme. This gives focus to the “4 P’s—Protection, Prevention, Prevention of mother to child transmission and Paediatric AIDS”. The three year programme aims to expand and accelerate action, increase the availability and quality of evidence, improve coherence between the UN and other partners and increase the prominence of children and AIDS across the UN system.
The United Kingdom (UK) has already pledged to spend £1.5 billion on AIDS programmes between 2005 and 2008: this reflects our commitment to Universal Access. Despite this progress, much still needs to be done. In addition to funding AIDS programmes, we are supporting UNITAID, the new international drug purchasing facility, to fund second-line Antiretrovirals (ARVs), paediatric ARVs and TB and malaria drugs predominantly in low income countries. We hope that UNITAID will contribute to the necessary reductions in the prices of second-line drugs such Viread and Kaletra. The UK is also helping to strengthen the World Health Organisation (WHO) to accelerate the medicines prequalification process through UNITAID.
In Africa, DFID supports treatment specific programmes; for example, we are providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Zambia, Rwanda and also the Democratic Republic of Congo, in programmes that focus on treatment, prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). We also support treatment programmes through interventions aimed at strengthening health systems and the provision of technical assistance to Ministries of Health (MOH), for example in Malawi. Decisions on what and how to fund are made in country and are based on partner Government and other donor investments through the presence and engagement of the Global Fund to fights AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the World Bank and other bilateral funds.