Twelve years ago, Sam Lubega, 35, and his girlfriend Kana Bwengye decided to get married after dating for two years. But before they could push on with their plans, Bwengye became sickly and suffered frequent fevers. This prompted them to seek medical care.
At the hospital, the nurse advised them to take an HIV test.
“The results showed that both of us were HIV positive, and this changed so many things in our lives but not our plans to get married,” Bwengye says, adding that they both agreed to find a solution rather than blame each other what they called an unfortunate destiny.
Four years after the couple who currently live in Tororo District got married, Bwengye got pregnant.
PMTCT
She says that at that time, there were no clear guidelines about prevention of mother to child transmission, and information or awareness was limited.
“We did not know that we could actually have HIV negative children,” says Bwengye.
Even after attending all the required antenatal visits, Bwengye did not reveal her status to the health workers.
Lubega blames their non-disclosure at the time to stigma and fear.
In December 2004, their first child, a baby girl,
was born at Mbale hospital.
“When the baby was born, I initiated and continued breastfeeding and giving other feeds yet I was not taking any medication. However, a year later my health deteriorated and I was in and out of the hospital again,” Bwengye narrates.
“When I went to Taso they screened me and tested my CD4 count. It had dropped to 86, and the doctor recommended that I be started on treatment immediately.”
“But in the process, they did home-based counselling for other family members. They also tested my two-year-old baby girl and she tested positive.”
The baby was immediately registered as a client at The Aids Support Organisation Mbale branch, and started on paediatric anti-retroviral therapy.
Bwengye says that at the time although her husband was sickly, and had no proper source of income, he continued to support the family, ensuring they had a balanced diet to boost their immunity.
“We adhered to treatment and good nutrition, and after two years, my CD4 count had gone upto 500,”says Bwengye.
After another thorough thought and guidance, the couple opted to have another child, and in 2007 Lubega’s wife conceived.
This time, there was more information about Prevention of Mother- To Child -Transmission. Lubega took his wife to the clinic at Taso where she was immediately enrolled on the PMTCT programme.
“It was easy to follow the guidelines because I had my husband’s support. I didn’t want to have another HIV positive baby, so I took extra care and followed what the doctors said.”
In fact, her husband never missed any of the antenatal visits, and now they have an HIV negative baby.
The couple’s first child is now nine years old, and in Primary Three, while the boy, Alex Coutinho, named after the former Taso executive director is four years old.
Lubega says that talking openly about their experience has helped them get rid of the stigma usually associated with HIV/Aids.
While their experience shows the success story of the PMTCT programme in eliminating paediatric HIV/Aids in Uganda, not many couples can come out like the Lubega’s.
Success story
Dr Alex Ario, the programme officer in charge of care and treatment at the Aids Control Programme says that the success of PMTCT is dependent on several factors, but most importantly, the role of men.
He cites example of Lira Districts where the number of men who supported their HIV positive wives resulted into less children being born with HIV/Aids.
“As a matter of fact, we have designed a policy on male involvement in HIV fight and we are yet to launch it,” he says.
Overall though, at the national level, very few men accompany their wives to health facilities or even bother to know why it is important.
What is at stake?
Dr Godfrey Esiru, the officer in charge of the PMTCT programme at the Ministry of Health says out of 1.5 million women who become pregnant every year, about 96,000 are infected.
But because of limited interventions, 30 per cent of these mothers infect their children, leading to 27,000 babies being born with the virus every year.
Two-thirds of these children die before the age of three.
The national HIV/Aids indicator survey 2012, also shows that at least 16,000 babies were born with HIV in 2011 alone.
Dr Esiru says that Uganda would achieve elimination of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV if every pregnant woman tested, and those found to be positive are put on treatment.
“We would have less than 5 per cent of children born with HIV and that is the virtual elimination that we are targeting.”
This number, according to experts in the HIV sector is still high and cripples efforts to achieve zero infection of HIV/Aids.
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