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ObjectivesWe examined uptake of prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) services, predictors of missed opportunities, and infant HIV transmission attributable to missed opportunities along the PMTCT cascade across South Africa.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among 4–8 week old infants receiving first immunisations in 580 nationally representative public health facilities in 2010. This included maternal interviews and testing infants’ dried blood spots for HIV. A weighted analysis was performed to assess uptake of antenatal and perinatal PMTCT services along the PMTCT cascade (namely: maternal HIV testing, CD4 count test/result, and receiving maternal and infant antiretroviral treatment) and predictors of dropout. The population attributable fraction associated with dropouts at each service point are estimated.ResultsOf 9,803 mothers included, 31.7% were HIV-positive as identified by reactive infant antibody tests. Of these 80.4% received some form of maternal and infant antiretroviral treatment. More than a third (34.9%) of mothers dropped out from one or more steps in the PMTCT service cascade. In a multivariable analysis, the following characteristics were associated with increased dropout from the PMTCT cascade: adolescent (<20 years) mothers, low socioeconomic score, low education level, primiparous mothers, delayed first antenatal visit, homebirth, and non-disclosure of HIV status. Adolescent mothers were twice (adjusted odds ratio: 2.2, 95% confidence interval: 1.5–3.3) as likely to be unaware of their HIV-positive status and had a significantly higher rate (85.2%) of unplanned pregnancies compared to adults aged ≥20 years (55.5%, p = 0.0001). A third (33.8%) of infant HIV infections were attributable to dropout in one or more steps in the cascade.ConclusionA third of transmissions attributable to missed opportunities of PMTCT services can be prevented by optimizing the uptake of PMTCT services. Identified risk factors for low PMTCT service uptake should be addressed through health facility and community-level interventions, including raising awareness, promoting women education, adolescent focused interventions, and strengthening linkages/referral-system between communities and health facilities.

Background. Monitoring the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme to identify gaps for early intervention is essential as South Africa progresses from prevention to elimination of HIV infection in children. Early infant diagnosis (EID) by an HIV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is recommended at 6 weeks of age for all HIV-exposed infants. The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) performs the PCR tests for the public health sector and stores test data in a corporate data warehouse (CDW). Objectives. To demonstrate the utility of laboratory data for monitoring trends in EID coverage and early vertical transmission rates and to describe the scale-up of the EID component of the PMTCT programme. Methods. HIV PCR test data from 2003 to 2012 inclusive were extracted from the NHLS CDW by year, province, age of infant tested and test result and used to calculate EID coverage and early vertical transmission rates to provincial level. Results. Rapid scale-up of EID over the first decade of the PMTCT programme was evident from the 100-fold increase in PCR tests to 350 000 by 2012. In 2012, 73% of the estimated 270 000 HIV-exposed infants requiring an early PCR were tested and the early vertical transmission rate had fallen to 2.4% as a result of successful implementation of the PMTCT programme. Conclusions. Laboratory data can provide real time, affordable monitoring of aspects of the PMTCT programme and assist in achieving virtual elimination of paediatric HIV infection in South Africa.

Ninety percent of the world's HIV-positive pregnant women live in 22 countries. These countries, including South Africa (SA), have prioritised the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (EMTCT), measured using three coverage and two impact indicators (Fig. 1). [1] The two impact indicators are the percentage motherto-child HIV transmission (MTCT) among HIV-positive mothers (MTCT risk) and the number of new paediatric HIV infections per 100 000 live births (MTCT case rate). The global target is <5% final MTCT in breastfeeding countries and ≤50 new paediatric HIV infections per 100 000 live births. Consequently, to achieve EMTCT, all 22 countries currently recommend lifelong antiretroviral treatment for all HIV-positive pregnant and lactating women. This is known as PMTCT Option B+. Between the 1980s and 2015 the discovery of more effective biomedical interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) accelerated the improvement of global and national PMTCT policies; such rapid advancements in policy required flexible, responsive health systems, services and staff to assure implementation. [1-6] For example, in 2001 the SA national This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.

Background. South Africa (SA) is committed to achieving the goal of eliminating mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV by 2015. To achieve this, universal coverage of quality antenatal, labour, delivery and postnatal services for all women has to be attained. Over the past decade, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme has been scaled up to reach all healthcare facilities in the country. However, challenges persist in achieving 100% coverage and access to the programme. Objectives. We describe the process undertaken by the National Department of Health (NDoH), in collaboration with partners, to develop, implement and monitor a data-driven intervention to improve facility, district, provincial and national PMTCT-related performance. Methods. Between 2011 and 2013, the NDoH developed and implemented an intervention using data-driven participatory processes to understand facility-level bottlenecks to optimise PMTCT implementation and to scale up priority PMTCT actions nationally. Results. There was remarkable improvement across all key indicators in the PMTCT cascade over the 3 years 2011 -2013. Simple monitoring tools such as a visual dashboard and data for action reports were successfully used to improve the performance of the PMTCT programme across SA. MTCT has shown a significant downward trend. Conclusions. It is feasible to implement district-level, data-driven quality improvement processes at a national scale to improve the performance of the PMTCT programme at the local level.