Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV

A 2003-4 HIV/AIDS training needs assessment conducted in the Caribbean region identified Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV to be a priority issue.  In the Bahamas, as in other Caribbean islands, it was observed that young women were the fastest growing group testing HIV positive and out of an annual 6,000 pregnancies in the Bahamas, nearly two percent of these women were tested HIV positive.  The CHART Bahamas National Training Centre (NC) began to take a leadership role in the area of PMTCT early, since its official launch in 2004.  In 2004, the Bahamas reported a significant drop in mother to child transmission of HIV.  This was a result of concentrated efforts including capacity development activities with healthcare workers to curb this issue.

In response to the critical PMTCT training needs in the region, CHART and the International Training and Education Center on HIV (I-TECH) designed a PMTCT curriculum for use in the Caribbean, entitled Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies: Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV in the Caribbean.  Thereafter beginning with an initiative to scale-up national PMTCT training programmes throughout the Caribbean in 2005, the Bahamas set out on a long process to develop a national PMTCT curriculum.  This endeavour was spearheaded by the CHART Bahamas NC, Ministry of Health and the Bahamas HIV/AIDS Centre and involved technical assistance from I-TECH and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center (FXB) of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.   On February 19, 2007 the Bahamas National Curriculum for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV was officially launched in the Bahamas.   CHART Bahamas continues its work in this area.  It is presently working on adapting the PMTCT Continuum of Care module: Continuing Care for Mothers, Children, and Families Following Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Programmes, and providing technical assistance in PMTCT to some Caribbean countries.

As a result of the work CHART Bahamas has carried out on this issue it is becoming recognized as a "centre of excellence" in PMTCT for the region.