Integrating HIV into MCH Services in Uganda

Integration planned for all levels of the health system.

Family Health Research: 2007, Vol. 1, Issue 1

The Initiative Strengthen the ability of health systems to deliver integrated services Document experiences and develop best practice materials Develop tools and guidelines Provide technical guidance on integration

Nine out of 10 pregnancies among HIV-positive women in a study in rural Uganda were unintended, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Uganda.

These preliminary findings, based on 86 pregnancies among 618 women in Tororo, Uganda, highlight the need to integrate the country's family planning and HIV services. Providing such services can help HIV-positive women avoid unintended pregnancies and contribute to preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) Africa Regional Office is promoting such an integrated approach to PMTCT in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2006 it named Uganda a learning site where different ways of providing comprehensive PMTCT services can be tested and evaluated.

"The Ministry of Health (MOH) began integrating family planning, maternal and child health, and HIV services in 2005," says Dr. Angela Akol, project director in FHI's Uganda office. "This technical support from WHO gives the ministry an opportunity to accelerate these efforts while strengthening the evidence base for integration."

A working group of reproductive health and HIV experts has laid the foundation for an integrated approach in Uganda. Its members incorporated information about how to provide and evaluate HIV services into family planning tools and guidelines. They also developed training materials and service delivery guidelines, which were used to train a central team of master trainers. Non-medical health workers will be trained to provide certain community-based services, including HIV testing and counseling.