Access to and uptake of PMTCT services by pregnant women in Northern Uganda: A cross sectional assessment

Background: Considerable efforts have been made to introduce and expand programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Specific PMTCT indicators showing how service coverage is progressing are vital for both service providers and public health officials. Health facilities are expected to provide with data routinely; however, these are often irregular and incomplete with target populations difficult to estimate. In addressing the above, the Northern Uganda Malaria AIDS & TB Programme (NUMAT) employed the Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) method as a rapid, cost-effective tool to measure coverage PMTCT-related indicators.

Methods: Using the LQAS technique, randomly-selected women in reproductive age that had given birth in the two years prior to the survey were interviewed about ANC-related services they had attended. The survey was conducted in all nine districts of the Central Northern Region of Uganda.

Results: Out of 793 respondents, 737 (93%) had attended ante-natal care at least once during their last pregnancy. Of those who attended, HIV counseling was provided for 612 (83%) of them, 584 (79%) were offered a HIV test and 557 were tested for HIV (76%). Those who received their HIV test result were 523 (71% of ANC attendees) and those reporting having disclosed their result to the partner were 483 (92% of those aware of their HIV sero-status).

Recommendations: Monitoring the trend in PMTCT service utilization is crucial to assessing its performance. Standard indicators can be measured using a simple small-scale survey like the LQAS, providing information not otherwise available by routine facility-based HIS.