Embryo Project Encyclopedia Articles

To address the international Human Immunodeficiency Virus epidemic, the World Health Organization, or WHO, developed three drug treatment regimens between 2010 and 2012 specifically for HIV-positive pregnant women and their infants. WHO developed the regimens, calling them Option A, Option B, and Option B+, to reduce or prevent mother-to-child, abbreviated MTC, transmission of HIV. Each option comprises of different types and schedules of antiretroviral medications. As of 2018, WHO reported that in Africa alone about 1,200,000 pregnant women were living with untreated HIV. Those women have up to a forty-five percent chance of transmitting HIV to their offspring if they do not receive treatment. Option B+ has decreased the overall maternal mortality rates in many low- and middle-income countries, and numerous studies have supported the notion that it is the most effective of the three regimens for preventing MTC transmission of HIV.

In 2018, researchers Elie Nkwabong, Romuald Meboulou Nguel, Nelly Kamgaing, and Anne Sylvie Keddi Jippe published, “Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Health Personnel of Maternities in the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV in a sub-Saharan African Region with High Transmission Rate: Some Solutions Proposed,” in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. In their article, hereafter “Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices,” the authors state the aim of their study was to establish the knowledge, attitudes, and practices held by health professionals who worked in numerous maternal departments throughout Cameroon. They claimed that effective knowledge, attitudes, and practices would likely reduce mother-to-child, hereafter MTC, transmission of HIV. After finding a deficit in the knowledge, attitudes, and practices among a subset of health professionals, the authors recommended increased training, funding, and supervision to reduce MTC transmission of HIV throughout Cameroon.