Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 21:

The launching of the much-hyped comprehensive programme for the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS, which was scheduled to begin today, has been postponed due to some “unavoidable technical problems.” Officials, however, said the programme will begin within February.

According to Dr Ram Prasad Shrestha, director at the National Centre for AIDS and STD Control (NCASC), the programme could not be launched on the scheduled date as the Indra Rajya Laxmi Maternity Hospital, popularly known as Prashuti Griha, wanted a few more days for preparation to launch the programme.

“We are holding dialogues with Dr Kasturi Malla, director at the Prashuti Griha, to launch the programme at the earliest possible date and that will not go beyond this week,” he said.

“The postponement was due to abrupt change in the venue from where to launch the programme at first,” he added.

The programme was originally supposed to start from BP Koirala Institute for Health Science in Dharan. It was later decided to begin from Kathmandu due to frequent bandhs and blockades.

All the preparations were complete at BPKIHS to launch the programme, while Prasuti Griha was not ready to launch the programme on the scheduled date.

Three sites — IRL maternity hospital at Kathmandu, BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) in Dharan and Bheri Zonal Hospital at Nepalgunj — have been selected to run the programme.

The centre has initiated PMTCT as a pilot project in 2003 from Prasuti Griha. The centre, under the Ministry of Health, has been coordinating the scaling of the programme with the support from World Health Organisation and United Nations Children Fund.

The programme will address all three modes — during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding — of transmission of HIV infection from mother to child.

Under the programme, HIV infected mothers and children will be given Anti Retro Viral (ARV) Drugs and infected mothers will be discouraged from breastfeeding as a precautionary measure.

The centre had also conducted a trainers’ training to successfully implement the programme.