Gabriel Joseph, MD¹, Rikerdy Frederic, MD, Jhumka Gupta, MPH³, and Marie Petit-Michel, MPH-MIA¹. (1) Division of Community Health, HIV/AIDS Program, Hospital Albert Schweitzer, 10 Rue Clercine Cizeau, Port au Prince, Haiti, 509-232-1171, gab_jos@hotmail.com, (2) Division of Community Health, Women's Health Program, Hospital Albert Schweitzer, 10 Rue Clercine Cizeau, Port au Prince, Haiti

Background: The Hospital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) serves approximately 300,000 people in rural Haiti’s Artibonite Valley. Annually, approximately 5% of pregnant women in the HAS catchment area become infected with HIV. In April 2002, HAS began a PMTCT program in its hospital, which is now expanded to HAS’s community health centers. Program components include individual education, VCT, Nevirapine delivery, post-natal care, family planning, and infant feeding counseling. Program enrollees are encouraged to deliver in the hospital and test their infant for HIV at 9, 12, and 18 months.

In 15 months of program operation, approximately 1000 of the pregnant women in the HAS district have been tested for HIV; Of which, 64 tested HIV positive, 40 pregnant women have enrolled in PMTCT, 33 pregnancy outcomes, of which 21 mother/child pairs are being followed. Community education has led to a 50% increase of VCT acceptance among pregnant women.

Lessons learned: Preliminary findings indicate that the PMTCT program expansion to community health centers has increased the number of pregnant women accepting VCT PMTCT. Additional areas demonstrating success include integrating PMTCT into pre-existing community-based maternal-child health and family planning services, addressing clients’ confidentiality concerns, and community awareness. Improvement is needed in monitoring and evaluation and addressing gender bias.

Recommendations: 1) institute a monitoring and evaluation system to measure impact 2) Ensure that at least 8% of the programmatic budget covers monitoring and evaluation, 3) continue expanding PMTCT services at HAS community health centers, 4) integrate gender sensitization into existing community education efforts.

Learning Objectives:

• 1)Articulate the unique challenges of implementing a PMTCT program in rural Haiti
• 2)Delineate the components of the PMTCT program at Hospital Albert Schweitzer
• 3)Describe strategies for implementing lessons learned from the PMTCT Program at Hospital Albert Schweitzer

Keywords: International MCH, HIV Interventions

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Hospital Albert Schweitzer, Division of Community Health,Deschapelles, Haiti
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.