During an interview with Mmegi, the District Aids Coordinator Lameck Myengwa said the problem of repeated pregnancies by HIV positive women is significant in the town. He also expressed worry that women may assume the success of the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission programme implies that they are free to continue to fall pregnant. PMTCT's success rate stands at 99 percent, with only two out of 154 babies born to HIV positive mothers in Selebi-Phikwe during the first quarter of this year testing positive. He said about 20 percent of Antenatal Clinic attendees are women with known HIV positive status and 10 percent of them are already on treatment. For all the 557 delivery of babies registered in Selebi-Phikwe during the first quarter, 342 of them were HIV positive. This translates to 61 percent of deliveries being HIV positive.
"All pregnant women attend Antenatal classes where they receive counseling and advice against repeated pregnancies while HIV positive, but the trend continues. The success of the PMTCT programme may be giving them the impression that one can give birth to HIV negative children," said Myengwa. He regretted that the scenario defeats the efforts to fight the spread of the disease and stressed that PMTCT is in fact the best and most successful anti-AIDS programme if fully adhered to. He said the repeated pregnancies by HIV positive women also comes with financial implications because it is costly to provide treatment to the few babies born HIV positive.The District AIDS Coordinator said they have observed that some women fall pregnant out of fear that people around them may suspect they are HIV positive, if they do not bear children. He noted that others fear being enrolled for infant formula because they feel it would disclose their status, while others just do it out of ignorance.
