Preventing Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV within HIV Proposals Funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Abstract

Objectives: To analyse interventions for the prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV (PMTCT) included in HIV proposals approved for funding by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) Methods: The global strategy for PMTCT outlines four main components. Individual approved HIV proposals submitted to the Global Fund were analysed for these componen Results: In total, 345 original HIV proposals approved for funding from Rounds 1 to 9 were reviewed. The four components of the global PMTCT strategy do not feature equally. In particular, prevention of unintended pregnancies in HIV infected women (component 2) was the least represented, appearing in 34% of the proposals. On the other hand, preventing HIV transmission from a woman living with HIV to her infant (component 3) was present in approximately 90%. However, component 2 represents the only component that consistently increased throughout the Rounds, with signs of the greatest increase between Rounds 3 and Conclusions: The global community has committed itself to accelerate progress towards the prevention of mother- to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) by 2015 through the initiative to eliminate new paediatric HIV infections. Given this commitment, it is important for countries to support comprehensive PMTCT interventions that are balanced across the four components. The Global Fund is one of the largest donors and this study shows interventions that countries could capitalize on to scale-up PMTCT efforts as well as synergize efforts in linking with other global and national initiatives in maternal, reproductive, and child health.