Health practitioners have noted that involvement of men in antenatal clinics may help reduce mother-child HIV transmission cases during and after birth.
According to Dr Ege Ogero who works at the Nakuru County department of health, participation of men will enable the health practitioners know the HIV status of both parents for purposes of prevention of mother-child transmission.
“At times a mother can test positive but because of the fear of revealing the status to the partners, they opt to keep quiet and even refuse to take drugs and precautions to prevent the baby from infection,” Dr Egero said.
However, Dr Egero observed that with the involvement of women and their partners, guiding them and counselling them through and after pregnancy will help reduce the transmission from mothers to babies.
In public hospitals in Nakuru, Dr Egero noted that only two percent of men visit the antenatal clinics with their patners.
“If we make it a trend that women should be accompanied by their partners, we will have move a step forward in fighting against the disease,” he said.