Kasungu — Health experts in Kasungu have blamed low patronage of men in ante-natal clinic (ANC) services as a contributing factor towards the increased cases of children being infected with HIV.

Kasungu District Health Office (DHO) Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Coordinator, Elton Chavula, told Malawi News Agency (Mana) on Wednesday after briefing the District Executive Committee (Dec) that male commitment towards making sure that women attend ante-natal services would render issues of children contracting HIV from their mothers a thing of the past.

"We have noted that most women boycott ante-natal services just because their husbands are not supportive, and not willing enough to escort their wives to such places which later retards our efforts of championing elimination of mother to child transmission," said Chavula.

He continued to say that most pregnant women in the district have defaulted in their Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) treatment a situation which has been attributed to most men not cooperative enough in assisting their spouses in making sure that they follow prescriptions," he said.

The districts statistics indicate that out of 100 women who were on ART but breastfeeding, 20 of them had stopped. Reasons given were that their spouses were not supportive by encouraging them to continue with treatment and as such women dropped out on their way.

Chavula, who is also ART Programmes Coordinator, assured the public that the newly launched Male Championship, as an intervention in such issues, villages would be awarded with trophies upon showcasing outstanding results in male motivation towards PMTCT and ART programmes.

The project is expected to see communities through Area Development Committees (ADC), Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) and other health sectors being trained in PMTCT and HIV testing. Communities will also be made aware of benefits of attending the ante-natal clinics.

Male Championship is one year K10.4 million project funded by United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and is being implemented in the district by the Kasungu District Hospital.