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Motorcycles Facilitate Initiation of HIV Treatment for Pregnant Women with HIV in Tanzania
The Mailman School of Public Health’s International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) has provided 12 motorcycles to district council health management teams in Pwani, Kagera, and Kigoma Regions of Tanzania to support their prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV programs. The motorcycles are outfitted with specially designed cool boxes to stabilize blood samples during transport from health centers to district or regional hospital laboratories where CD4 cell counts and other tests are conducted.
Before the availability of these motorcycles, health centers had no reliable means for quickly delivering blood samples to laboratories. As a result, more than half of pregnant woman newly diagnosed with HIV could not obtain their CD4 results in a timely manner.
“Without CD4 results, health care providers could not properly stage these women and thus initiation of antiretroviral therapy was not possible,” said ICAP-Tanzania Country Director Amy Cunningham. “Now any woman visiting PMTCT centers in these networks will have access to CD4 testing and other essential blood tests for establishing their eligibility to initiate HIV treatment and to monitor their responses.”
In addition to strengthening PMTCT services, the availability of efficient sample transport systems will support early infant diagnosis and integrated tuberculosis/HIV care and treatment services.
A technician loads blood samples in a motorcycle's
cool box for transport to a district laboratory.
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