Journey to the Motherland: Assessing Capacity for the Prevention of HIV Mother-to-Child Transmission in South Africa

Strategies to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV have successfully affected pediatric HIV infections in many developed countries, but not as dramatically in developing countries. This article presents the findings and perspectives of a team of public health nurses who visited and assessed capacity of selected antenatal clinics across South Africa to successfully implement and evaluate HIV prevention of maternal-to-child transmission programs conducted for a private nongovernmental organization. Through development and implementation of a needs-assessment tool, the clinics were systematically assessed by observation and interviews. Consistently, three additional areas of concern, other than HIV, were reported by the people interviewed. These concerns were hunger, poverty, and the need for home-based care.