Page 68 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017

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Maternal and child health – closing the gap between policy and programmes
Ameena Goga, Health Systems Research Unit, SA Medical Research Council
Far too often countries adopt excellent health policies to improve health, but subsequent health programmes do not reflect these policies, providing no benefit for mothers and their children.
Dr Ameena Goga, at the Health Systems Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), and an extraordinary professor and clinician at the UP and Steve Biko Academic Hospital, is working with a team of researchers to investigate the gap between policy and practice, with a specific focus on newborn infants and HIV infection. Approximately 32% of South Africa’s newborn infants are exposed to HIV infection through their mothers. Because HIV-related care should improve child health and survival, while reducing HIV transmission from mother to child, such programmes should strengthen or complement other health services.
The research collaboration involves the National
Department of Health and the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) and, further afield, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
The research has a five-pronged approach, focusing
on: a) the effectiveness of the national programme to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child (PMTCT), at six weeks and postnatally, and factors associated with PMTCT effectiveness; b) the uptake and quality of maternal and child health care in the context of HIV;
c) the uptake and impact of the PMTCT programme
on adolescent mothers; d) the association between maternal antiretroviral use and infant growth; and e) the long-term survival and health of HIV-exposed and unexposed mother-infant pairs. Much of the work conducted or published in 2017 addressed the last three research foci specifically.
The SAMRC team and collaborators conducted three national surveys to monitor PMTCT effectiveness at six weeks post-delivery, and one national observational