Late bookings for pregnant mothers are a major challenge that the Health Ministry faces in trying to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases amongst pregnant women.
This is the reality in our antenatal clinics Fiji wide, as outlined by the Head of Department of the Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission of HIV, Dr Litia Narube.
Dr Narube added there are other challenges they face, which just makes it difficult to solve the problem.
Dr Narube said they are also trying their best to get the men involved in the process, however, most decline to come forward.
Once a mother is detected for HIV, they start giving drugs at 28 weeks of 7 months into pregnancy, until 1 week after birth.
However, since the numbers of affected mothers has increased, the World Health Organization has agreed in 2006 for STD clinics to start as early as 12 weeks or 3 months into pregnancy.
Story by: Selina Navuso
