National Priority Health project
The Institute for Family Health (IFH) is one of the main organizations working on prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Russia. For three years IFH has been participating in implementation of the National Priority Health project.
In 2006 the Institute for Family Health (IFH) together with the I.M.Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy (MMA) won the open competition organized by Rospoterbnadzor (the Federal Service on Supervision in Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Wellbeing) to participate in implementing the project “Prevention of HIV infection, hepatitis B and C, detection and treatment of HIV patients.” The project developed a package of activities aimed at the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission.
In 2008 the work in that area was continued, when IFH and Rospoterbnadzor made the contract on conduction of complex activities on PMTCT. The Moscow State Medical Dental University (MSMDU) was IFH’s subcontractor of this project.
In 2009 IFH again won the contract with Rospoterbnadzor on implementing the project “Prevention of HIV infection, hepatitis B and C, detection and treatment of HIV patients” under the National Health Project. This time our sub-contractor again became the I.M.Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy (MMA). IFH and MMA together continue working already in 30 regions of the
For that period IFH prepared a training course on the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT), developed a system for test control of knowledge learned, carried out the training for specialists from the I.M.Sechenov MMA and representatives from 15 regions of Russia, and developed a series of materials to help the health care professionals in their work.
The Institute has developed two guidelines. The first, Operational PMTCT Guideline covers all the stages of providing medical care for HIV-infected women during pregnancy, in deliveries and for newborns.
In the second guideline, ‘Reproductive Health of HIV-infected Women’, the information regarding comprehensive medical care for women with HIV infection is presented, the particular features of counseling on issues of family planning depending on the reproductive period of life, the stages of HIV infection and concomitant diseases are described. These guidelines have been developed with the help of evidence-based medicine methods with the participation of leading Russian experts in the area of HIV/AIDS, the Centers for AIDS Prevention and Control, and regional health care administrators. They have been approved by the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the
The guidelines have been distributed in the regions of
Within the framework of the project a video film “Rapid HIV Testing During Deliveries”, has been developed for health care providers working in maternity hospitals, which enables to improve the skills of rapid testing for HIV and pre- and post-test counseling. Information materials for women and their partners have been developed.
In 2008 IFH and MSMDU developed the evaluation tool of PMTCT practices for medical facilities, which was approbated in 20 sites of
Under current activities the seminars for PMTCT specialists are planned, PMTCT evaluation of medical facilities will be conducted. The Institute for Family Health is preparing the representative research in 5 regions, which will help to evaluate PMTCT activities in complex.
On the bases of modern Russian and international materials IFH develops the training for pediatricians of children’s policlinics to provide primary health care to children with HIV. The training course will consider the issues of volume of medical care to HIV children and covers basic methods of counseling.