PLoS Medicine
(Accessed 11 April 2015)
http://www.plosmedicine.org/

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Policy Forum
Improving Men’s Participation in Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV as a Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health Priority in South Africa
Wessel van den Berg, Kirsty Brittain, Gareth Mercer, Dean Peacock, Kathryn Stinson, Hanna Janson, Vuyiseka Dubula
Published: April 7, 2015
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001811
Summary Points
– Involving male partners in programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV may improve programme coverage and infant outcomes.
– Rates of male partner involvement remain low worldwide, and detailed guidelines to increase involvement are lacking in South Africa.
– We recommend that South African national and provincial guidelines and policies for preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission be adjusted to explicitly include a focus on increasing male partner involvement and that they include concrete descriptions of how to achieve this.
– We propose recommendations for improving male partner involvement at a policy, facility, and community level.
– Challenges to improving male partner involvement include the nature of relationships and family structures in South Africa and the capacity of health systems to implement recommendations.