Tanzania

Adult HIV prevalence (ages 15-49) in Tanzania, estimated at 5.6% in 2009, has declined slightly from 6.5% in 2005[1]. HIV prevalence is much higher in urban (8.7%) than rural (4.7%) areas, and females are more likely to be HIV positive than males (6.8% vs. 4.7% respectively)[8]. Prevalence is higher among adults from the richest economic quintile as compared with the poorest economic quintile[8]. Between 2009 and 2011, Tanzania has seen a 19% decline in new paediatric HIV infections – from 26,900 to 21,900. HIV prevalence among pregnant women was 5.5% in 2009[3].

Tanzania is scaling up its PMTCT programme, mainly through integrating PMTCT services into MNCH services. By 2010, the majority (90.4%) of ANC facilities had integrated PMTCT services[9]. HIV testing among pregnant women increased from 14% in 2005 to 86% in 2010[10], and 74% of pregnant women living with HIV received ARVs for PMTCT in 2011[2].

Tanzania has adopted WHO Option A regimen for prophylaxis and a costed national PMTCT scale-up plan (2011-2015) is in place[11]. Given the high level of PMTCT service coverage in Tanzania, the country is well placed to achieve Global Plan targets by 2015.

National EMTCT Plan – Tanzania

PMTCT services have been implemented in Tanzania since 2000 and a lot of progress has been made since then. By 2010, 94% of all Reproductive and Child Health facilities were providing PMTCT services reaching about 70% of the pregnant women with ARV prophylaxis. Undoubtedly, Tanzania has seen major progress in the prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child. Such progress however, has often been uneven, not reached all women and children in need and not addressed all the major interventions that will contribute to eMTCT.

In quest to accelerate progress in achieving virtual elimination of new infections in children, this plan has been developed to provide guidance on critical interventions, targets and resources required at all level. The plan has been developed based on an equity focused bottleneck analysis of the PMTCT programme.

This plan highlights the current status of implementation of the PMTCT programme and areas where progress has been made towards achievement of eMTCT targets. Also, it identifies areas where progress has stalled or lagging behind. It sheds light on some of the major bottlenecks that have affected programme implementation and proposes targets, strategies and resources that will facilitate achievement of virtual elimination of new infection among children in Tanzania.

Link to the National EMTCT Plan November 2012.

Link to the Tanzania Ministry of Health.