Yoon, Jamie and Chung, David S. and Kim, Michelle and Kim, Kunmin and Lee, Sang Heon and Kim, Tae Youn and Lee, Hark Joon and Moon, Seog In and Park, Jooheon and Chung, Paul S. and Nyirenda, Thomas (2021) An Assessment of the Social, Cultural, and Economical Barriers to Option B+ Retention and Their Solutions in Malawi: A Review. World Journal of AIDS, 11 (01). pp. 15-24. ISSN 2160-8814
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Abstract
Malawi has one of the highest rates of HIV prevalence in the world, and accounts for 4% of the total number of people living in sub-Saharan Africa with HIV. Approximately one million people in Malawi were living with HIV in 2016, with 24,000 HIV-related deaths. The Option B+ program, first implemented in Malawi, aimed to initiate ART for all pregnant women, regardless of their CD4 cell count or disease stage. This study serves to analyze and assess the effectiveness of Option B+ retention, in relation to the facilitation of how various social and cultural barriers were handled. A literature review of 29 publications was conducted. Careful evaluation of various studies indicates that although there is a myriad of reasons explaining low levels of retention, the women who were at the highest risk for low retention were young pregnant women who were treated on the same day of HIV-diagnosis. Solutions focused around women and their partners or communities showed promising evidence of success in increasing adherence, as these strategies likely provided women reliable social and emotional support to address major barriers to retention such as a lack of support from male partners, ineffective education from healthcare workers, or stigma towards their HIV disclosure statue.
Item Type: | Article |
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Subjects: | Asian STM > Medical Science |
Depositing User: | Managing Editor |
Date Deposited: | 02 Feb 2023 11:02 |
Last Modified: | 16 Sep 2023 05:36 |
URI: | http://journal.send2sub.com/id/eprint/543 |