Port-au-Prince, November 8, 2017 --- Thirty health professionals - doctors, nurses, midwives, nurses midwives - participated in an orientation seminar on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), Clinical Management of Rape, Malaria and Zika, in Jacmel, South-East of Haiti, from 23 to 27 October 2017.

Organized by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, in collaboration with the Family Health Directorate of the Ministry of Public Health and Population, this training aimed at involving the caregivers of maternities offering emergency neonatal care (SONU in French) into the caretaking of HIV pregnant women and familiarize them with the management of PMTCT, UNFPA Haiti National HIV Consultant said.

Dr. Nahomie Rose-Féline Antoine Baptiste welcomed the interest shown by the participants for this training and the promise they made to "take better care of HIV + pregnant women and their babies".

This is about the same feeling that drives the PMTCT head at the Family Health Directorate. Miss Kedna Jeudy said that "this orientation will have enabled the updating of theoretical knowledge of health providers on PMTCT ", while stressing the need to follow this introduction with practical and longer-term training.

"I learned a lot about Zika and how to mentor survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) so that they can regain self-confidence while continuing care," Miss Nathalie Raymond, nurse midwife in social work, said.

Regarding PMTCT, Miss Raymond said she gained new knowledge, especially on the molecules to use in woman and the baby.

The elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis is a public health issue in Haiti. In the Multisectoral Strategic Plan for Combating HIV / AIDS 2018-2023, the elimination target for the Mother-to-Child Transmission Prevention Program is around 2023, with less than 2% of HIV-positive infants.

At the opening of the 3rd Latin America and Caribbean Forum on HIV/AIDS in Port-au-Prince on 7 November, Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant reiterated the Government's willingness to do everything possible to ensure that 90% of the population are detected and knows their HIV status, 90% of people living with HIV/AIDS are cared for and to eliminate the viral load of the 90% of HIV-positive people.