Utility of Prevention of Parent-To-Child Transmission (PPTCT) Programme Data for HIV Surveillance in General Population (Report‪)‬

HIV sentinel surveillance (HSS) among antenatal clinic (ANC) attendees has been used to monitor HIV trends as well as to estimate the number of people living with HIV. Recently, information on HIV infection has also become available from prevention of parent-to-child transmission (PPTCT) programmes. Systematic appraisal of the PPTCT programme data is needed for choosing a scientifically sound and cost-effective surveillance strategy. Ethical issues are likely to complicate the programme operations in near future. Women who do not volunteer for HIV testing in the PPTCT programme but are found to be positive in unlinked anonymous testing (UAT) in the HSS sites miss the opportunity and benefits of receiving anti-retroviral drugs. Moreover, there is duplication of HIV testing during sentinel surveillance at least for women who accept the testing offered by PPTCT programme. Hence, sharing of test results by the PPTCT programme to HSS, at least for those who have opted for testing, could be a better way of utilizing scarce resources. Other advantages of using PPTCT data for HIV surveillance include better geographic coverage as the number of PPTCT sites is usually more than the HSS, and the precision of the prevalence estimate from PPTCT sites could also be higher as the number of pregnant women tested in PPTCT is much more than the HSS.