ABSTRACT
It is widely recognized that attrition from the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) cascade is a significant obstacle to achieving UNAIDS’ and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s goal to eliminate mother-tochild transmission by 2015 [1-4]. The PMTCT cascade is a series of services that HIV-positive pregnant women and their infants need to receive in order to prevent HIV transmission, including antenatal care (ANC), HIV testing, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) or antiretroviral (ARV) prophylaxis [5]. However, 49% of HIV-infected pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa are lost between ANC registration and delivery and miss some or all essential PMTCT services [6]. Furthermore, high rates of loss to follow-up among women initiating ART
under ‘Option B+’, [7] WHO’s PMTCT strategy whereby all pregnant and breastfeeding women receive lifelong ART, [8] has renewed emphasis on the importance of reducing barriers to uptake of PMTCT services.
