In 2015, South Africa started implementing ‘Option B+’ for HIV-positive pregnant women, offering them antiretroviral therapy for life regardless of CD4 count. Subsequently, mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV in South Africa has fallen from 16,000 (2010) to 5,100 (2015) new vertical infections annually. Despite this success, some challenges remain, including relatively high postnatal transmission, estimated to be around 4.3% when infants reach 18 months of age.
Following lessons learnt from implementing adult adherence clubs, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in partnership with mothers2mothers (m2m) and City of Cape Town (CoCT) Health decided to create a new differentiated model of care called “Postnatal Clubs” (PNC).
