The development of a tool to evaluate the quality of prevention of mother to child transmission programmes offered to the hiv exposed infants in a primary health care facility setting in Cape Town

Magister Public Health - MPHIntroduction Mother to Child Transmission is a significant route of HIV infection in children and in South Africa (SA) the median HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women is 30, 2% and in the Western Cape Province (WCP) it is 18, 2%. lthough Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programmes are now available at 100% of all health care facilities and 95% of women attend antenatal care, these programmes are complex and outcome data reveals fluctuations in transmission rates as well as pockets of high transmission within well performing sub-districts. The careful management of programme processes thus requires more than coverage and outcome data. It also requires a clear picture of process indicators related to access to PMTCT services, the quality and continuity of care within the PMTCT programme and integration of PMTCT service into the comprehensive package of health care services. Aims and objectives To develop a tool that will measure the quality of care of HIV exposed infants in the PMTCT programme at primary care setting in Cape Town, by engaging local programme managers in a participatory process to develop a tool that is locally applicable and relevant, and captures local management expertise. To identify the evaluation omains, to develop a set of indicators for each domain and to pilot the tool to assess its feasibility and usefulness of the data generated