Family planning for HIV patients in Dar es Salaam

14 Mar, 2010

Community health workers in Dar es Salaam are undertaking a new project to integrate family planning with information about HIV/AIDS after a 2009 study conducted in Tanzania and published in the journal AIDS found numerous benefits of such a service, particularly in clinics offering testing for HIV. Around 130,000 HIV-positive Tanzanian women become pregnant every year, over half of whom have access to services that could prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus that leads to AIDS. Health workers are now teaching HIV-positive couples how to avoid unwanted pregnancies and infecting unborn children.