THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA’S COMBINED REPORT ON THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES’ RIGHTS & INITIAL REPORT ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA Number of infants born to HIV positive mothers tested positive for HIV Number of infants born to HIV positive mothers aged 2 months who received Cotrimoxazole prophylaxis this month 25 464 Prevalence of HIV in The Gambia as of 2013 Programmes to support women living and affected with HIV are not stand-alone but integrated in the comprehensive HIV interventions and in Sexual and Reproductive Health Services. NAS has updated both the National HIV Policy and National Strategic Plan (NSP) for the period 2015-2019, with an overall goal: To achieve zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero stigma and discrimination in The Gambia. One of the objectives is to reduce mother to child transmission of HIV at 6 weeks from 10 per cent in 2013 to 3 per cent by 2019. The NSP intends to promote and strengthen PMTCT services and its integration into Reproductive, Maternal, New-born and Child Health (RMNCH) services and also aims to reduce the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child to 3.9 per cent by end of 2017. Priority interventions for PMTCT in the 2015-2019 NSP include – (i) Increase public, NGO, and private health facilities offering integrated RMNCH, ANC and elimination of mother to child transmission (e-MTCT) services: Scaling up of e-MTCT to ensure all antenatal clinic (ANC) sites provide HCT services. PMTCT sites increased from 32 in 2014 sites to 57 sites by 2017 and maintained to 2019. E-MTCT integrated with RMNCH, staff trained on HCT and test kits supplied to enable these sites provide the service. Monitoring of the sites intensified to ensure quality service. Certain PMTCT sites with the required capacity will be converted into ART sites to implement the option B+ policy. Task shifting and the use of point of care equipment incorporated into the scale up strategy to the decentralized levels; (ii) Sensitization of women and men on e-MTCT: Civil society organizations, community health workers and community leaders engaged to sensitize women and men on e-MTCT and mobilize pregnant women to visit ANC sites; 149