Journal of Family Medicine and Health Care

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Community Health Workers Engagement in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): A Cross-Sectional Study from Selected Fishing Communities in Tanzania

Received: 31 March 2019    Accepted: 23 May 2019    Published: 28 May 2020
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Abstract

The prevalence of HIV infection is reported to be higher in fishing communities of Lake Victoria compared to non fishing neighboring communities. Besides, access to HIV/AIDS related services has been reported to be either inadequate or unavailable to some of these fishing communities particularly for those residing in islands. This study explored the engagement of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in provision of PMTCT services among the fishing communities of Sengerema and Musoma District Councils (DCs) in the Lake Zone of Tanzania. This was a cross sectional study using qualitative approach. Intrinsic and extrinsic motives were found to influence community members to be engaged as CHWs. The majority of CHWs were involved in Antenatal Care (ANC) and Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) as well as in health promotion activities as a strategy to cope with the shortage of trained health staff. CHWs were found to assist in HIV/AIDS Counseling and Treatment Center (CTC), generally, CHWs were not directly engaged in provision of PMTCT services. On the other hand, the National Health Policy does not clearly set roles of the CHWs and their incentives. Nevertheless, there are potentials of people willingness to volunteer in community health works that need to be better leveraged. Deploying CHWs is critical to enabling accessible primary health care services including HIV/AIDS particularly PMTCT services in remote areas such as fishing communities where human resource for health is reported to be inadequate.

DOI 10.11648/j.jfmhc.20200602.12
Published in Journal of Family Medicine and Health Care (Volume 6, Issue 2, June 2020)
Page(s) 39-45
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Community Health Workers, Fishing Communities, Lake Victoria, HIV/AIDS, Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV, Sengerema, Musoma, Tanzania

References
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Author Information
  • Institute of Public Health, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, Moshi, Tanzania; Department of Population Studies, Institute of Rural Development Planning, Dodoma, Tanzania

  • Institute of Public Health, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, Moshi, Tanzania; Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi, Tanzania

  • Institute of Public Health, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, Moshi, Tanzania

Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Maseke Richard Mgabo, Sia Msuya, Declare Mushi. (2020). Community Health Workers Engagement in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): A Cross-Sectional Study from Selected Fishing Communities in Tanzania. Journal of Family Medicine and Health Care, 6(2), 39-45. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfmhc.20200602.12

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    ACS Style

    Maseke Richard Mgabo; Sia Msuya; Declare Mushi. Community Health Workers Engagement in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): A Cross-Sectional Study from Selected Fishing Communities in Tanzania. J. Fam. Med. Health Care 2020, 6(2), 39-45. doi: 10.11648/j.jfmhc.20200602.12

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    AMA Style

    Maseke Richard Mgabo, Sia Msuya, Declare Mushi. Community Health Workers Engagement in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): A Cross-Sectional Study from Selected Fishing Communities in Tanzania. J Fam Med Health Care. 2020;6(2):39-45. doi: 10.11648/j.jfmhc.20200602.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jfmhc.20200602.12,
      author = {Maseke Richard Mgabo and Sia Msuya and Declare Mushi},
      title = {Community Health Workers Engagement in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): A Cross-Sectional Study from Selected Fishing Communities in Tanzania},
      journal = {Journal of Family Medicine and Health Care},
      volume = {6},
      number = {2},
      pages = {39-45},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jfmhc.20200602.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfmhc.20200602.12},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jfmhc.20200602.12},
      abstract = {The prevalence of HIV infection is reported to be higher in fishing communities of Lake Victoria compared to non fishing neighboring communities. Besides, access to HIV/AIDS related services has been reported to be either inadequate or unavailable to some of these fishing communities particularly for those residing in islands. This study explored the engagement of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in provision of PMTCT services among the fishing communities of Sengerema and Musoma District Councils (DCs) in the Lake Zone of Tanzania. This was a cross sectional study using qualitative approach. Intrinsic and extrinsic motives were found to influence community members to be engaged as CHWs. The majority of CHWs were involved in Antenatal Care (ANC) and Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) as well as in health promotion activities as a strategy to cope with the shortage of trained health staff. CHWs were found to assist in HIV/AIDS Counseling and Treatment Center (CTC), generally, CHWs were not directly engaged in provision of PMTCT services. On the other hand, the National Health Policy does not clearly set roles of the CHWs and their incentives. Nevertheless, there are potentials of people willingness to volunteer in community health works that need to be better leveraged. Deploying CHWs is critical to enabling accessible primary health care services including HIV/AIDS particularly PMTCT services in remote areas such as fishing communities where human resource for health is reported to be inadequate.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    AU  - Maseke Richard Mgabo
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    AB  - The prevalence of HIV infection is reported to be higher in fishing communities of Lake Victoria compared to non fishing neighboring communities. Besides, access to HIV/AIDS related services has been reported to be either inadequate or unavailable to some of these fishing communities particularly for those residing in islands. This study explored the engagement of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in provision of PMTCT services among the fishing communities of Sengerema and Musoma District Councils (DCs) in the Lake Zone of Tanzania. This was a cross sectional study using qualitative approach. Intrinsic and extrinsic motives were found to influence community members to be engaged as CHWs. The majority of CHWs were involved in Antenatal Care (ANC) and Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) as well as in health promotion activities as a strategy to cope with the shortage of trained health staff. CHWs were found to assist in HIV/AIDS Counseling and Treatment Center (CTC), generally, CHWs were not directly engaged in provision of PMTCT services. On the other hand, the National Health Policy does not clearly set roles of the CHWs and their incentives. Nevertheless, there are potentials of people willingness to volunteer in community health works that need to be better leveraged. Deploying CHWs is critical to enabling accessible primary health care services including HIV/AIDS particularly PMTCT services in remote areas such as fishing communities where human resource for health is reported to be inadequate.
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