Improving men's participation in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV as a maternal, neonatal, and child health priority in South Africa

SUMMARY POINTS

-- Involving male partners in programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV may improve programme coverage and infant outcomes.
-- Rates of male partner involvement remain low worldwide, and detailed guidelines to increase involvement are lacking in South Africa.
-- We recommend that South African national and provincial guidelines and policies for preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission be adjusted to explicitly include a focus on increasing male partner involvement and that they include concrete descriptions of how to achieve this.
-- We propose recommendations for improving male partner involvement at a policy, facility, and community level.
-- Challenges to improving male partner involvement include the nature of relationships and family structures in South Africa and the capacity of health systems to implement recommendations.