The Nelson Mandela Bay Health District launched the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Dual Therapy on Tuesday, the 19 August 2008 at Gelvandale Community Centre. 

The purpose of the launch was to inform the community that the Department of Health signed the PMTCT Dual Therapy policy in February 2008.  The Nelson Mandela Bay later implemented it, to ensure that mother to child HIV transmission is prevented at all costs.

The PMTC dual therapy launch was co-ordinated by the Senior Community Liaison, Mr. Damian Bosch. Attending the launch were Nelson Mandela District Programme Managers, health care workers, councilors, schools and the people of Gelvandale and surrounding areas. The programme managers encouraged the community especially mothers to utilize the health care services available to them. 

Giving the background of the PMTCT Dual Therapy, the key note speaker, Mrs. L. Soodkin who is the Manager at West End Mou, said previously PMTCT was using monotherapy to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child and now the government introduced dual therapy by providing 2 drugs, the AZT and Nevirapine to prevent HIV positive mothers from infecting their babies. 

She also encouraged pregnant women to go for Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) when they are 3 months pregnant, in order to save the babies' lives. Mrs. Soodkin emphasized that it is vital for couples to plan their families carefully before they have babies.

The key note speaker allowed the community members and school children to ask questions on PMTCT Dual Therapy. The launch was interactive as the community members gave feedback on what they have learned from the guest speaker. Mrs. Soodkin appealed to teachers and the school children to contact the clinics and utilize the clinic services to ensure that we become a healthy nation. She also explained that if the CD4 count of an HIV positive woman is high and viral load low, she can breastfeed exclusively for 6 months and not mix-feed the baby.

The panel of the Health care professionals vowed to serve their respective communities with dignity and provide better health care services. Councilor Hermaans ended by encouraging the health care workers to continue with the programs that will bring quality health care services to the communities. He also thanked the community members, the teachers and school children for coming to the launch. Bukelwa Zweni