The Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) Acceleration project, funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, aims to scale up quickly high-quality facility-based and community-based PMTCT services in four provinces of Burundi: Bujumbura City, Bujumbura Rural, Gitega and Ngozi. The project also focuses on preventing HIV in women of childbearing age, decreasing unwanted pregnancies among women with HIV, and providing care and support for women, infants and families living with HIV.

Project activities are closely linked with other crosscutting interventions that focus on:

• Improving laboratory infrastructure and services
• Raising awareness of gender and social norms that contribute to the spread of HIV, with a strong emphasis on male involvement in PMTCT
• Strengthening community-based approaches that increase demand for antenatal clinics, client adherence and retention, and human resource capacity

The purpose of the PMTCT Acceleration project is to provide HIV treatment and care services to 95 percent of women attending antenatal clinics. By the end of the project, at least 218 health facilities in the intervention area are likely to offer comprehensive PMTCT services to the community.