EMTCT Preliminary Assessment Checklist

16 items · Health · Medium difficulty · 30 min

Step-by-step national checklist to assess the path to eliminating mother-to-child transmission.

• Assemble a national assessment team

  Include program managers, epidemiologists, maternal health, lab and data leads.

• Review national policies and guidelines on EMTCT

  Check current HIV, syphilis and HBV strategies, and alignment with elimination criteria.

• Collect antenatal screening coverage data (last 2 years)

  Gather percent of pregnant women screened for HIV, syphilis and HBV each year.

• Collect treatment coverage data for pregnant women

  Record ART for HIV, timely penicillin for syphilis, and HBV antiviral use when indicated.

• Verify timely hepatitis B birth-dose vaccine coverage

  Confirm percentage of newborns receiving birth dose within 24 hours of birth.

• Assess diagnostic capacity and laboratory systems

  Identify test availability, turnaround, and lab network capacity for mothers and infants.

• Confirm facility-level testing availability

  Check which clinics and hospitals can perform antenatal and infant tests.

• Check laboratory quality assurance programs

  Verify participation in external quality assessment and standard operating procedures.

• Calculate key elimination indicators

  Compute transmission rates and case counts using standard indicator definitions.

• Evaluate data quality and reporting completeness

  Assess missing data, reporting delays, and consistency across sources.

• Map service delivery gaps and access barriers

  Identify geographic areas and populations with low screening or treatment coverage.

• Confirm case notification and infant follow-up protocols

  Ensure procedures for notifying and tracking exposed infants through testing and care.

• Engage stakeholders and partners

  Consult ministries, labs, clinicians, civil society and funders for inputs and buy-in.

• Develop recommendations and an improvement action plan

  Draft targeted actions addressing weak indicators and responsible parties.

• Set SMART targets and timelines toward elimination criteria

  Define measurable goals for coverage and transmission reduction over 1–5 years.

• Document findings and prepare a preliminary assessment report

  Summarize methods, data sources, gaps, and the proposed path to elimination.

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