Document is current

Article History

Received: 1 November 2017

Accepted: 5 November 2018

First Online: 20 November 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Approval to conduct the study was received from the Senegal Ministry of Health’s National Ethics Committee and from the Center for Global Health (CGH), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Atlanta.ANC surveillance procedures in Senegal are based on UNAIDS/WHO guidelines. During their first ANC visit, women were asked for verbal informed consent prior to Syphilis testing as part of the national public health program. The left-over blood from routine syphilis testing were then stripped of all personal identifiers and utilized for unlinked anonymous HIV testing (UAT). The privacy of consenting pregnant women and their data confidentiality were ensured through a permanent delinking process that does not allow HIV test results to be traced back to any personal identifying information. Data integrity was assured by a double entry and access was restricted for security measures.Verbal consent was required prior to HIV testing under the PMTCT national public health program. HIV testing was offered to pregnant women free of charge, and positive cases were enrolled for PMTCT services according to national guidelines.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.