Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust is currently doing a research on pregnant women who are HIV positive and are depressed.

The research which is trying to establish how women in this situation are able to care for themselves and their unborn child or even after giving birth is being done at Bangwe Health Centre in Blantyre.

Speaking to Yoneco FM online, Dr Moses Kumwenda, a social science researcher working on this study said, they are using a problem solving therapy known as TENDAI to assess the causes of depression in the pregnant woman.

Dr Kumwenda said:  “There have been studies that have shown that there is a link between HIV and depression and if you’re looking at pregnancy you’ll find that HIV affects the maternal outcomes.”

Through TENDAI, pregnant women are also shown how to take their ARV’s using  the right routine.

Another aspect this study is promoting of HIV self-testing where women are given test kits to give to their partners so that they can do the tests and know their status.