Awareness and acceptability of strategies for preventing mother to child transmission of HIV among antenatal clients in Calabar, Nigeria.
BACKGROUND
Mother to child transmission is the major route through which children below the age of 15 years acquire HIV infection. The most effective way to reduce childhood HIV infection is to prevent the infection in mothers and for already infected mothers use appropriate strategies to prevent transmission to their children. This study was conducted to determine the level of awareness and acceptability of strategies for preventing mother to child transmission of HIV.


METHODS
Exploratory multi-centric descriptive study involving 400 antenatal attendees in Federal, State and a Private health facility was used. Interviewer-administered questionnaire was the tool for data collection.


RESULTS
Majority of the respondents (94.7%) were aware of transmission of HIV from an infected mother to her child. Respondents were more aware of the use of antiretroviral drugs in pregnancy (63.2%) than they were of avoiding breastfeeding (58.5%) and Cesarean delivery (22.8%) as strategies for preventing mother to child transmission. They were also more likely to accept the use of antiretroviral drugs (78.2%) than they would avoid breastfeeding (69.0%) and accept Cesarean delivery (38.0%) for preventing mother to child transmission of HIV High educational status was significantly associated with a positive attitude to these strategies.


CONCLUSIONS
There is need for more educational programs and social support to bridge the gap between the levels of awareness and acceptability of strategies for preventing mother to child transmission of HIV among the populace.
Ogaji
D S
DS
Dept of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Helsinki, Finland. daprim.ogaji@helsinki.fi
Ikpeme
B M
BM
Oyo-Ita
A E
AE
Omuemu
V O
VO
Etuk
S J
SJ
Ekabua
J E
JE
D000328:Adult; D044966:Anti-Retroviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001364:Awareness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009549:Nigeria; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D044966:Anti-Retroviral Agents