Abstract:
Background: Early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV infection provides the opportunity for identifying, follow up, and testing for HIV-exposed infants. In Tanzania, despite the availability of early infant diagnosis (EID) services, many children are left undiagnosed or diagnosed late which leads to increased childhood HIV-related mortalities.
Objective: To determine factors associated with the uptake of early infant diagnosis of HIV among HIV exposed infants in Mbeya City Council.
Material and method: A cross-sectional study design employing a quantitative approach was conducted in Mbeya health care facilities. A closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect data from the eligible study participants. Data were collected through interviewing mothers/guardians of HIV-exposed infants using a closed-ended questionnaire, CTC cards were used to countercheck linkage to CTCs. The collected data were, coded, entered, cleaned imported into SPSS software for analysis. Descriptive statistics, binary and multivariable regression analysis with 95% confidence intervals were carried out and P-value less than 0.05, were used to determine the significant association between independent variables and dependent variables. The adjusted odds ratio was used to establish the association between a dependent variable and independent variables
Results : The proportions of early infant diagnosis uptake among HIV exposed infants in Mbeya City Council found was 76.7%. The major factors strongly associated with late uptake of infant diagnosis of HIV among HIV exposed infants were lower age group (AOR; 0.819 (0.482-0.972), being unmarried (AOR; 0.322 (0.264-0.723), lack of knowledge on PMCTC( AOR; 0.897(0.318-0.917), suboptimal care givers ART adherence (AOR; 0.497(0.272-0.917), non-disclosure of HIV status(AOR; 0.354 (0.245-0.742), unknown status of male partner HIV status (AOR; 0.752 (0.562-0.980), long distance to the health care facilities (AOR; 0.250(0.034-0.834), inadequate training and unavailability of facilities for DBS sample collection (AOR; 0.685(0.310-0.976) and long waiting time for ANC services at the health care facilities (AOR; 0.250(0.034-0.834)
Conclusion : The proportions of early infant diagnosis uptake among HIV exposed infants found in this study was comparatively better, however, there is a continual need for the Government, policy makers, NGOs, and all key players in the fights against HIV/AIDS to put more emphasis on increasing knowledge and awareness on the importance of PMCTC and EID services focused on ensuring more HIV positive mothers/caregivers are linked to PMCTC program, tested for HIV status, initiated with ART and their exposed infants gets EID services to improve maternal and child health.
