Knowledge and attitude on prevention of mother to child transmission of hiv among pregnant women attending reproductive and child health clinic at Temeke district

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background vii The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic is the greatest challenge to human kind in the 21st century. In 2009, around 400,000 children under 15yrs became infected with HIV. Almost all of these infections occured in Sub Saharan countries, and more than 90% are a result of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) during pregnancy, labour and delivery, or breastfeeding. Transmission during pregnancy is 5 – 10%, during labor and delivery is 10 – 20% and during breastfeeding is 10 – 15%. Without interventions, there is a 20-45% chance that a baby born to an HIV infected mother will become infected. However the risk of MTCT can be reduced up to 2% if comprehensive approach of PMTCT will be put in place. MTCT of HIV has a dramatic deleterious impact on child survival and therefore PMTCT is of crucial importance. Objectives: To assess knowledge and attitude on PMTCT of HIV among pregnant women attending Reproductive and Child Health clinic at Temeke District Hospital, Dar Es Salaam. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted from October 2010 to January 2011 at Temeke District Hospital RCH Clinic in Dar-Es –Salaam. Structured questionnaires were administered to all pregnant women at the clinic who have had the opportunity to be counseled and tested for HIV in their antenatal clinics in different primary health centers in Temeke District. viii The information was then summarized into SPSS version 17.0, for windows and analyzed. Frequency distribution and two way tables were used to summarize the data. Results: A total of 351 pregnant women fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Out of these, 237(67.5%) were HIV negative and 114 (32.5%) were HIV positive. The mean age was 27.2 and SD 6.3. Married participants formed 68.9% and 86.9% had primary education. Sixty nine respondents, 19.7% had good, 61.8% moderate and 18.5% had poor basic HIV/AIDS knowledge. Only 15.7% had good, 49.9% had moderate and 34.5% had poor knowledge on mother to child transmission of HIV and its prevention. The attitude towards the PMTCT of HIV was generally positive which comprised 318 (90.6%) of the respondents. Conclusion: Though the level of basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS was shown to be moderate to good in pregnant women, almost half of pregnant women even after counseling attained only moderate knowledge on PMTCT. Since there are still knowledge gaps on different but important aspects of PMTCT, there is a need for adequate counseling including more sessions during pregnancy, more public campaigns to encourage early ANC attendances.