Duration of Breast Feeding and Outcome of HIV-Exposed Infants seen at a Tertiary Health Facility in Sokoto

Abstract

Background: Appropriate infant feeding is still a challenge to HIV-positive mothers especially in the developing world despite their desire  to breast feeding beyond the WHO recommended 12 months’ duration.

Objective: To determine the duration of breast feeding and correlate with outcome of HIVexposed infants in UDUTH, Sokoto.

Methods: This descriptive observational study was conducted among HIV-exposed infants attending Paediatric ART(PMTCT) clinic,  UDUTH, Sokoto. The demographics, infant post-exposure prophylaxis, duration of breast feeding and results of early infant diagnosis  (EID) of the infants using HIV-DNA PCR machine; and maternal highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) history were documented. The  data were analyzed using SPSS version 24.0. A p-value of ≤0.05 was taken as significant.

Results: One hundred and sixty-three  HIVpositive mother-infant pairs were studied, 103(61.7%) of the HIV-positive mothers were aged 25-34 years, 105(62.9%) were of lower  socio-economic class and 94(56.3%) had informal education. One hundred and fifteen (62.5%) were on TDF/3TC/EFV and 143 (85.6%) were  on HAARTs prior to the index pregnancy. One hundred and sixty-three of the HIV-exposed infants studied were breast-fed and 165  (98.8%) had nevirapine as infant PEP. The mean duration of breast feeding among HIVexposed infants was 13.2(±3.5) months with a  range 6 – 20 months. Ninety-eight (60.1%) infants were breastfed beyond 12months. All the HIV-exposed infants were not infected at the  end of breastfeeding for 12 months or more.

Conclusion: Majority of the HIV-positive mother’s breastfed beyond WHO recommended 12  months and their infants were uninfected. This may support the upward review of the duration of breast feeding of HIV-exposed  infants in our community.