Prevalence of HIV among Exposed Infants in University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV has been found to be the pathway to prevent and reduce new infections, ensure childhood survival and achieve all the millennium development goals and in particular, goals 4, 5 and 6. The experience of University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Edo state using highly active antiretroviral therapy is reported. This study determined the Prevalence of HIV among HIV exposed children of mothers who had PMTCT at UBTH and factors affecting HIV prevalence/ transmission pre and post natally. It was carried out using a total population retrospective study of 298 mother/babies pairs attended to at the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme of UBTH who had highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The HIV status of the babies was determined by deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reaction (DNA PCR). The male-female ratio was 1.4:1. 58.4% of mothers started antiretroviral therapy (ART) prior to pregnancy and of those who commenced during ANC, 38.7% of mothers commenced ART at and beyond 28 weeks gestation. 64.8% of mothers came to deliver at UBTH while 7.0% delivered at home. Of the 193 mother/babies pairs who adhered to our protocol, the prevalence was 2.1%. The babies who had mixed feeding had significantly higher prevalence than the exclusively breastfed and the exclusively formula fed. Among the HIV infected babies, only 1 (1.9%) was delivered via caesarian section. The HIV prevalence of the UBTH PMTCT centre has remained low with the use of HAART regimen. Post natal HIV infection was much reduced, as low as 1% among those delivered via caesarian section. Mothers who had been on ART for long durations especially those commencing ART before pregnancy tended to have very low chances of infecting their infants. PMTCT and its benefits in curtailing new infections should be continuously emphasized and scaled up as far as the rural areas via PHC system.