Incidence and predictors of mother-to-child transmission of HIV among HIV-exposed infants in public General hospitals of Tigray, Ethiopia, 2020: Retrospective cohort study
Gebrezgiher Gebresselassie Gerezgiher, Tesfay Gebreslassie, Guesh Teklu Woldemariam, Yohannes Ashebir Tesfamicale, Haftom Gebrehiwot Misgna, Degena Bahrey Tadesse, Kidane Zereabruk, Naomi Lijalem, Willi BahreBackground
Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a major public health challenge, particularly in low-income countries. Previous studies conducted in Ethiopia were largely limited to single health facilities and did not adequately assess important predictors, including maternal viral load, paternal enrollment in antiretroviral therapy (ART), and breastfeeding duration. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the incidence and predictors of MTCT of HIV among HIV-exposed infants in public general hospitals of Tigray, Ethiopia .
Methods
Hospital-based retrospective cohort study on 485 randomly selected HIV exposed infants attending in public General Hospitals was conducted. All HIV exposed infants attending in public general hospitals of Tigray were the source of population. Data were entered into Epidata version 4.6.1 and exported to SPSS version 23 for analysis. Binary logistic regression model was used and variables at p-value < 0.25 in bivariate analysis were entered into a multivariable logistic regression analysis to examine the predictors of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Level of significance was declared at p-value <0.05.
Result
A total of 444(91.5%) records were included in the analysis. At the end of follow up, 17 (3.8%) (95% CI: 2.3%–5.8%) of the HIV exposed infants became HIV positive. Poor infant adherence (AOR: 5.6; 95% CI: 1.02–30.2), father not enrolled to ART (AOR: 4.4; 95% CI: 1.2–16.7), age of infant at enrolment >6 weeks (AOR: 4.4; 95% CI: 1.2–17.0), mothers enrolled to PMTCT during labor and delivery or after (AOR: 7.9; 95% CI: 1.4–44.7) and mothers on advanced WHO clinical stage at base line(AOR: 4.2; 95% CI: 1.02–17.89) were significantly associated with mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Conclusion
In this study MTCT of HIV is still high. Poor adherence of infant for PMTCT, HIV positive father not enrolled to ART, infant age > 6 weeks at enrollment, mothers enrolled to PMTCT during labor and delivery or after and mothers on advanced WHO clinical stage were predictors of mother to child transmission of HIV.