RESEARCH ARTICLE
Knowledge of Pregnant Women on Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV in Yaoundé
Anne-CIrènecile Zoung-Kanyi Bissek1, Irène Emah Yakana2, Franscisca Monebenimp3, Guillaume Chaby4, Linda Akondeng5, Samuel A Angwafor6, Catherine Lok4, Alfred K Njamnshi*, 1, Walinjom F.T Muna1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 25
Last Page: 28
Publisher ID: TOAIDJ-5-25
DOI: 10.2174/1874613601105010025
Article History:
Received Date: 25/5/2010Revision Received Date: 6/9/2010
Acceptance Date: 7/10/2010
Electronic publication date: 18/3/2011
Collection year: 2011
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Introduction:
Mother–to-child transmission of HIV is a major public health problem in Cameroon. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge of pregnant women on HIV transmission and prevention, particularly the four pillars of mother-to-child transmission.
Materials and Methods:
This was a descriptive cross-sectional study from October 2008 to January 2009 at the Yaoundé Gynaecology-Obstetrics and Pediatric Hospital. All women presenting at the Ante-Natal Care (ANC) Clinic for the first time were included in the study after obtaining a verbal informed consent.
Results:
The ages of the 260 women included in the study ranged from 15 to 42 years. Almost 99% (257/260) of the women interviewed had heard about HIV. Respectively, 80.5% (209/260), 89.3% (232/260) and 81.2% (211/260) of the women cited pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding as risk periods for HIV transmission from mother to child. Use of the male condom, the female condom, abstinence, and faithfulness to a single partner were considered as effective methods of HIV prevention by 73% (190/260), 76% (198/260), 88% (229/260) and 46% (120/260) of respondents respectively. About 79% (64/81) of participants with higher education considered HIV infection to be contagious as opposed to 45.5% (5/11) of women with no formal education (P = 0.008).
Conclusion:
Our data suggest that women have some good knowledge on the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Nevertheless, improving the formal educational level of these women may contribute to a further reduction of HIV transmission.
