Abstract:
Back ground: MTCT of HIV is transmission of human immunodeficiency virus from a
women living with virus towards her baby during pregnancy, childbirth and during postnatal period. Mother to Child Transmission of HIV is a major public health challenge in
Ethiopia, but there were a shortage of evidence on HIV sero status of exposed infants.
Objective: To assess HIV sero status and Associated Factors Among HIV-exposed infants in
Sidama zone health facility, southern Ethiopia.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 14 health facilities at Sidama zone,
SNNPR state, Ethiopia from May 1/2019 to May 30/2019. Medical records of HIV-exposed
infants and their mothers enrolled from January 2014 to January 2018 in the study
institutions was extracted using data extraction checklist. Prevalence and associated factors
of HIV sero status of exposed infants was computed using SPSS version 21.0 software.
Result: A total of 203 HIV-exposed infants who had HIV DNA/PCR test results were
included in the study. The overall prevalence of HIV among HIV exposed infants was 8.86%.
Baseline CD4+ counts of mother less than 350, (AOR = 5.629; 95% CI: 1.454, 21.79),
Mothers who had WHO clinical stage I and II, (AOR=4.975; 95% CI: 1.342, 18.446), and
Poor ART adherence (AOR =4.302; 95% CI: 1.100, 16.823) had an increased odds of HIV
infection comparing to their counterpart among infants born to HIV infected mothers.
Conclusion and recommendation: The prevalence of HIV infection among infants born to
HIV infected mothers was high in the study area. Therefore, Stakeholders should be make an
effort to reduce poor ART adherence and further study should be done.
