Knowledge and Attitudes of Mothers Towards Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of Hiv in Nkozi Hospital, Mpigi District

ABSTRACT Introduction; the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS) epidemic is the greatest challenge to human kind in the 21st century, over 35.5 million people are infected with human immune deficiency syndrome(HIV) worldwide and the majority of the infections are in the reproductive age group, mother to child transmission(MTCT) of HIV infection is high especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa, despite improvements in PMTCT services over the years, there were approximately 240,000 children in 2013 living with HIV through MTCT. Objective; To assess knowledge and attitudes on prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in pregnant women attending ANC at Nkozi hospital. Methodology; A cross sectional descriptive study was used and a simple random sampling method was used to collect data from March to July and 100 respondents were used, data was collected by closed ended objective questionnaire, and was analyzed by calculator and simple arithmetic and, presented in tables, pie charts and graphs. Findings. Mothers who had knowledge on how HIV is transmitted were 88%, the cause of HIV were 82%, 785 had ever had about PMTCT, 72% knew How to avoid HIV, 63% knew how MTCT occurs, 65% knew how to treat a baby of a HIV positive mother,59% knew how to prevent unintended pregnancies, 56% knew how to prevent MTCT. Most of the participants (42%) reported getting knowledge on PMTCT from the hospital, 26% reported acquiring the information from friends while 18% and 14% from radio and VHTs respectively. Mothers who agreed that it is important to have a HIV test were 84%, followed by 56% who said HIV positive mothers should breast feed, and 38% who said that HIV positive mothers should have babies Conclusion. The utilization of the PMTCT services was affected by insufficient knowledge that leads to poor attitudes towards the PMTCT services, hospital was also the commonest source of knowledge on PMTCT. Recommendations. The study recommends working in collaboration with all stakeholders to improve and increase on the sensitization and awareness on PMTCT.