Rate of mother to child transmission of HIV and factors associated among HIV exposed infants in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia: Retrospective study

Background: Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (MTCTH) is a major public health challenge in Ethiopia. Monitoring and evaluation of the rate of HIV transmission among infants born to HIV positive mothers is the major indicator to understand the performance of a national HIV control program. However, this is not well documented in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Method: A retrospective study was conducted in 43 health facilities at three Administrative Zones of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia from November 2014 to January 2015. Medical records of HIV-exposed infants and their mothers enrolled between June 2012 and October 2014 in the study institutions was extracted using data extraction format. Rate of MTCTH and factors associate was computed using SPSS version 20.0 software. Result: A total of 492 HIV-exposed infants having HIV DNA/PCR test result were included in the study. The overall prevalence of HIV among HIV exposed infants was 7.70%. Infant failure to receive nevirapine (NVP) prophylaxis at birth(AOR = 18.110, 95% CI:5.177, 63.352), whose mothers received Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) treatment for less than 4 weeks (AOR = 4.196, 95% CI:1.40, 12.57), did not receive co-trimoxazole preventive therapy (AOR = 7.772, 95% CI: 2.547, 23.72), and on mixed feeding (AOR = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.167, 4.539) had an increased odds of HIV infection comparing to their counterpart among infants born to HIV infected mothers. Conclusion: The risk of HIV infection among infants born to HIV infected mothers was high in the study area. Hence, strengthening the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) management activities that would trace the identified factors shall be recommended to reduce risk of HIV infection among infants born to HIV infected mothers.