A RETROSPECTIVE 5 YEAR STUDY OF PPTCT PROGRAMME AT TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

BACKGROUND: Mother to child transmission of HIV is a major cause of paediatric HIV. MTCT prevention strategies include comprehensive antenatal, postnatal and paediatric health services, voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), antiretroviral prophylaxis; counselling and support for safe infant feeding and optimal obstetrical practices. OBJECTIVES: The present retrospective study is undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation of PPTCT Programme in a tertiary care hospital. METHODOLOGY: All pregnant women attending antenatal OP and labour room were counselled and tested for HIV. All positive patients were again counselled and ART therapy started. Spouses of all positive women counselled and tested. Modification of labour and delivery practices was followed. All the babies born to positive mothers received Nevirapine prophylaxis and babies were tested at 6, 12 and 18 months. Mothers were counselled regarding breast feeding and tubectomy was advised for all patients. RESULTS: A total number of 36113 antenatal women counselled and 97.90% of them gave consent for testing. Seropositivity in these women was 0.91%. Most of these patients were primi or second gravida, majority of them were young, belonging to age group of 20-24 yrs. 61.84% of spouses were found to be seropositive. Most of these women (67.72%) were delivered through vaginal route. LSCS was done for obstetric indication in 32.27% of cases. Majority of mothers opted for replacement feeding (78.96%). Seropositivity of babies born to these mothers was 3.07%. This has shown downward trend from 2010 to 2015. CONCLUSIONS: The PPTCT programme is effective and has reduced the rate of transmission from mother to child and with present triple drug therapy a further reduction is expected.