Prevalence and determining factors of HIV infection among HIV exposed infants in a teaching hospital in Ghana

BackgroundAlthough there has been a decrease in mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, new pediatric infections still occur especially during the postnatal period. Prevention of vertical transmission is a key strategy in reducing the incidence which is 15-30% during pregnancy and delivery and 5-20% during breastfeeding. Early infant diagnosis and prompt initiation of antiretroviral are among some of the interventions that help to reduce the risk of transmission.ObjectivesThe purpose of the study is to assess the prevalence of HIV infection and the socio-demographic characteristics of HIV exposed infants presenting to KATH infectious disease clinic. MethodsA retrospective review of folders of exposed infants presenting to the infectious disease clinic from September 2019 to September 2021 was done. Data was entered onto excel sheet and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used. ResultsA total of 245 HIV exposed infants were seen within study period of which 54.35 (133/245) were males. The mean (SD) of birth weight was 3.07 (0.50). The median (IQR) age in months were 2.3 (1.5-3.3) at first visit to the HIV exposed clinic. Mode of delivery was by spontaneous vaginal delivery for 50.6% (124/245) and by caesarian section for 36.3% (89/245). Exclusive breastfeeding was initiated in 72.7% (178/245), formula feeding in 6.1% (15/245), and mixed feeding in 4.1% (10/245). Antiretroviral were initiated at birth for 95.9% (235/245) of infants. Septrin prophylaxis was initiated at 6 weeks for 60% (147/245). A major limitation of this records review was high level of data missingness. Most of the early infant diagnosis results were missing. The very few recorded were negative making it impossible to evaluate the true status of the exposed infants.ConclusionEven though infants exposed to mothers with HIV are seen regularly at KATH, the quality of the data collections must improve to estimate accurately the prevalence and determinants of HIV infection in exposed infants.