Outcome of delivery among HIV positive mothers at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital

BACKGROUND: If a HIV positive mother delivers in a health facility, interventions can be effected to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV to the baby. The study was done to evaluate the interventions offered to HIV positive women who delivered at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano. METHOD: Retrospective review of the case records of all HIV positive patients that delivered at AKTH over a 27 month period (October 2003 to December 2005) was used. RESULTS: There were 4922 deliveries out of which 125 were HIV positive, giving a prevalence rate of 2.54%. Most (75.2%) of the patients received Nevirapine alone in labour, 20.8% received a combination of antiretroviral drugs while 4% received none because their records were not available. Majority (88%) of the patients had spontaneous vaginal delivery, 10.4% by elective CS and 1.6% by emergency CS. There was no maternal death but 3.2% of the babies were stillbirths. All the babies received a single dose of Nevirapine. Most (96%) mothers chose exclusive breast milk substitute. CONCLUSION: HIV positive mothers need to deliver in health facilities to receive the full compliment of care they deserve. Highly Active Antiretroviral therapy (HAART) should be introduced, as it is more effective for PMTCT. . Nigerian Journal of Medicine Vol. 16 (1) 2007: pp. 34-3