Prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Among Pregnant Women: Are We Winning the War?

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevalence in prenatal clinic indicates that the gap in HIV prevalence between sub-regions of Africa is not reducing but widening. No evidence suggests that pregnancy accelerate the progression of HIV infection to AIDS in women, but pregnancy in HIV infected mothers are more likely to result in prematurity, intrauterine growth retardation, spontaneous abortion, and prenatal death. The aim was to determine the prevalence of HIV infection among pregnant women attending a rural primary health center for care. The study was designed as cross-sectional survey and case series using 80 pregnant women, randomly selected among those attending Antenatal care in a primary health center in Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria. Descriptive method was used to represent the characteristics of the subjects and the differences in HIV infection among subjects analyzed using frequencies and percentages. The findings showed that out of 80 subjects studied; (14%) were HIV positive, (86%) were HIV negative; knowledge of risk factors identified were unprotected sex with sex partner/s (39%); existence of other sexually transmitted infection (33%); sharing of sharp instrument (17%); transfusion of unscreened blood (11%). Conclusion, the majority of the women had good knowledge of awareness on HIV infection and control using medication; which is a sound basis for the epidemiology, outcome, and effectiveness in prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in such a rural setting, considering socio-demographic factors. Awareness creation on risk factors of HIV/AIDS, lifestyle changes and adherenc