Post exposure prophylaxis against human immunodeficiency virus: Awareness knowledge and practice among Nigerian Paediatricians

Abstract

Objective: To determine the level of awareness, knowledge and practice of human immunodeficiency virus post exposure prophylaxis (HIV PEP) among paediatricians in Nigeria.Methodology: The study was a cross sectional questionnairebased survey conducted among paediatrcians that attended the Paediatric association of Nigeria annual scientific conference in 2015.Results: Most of the respondents (96%) were aware of the concept HIV PEP. The scores on knowledge of PEP for all the respondents ranged from 18% to 91 % with a mean score of 46.5 ± 14.1%. There was no significant difference between the performance of those who had received training on HIV PEP (48.0 ± 13.2%) and those who had not (45.1 ± 14.8%), p = 0.21, t =1.26. Ninety one (60.7%) of the respondents had been exposed to percutaneous injury during work. Thirty (33%) of the exposed paediatricians did not know the patient’s HIV status and only 10 (11%) received PEP, with only 7 (7.7%) of them completing the PEP for 4 weeksConclusion: Despite the high level of HIV PEP awareness, there was an unacceptable high rate of occupational exposures and poor knowledge of HIV PEP among Paediatricians. Additionally, there was a low uptake of HIV PEP services amongst exposed Paediatricians in Nigeria. There is need for urgent action to curb this trend.Key Words: HIV PEP, Paediatrician, Nigeria