Assessing Knowledge and Practice of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV Documentation among Health Workers in Oyo State, South West, Nigeria

Abstract

Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme in Nigeria started in July 2002 with the goals of providing effective PMTCT services for women in the reproductive age group in selected health facilities while providing useful information for policy formulation and decision on intervention for comprehensive PMTCT in Nigeria. However, most of the health workers documenting the PMTCT programmes in the health facility lack the required skills and capacity in offering PMTCT services and effecting efficient documentation of programme activities. Information on the knowledge and practice of PMTCT documentation among health workers in Oyo State was obtained through administration of close-ended questionnaires to the respondents in 113 health facilities. The study concluded that most of the health workers have good knowledge of PMTCT documentation with those working in the public facility having better understanding than those in the private facility. In addition, most of the respondents lack proper understanding of PMTCT HIV testing algorithms. However, private facility will benefit tremendously from further training on documentation and serial HIV testing.