Chishimba Sharon
Introduction: Zambia currently has an estimated number of 1.2 million people living with the HIV virus and approximately 800, 000 of these are on life saving Antiretroviral therapy. According to UNAIDS, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Zambia is much higher in women as compared to men standing at 11.2% for women and 7.3% for men aged 20-24. This implies that as more women become infected, mother to child transmission continues to be a challenge. The general objectives where to access knowledge, attitude and practice about mother to child transmission of HIV among mothers of Ndola district, Zambia. Method: This was an institutional-based cross sectional study conducted in Ndola from the 15th of December 2020 to 10th of February 2021.The study enrolled women attending antenatal clinic at new masala clinic. Data was collected through structured questionnaire, data was entered into SPSS version 26 and was then analyzed. Frequencies, percentages, chi square -association as well as linear regression were manipulated Results: A total of 384 women were enrolled in the study, 44.3% were in the age group of 16-24. 24% had attained tertiary level of education. All of the participants (100%) had received information about HIV/AIDS but there was a substantial amount of knowledge about MTCT of HIV/AIDS. Only 60.2% knew that once positive a pregnant woman could transmit the HIV infection to unborn baby, very few (24.2%) knew that it can be transmitted via labor as well as delivery. In this study 58.6% showed good knowledge, 78.1% showed good attitude and only 58.6% had good practice towards mother to child transmission of HIV. The pearson value was, P= 0.000 meaning that there was an association between the amount of knowledge a mother had and level of practice towards mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS. Conclusion: Overall, all the respondents knew what mother to child transmission of HIV was but there was a considerable lack of knowledge, attitude and practice towards mother to child transmission as evidenced by the results. Hence, this warrants scaling up ANC services, PMTCT measures as well as health education towards mother to child transmission of HIV and most importantly improving all sectors of life in women lives.
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