1. Mothers' knowledge and practice on modified infant feeding for prevention of postnatal HIV transmission in post conflict northern Uganda district.
- Author
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Naturinda, R., Akello, G., Muwonge, C., Nyakato, V., Bameka, A., Esiru, J., Amone, D., Wokorach, A., Oonyu, L., and Ssekiswa, L.
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HIV prevention , *PREGNANCY complications , *CHILD mortality , *JUVENILE diseases , *MEDICAL practice - Abstract
Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus largely has contributed to infant and child mortality in Uganda today and Africa at large. Women have the potential to transmit HIV to their children during pregnancy, labor and post-natally; about 30-40% of these children acquire the infection in the postnatal period (http;//womenchildrenhiv.org). To minimize postnatal mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, Various feeding options have been tried but their success has been challenged because little is known about the mothers' beliefs and knowledge about such measures, which thus calls for further investigations into this practice. Methods & Materials: We did a descriptive cross sectional survey in a post conflict district (more than 2 decades of unrest) to assess the mothers' knowledge and practice of modified infant feeding (MIF) in prevention of postnatal MTCT of HIV. We interviewed HIV positive mothers bringing their children to Young Child Clinic (YCC) and Early Infant Diagnosis clinic (EID) at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital (GRRH) from December 2012 to February 2013. Results: Out of the 400 HIV positive mothers that were interviewed, 260 (65.1%) were aware of MIF but only 129 (49.6%) put the knowledge into practice About 73.6%of the mothers were aware of initiating supplementary feeds at 6 months, 91.71% knew they were meant to wean off their babies at the age of one year; 67.4% were informed about replacement feeding. About Practice, 69.3% were breast feeding their infants at the right frequency, 59% introduced supplementary feeds at the right time and 93.5% weaned at the right time. Conclusion: A good proportion of the HIV positive mothers (65.1%) were knowledgeable about MIF but very few (49.6%)) were applying the knowledge which therefore means that there is still a high risk of MTCT of HIV. Therefore this means that apart from knowledge, other factors such as mothers' attitude towards MIF, mothers' income and other maternal illnesses other than HIV need to be studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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