Knowledge of and Preventive Practices to HIV Exposure among Traditional Birth Attendants in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State, Nigeria

Nigeria is listed among the Sub-Saharan African nations with 60-90% of births assisted by Traditional Births Attendants (TBAs). The annual total births in Cross River State, Nigeria stands at 171,902 out of which 12,205 are from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive women, and most of these women were attended to by TBAs. The main objective of this study was to assess TBAs’ knowledge of and preventive practices to HIV exposure in Calabar Metropolis. A Cross-sectional descriptive study design was used and 216 copies of an interviewer-administered questionnaire were administered, but 211(97.7%) were completed. 147(69.6%) of the respondents were between ages 40-59 years, 147(69.7%) TBAs have been trained on HIV prevention. Comparison between trained and untrained TBAs, there was a statistically significant relationship on TBAs self-reported knowledge on HIV with P=0.003; self-reported perceived susceptibility to HIV infection with P=0.000; knowledge on Prevention of mother-to-child transmission with P=0.028; compliance with basic preventive practices with P=0.001. Self-reported HIV status of TBAs revealed that 3(1.4%) were HIV positive. With a large number of untrained TBAs and even higher HIV positive pregnant women in the Calabar Metropolis posits that most TBAs stand a risk of being infected or infecting their clients. Therefore, periodic trainings of TBAs to update their knowledge on HIV prevention may improve their compliance to basic preventive practices needed in the reduction of HIV infection among TBAs and their clients.