Determinants of mother to child HIV transmission (HIV MTCT); a case control study in governmental health centers of East Gojjam Zone, Northwest Ethiopia, 2019

Abstract

Abstract Background Mother to child human immune virus (HIV) transmission is the passage of HIV from mother to her child during pregnancy, labor, delivery or breast-feeding. The objective of this study was to identify determinants of mother to child HIV transmission among HIV exposed infants who were born from HIV positive mothers at Governmental health centers of East Gojjam Zone, Northwestern Ethiopia, 2019. Methods A case–control study was conducted on 210(42 cases and 168 controls) from April 1 to 30/ 2019. All cases were included in the study. Controls were selected by simple random sampling. Secondary data were extracted by using checklists from the document of 8 health centers ART register book, antenatal care (ANC) follow up register book, PMTCT service registration log book charts and infant dried blood sample (DBS) tally sheets. After Bivariable logistic regression analysis, all variables with p-value $$\le$$ ≤ 0.25 were entered into multivariable logistic regression and p value < 0.05 considered as significantly associated with the outcome variable. Results HIV exposed infants who were being rural dweller versus (vs) those infants who were being urban dweller [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 3.73; 95% CI; 1.27–10.69], have no history of antenatal care follow up of HIV exposed infants’ HIV positive mothers versus (vs) those mothers who have been having history of ANC follow up [ AOR = 5.0;95%CI; 2.02–12.16] and initial CD4 count of HIV infants’ mothers $$\le 350$$ ≤ 350 vs those mothers whose CD4 > 350 [AOR = 2.7;95%CI;1.35–5.52] were significantly associated with HIV infection. Conclusion Mother to child HIV transmission was significantly associated with history of ANC follow up of exposed infants’ mothers and initial CD4 counts of mothers. Strong effort should be made to further increase the ANC service utilization of HIV positive pregnant women.