FACTORS INFLUENCING THE UPTAKE OF VOLUNTARY COUNSELLING AND TESTING (VCT) OF HIV IN ANTENATAL CLINIC

(A CASE STUDY OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL ZARIA.)

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Author

Presented To

Department of Medicine

ABSTRACT
With the increase of awareness of mother to child transmission and ways to prevent the transmission, voluntary counselling and testing has been found to be a useful tool, and this work was therefore designed to study the factors that influence the uptake of VCT among pregnant women in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria. A cross-sectional study was conducted using the eligibility criteria in selecting the 221 ANC attendees and the total numbers of health workers in the ANC involved with PMTCT (10) were taken as sample in the study. Information was obtained through the use of interviewer- administered questionnaires. The findings are as follows; a total of 221 ANC attendees were studied.94.6% was aware of HIV/AIDS, 82.4% had knowledge of mother to child transmission and 81.4% had knowledge about PMTCT. In response to whether they were afraid of HIV/AIDS, 89.1% said they were afraid of the disease because it was incurable. HIV/AIDS is also associated with stigma and discrimination. The health workers (80%) proffered fear of stigma and discrimination as reason for the low uptake of VCT. Of these ANC attendees interviewed, 50.7%said they were willing to be tested but only 14.5% of the sample studied had been tested. Reasons for not willing to be tested in 54% of the 221 attendees, were being afraid of stigma, discrimination and ostracism if tested positive for HIV, 16.5% were sure of them selves; 6.4% were not permitted by husband, 7.4% said they have not made up their minds 1.8% said they were not informed and 9.2%said they were not interested and another 9.2% said they had no reason. 12 In conclusion, although VCT is acceptable in principle, much will need to be done to allay women’s fears of stigmatisation and discrimination through intensive counselling. This will also help in removing the ignorance of the attendees pertaining to HIV/AIDS and VCT.