Efficacy of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT) Interventions in Rivers State, Nigeria

Objectives: The present study assessed the efficacy of PMTCT interventions in Port Harcourt, Omoku and Nkpolu areas of Rivers State, Nigeria. Method: The study participants were one hundred and twenty (120) women children pairs, a nested cohort of the existing PMTCT program for the year 2008. The study was approved by the St. Georges University institutional review board and was done using hospital records of laboratory, antenatal, delivery and postnatal findings and program reports. Interventions studied included, different short course combinations of antiretroviral (ARV) prophylaxis and the use of Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for mothers with Single dose Nevirapine (Sd- NVP) in labor and a combination of Sd- NVP within seventy- two (72) hours of birth and Zidovudine (AZT) for four to six (4- 6) weeks for the baby. Results: The most efficacious intervention was HAART, with no transmissions among children whose mothers were on HAART (p- value: 0.0018), interventions made a difference in HIV status of the children, as children with no interventions were 4.3 times more likely to be HIV infected than those who had any form of prenatal pharmaceutical intervention ( p= 0.007); breast feeding was associated with increased transmission with a rate of 29.4% of the breastfed babies being HIV positive (p= 0.012) and study findings correlated with similar studies. Conclusion: The study shows that though all prenatal interventions are significantly associated with reduced vertical transmission of HIV, HAART is the most efficacious for PMTCT of HIV in Rivers State, Nigeria.