Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care in Southeast Ethiopia

Introduction: Globally, HIV/AIDS is a major public health problem; and mother to child transmission is the largest source of HIV infection in children below the age of 15 especially in developing countries. Approximately 1800 children were newly infected and 1400 were died per day in the world. Among this figure around 90% of the infections and deaths were happening in developing countries. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine knowledge, attitude and practice towards prevention of mother to child transmission among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Goba referral hospital. Methodology: An institutional based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from March, 2019 to May, 2019 to determine knowledge, attitude and practice towards preventions of mother to child transmission of HIV among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Goba referral hospital. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20 software. Result: This study showed 94.6% of the respondents reported that they have ever heard about HIV/AIDS. About 93.6% of mothers were knowledgeable, 62.6% have good attitude and 37.4% have good practice towards PMTCT. Conclusion: In this study the knowledge was high among pregnant women. However, the practice of the participants was low. It is due to all knowledge can't be changed into action. So, health service organizations and other responsible bodies should perform activities which can impart behavioural change.