HIV Infections in Mothers and their New-born Babies in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt Nigeria

The strategic position of Nigeria in the global map of HIV calls for continuous and progressive study of HIV and its impact in the country particularly in pregnancy because of the risk of transmission to the foetus. Treatment of infected mothers is therefore very essential because of the dangers of transmitting the disease to their babies. The study was carried out to determine the prevalence of HIV antibodies in maternal and cord blood from pregnant mothers who presented at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt for delivery of their babies. Venous blood was collected from a total of 103 mother and neonatal cord pair at delivery.  The sera were analysed by double ELISA techniques for HIV-1 and HIV-2. Eight (7.8%) out of the 103 mothers tested positive for HIV-1 and none for HIV-2. Five out of the eight mothers had antibody positivity in their babies’ cord blood, showing a transmission rate of 62.5%.  All the mothers delivered per vagina. The study shows that mother to child transmission is high in the study area compared to the WHO rate of 30%. This underlines the importance of enforcing the prevention of mother to child transmission policy among HIV-infected mothers in the environment.