2 research outputs found

    Health Workers' Knowledge of Preventing Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

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    Introduction: Health workers have important roles to play in reducing mother-to-childtransmission of HIV. This study assessed health workers' knowledge of the nationalguidelines on preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Benin City, Edo State,NigeriaMethodology: The study design was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The studypopulation comprised health workers providing services for preventing mother-to-childtransmission of HIV in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Data was collected through selfadministeredquestionnaires.Results: Two hundred and seventy health workers participated in the study comprisingdoctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and counsellors. All the respondentshad heard of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Ninety-two (34.1%) hadreceived training on the national guidelines on preventing mother-to-child transmissionof HIV. The proportion of health workers with poor, fair, and good knowledge of thenational guidelines on PMTCT was 8.5%, 30.4% and 61.1% respectively. Knowledge ofthe national guidelines was significantly associated with the health workers' occupation,previous training on PMTCT and having a copy of the national guidelines.Conclusion: This study highlighted important gaps in health workers knowledge ofPMTCT. Training and retraining of health workers remains crucial to achieving the goalof reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The study findings may guide thecontent of future training of health workers on PMTCT to ensure relevance andadequacy

    Factors Affecting Treatment Interruption among TB Patients in Lagos Nigeria: Is There Any Need for Treatment Supporters?

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    Abstract Background: This study assessed treatment interruption of tuberculosis (TB) patients managed by treatment supporters and health care workers and other predictors of treatment interruption. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. Four hundred and seventy new smear positive TB patients above 14 years of age were consecutively recruited between October 1 and December 31 2012 from 34 (23 public and 11 private) directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) facilities that offered TB treatment and microscopy services. They were followed up till treatment was completed. Logistic regression was used to assess the predictors of treatment interruption. Results: A significantly higher proportion of smokers (58.6% vs 38.3%, p = 0.030), patients supervised by treatment supporters (44.4% vs 34.7%, p = 0.032), patients not counselled before initiation of treatment (55.6% vs 38.2%, p = 0.041), patients managed at private DOTS facilities (50% vs 36.3%, p = 0.010) and TB/HIV co-infected patients (54.2% vs 38.6%, p = 0.038) had treatment interruption. Predictors of treatment interruption were supervision by treatment supporters, smoking, lack of pre-treatment counselling and TB/HIV co-infection. Conclusion: A higher proportion of patients supervised by treatment supporters had treatment interruption than those supervised by health care workers. There may be a need to review the concept of treatment supervision by treatment supporters in Lagos state Nigeria. 39
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