Background: High rates of lost to follow-up (LTFU) in the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programs in Cameroon will only contribute in hindering the successful implementation of the program. The objective of this study was to determine the causes of LTFU of mother-child pairs enrolled in the PMTCT program in Dschang District Hospital (DDH): Cameroon
Method: A retrospective cohort study was carried out in HIV-exposed children delivered at the DDH from 1st January 2012 to 31st December 2014, being aged ≥ 18 month at the study period (1st August – 30th September 2016) and whose mothers were enrolled in the PMTCT program for at least 3 months. Children were considered LTFU if they did not return to the hospital for the establishment of their HIV status at 18 months of age. A complementary cross-sectional study was done whereby a structured question was administered to the LTFU group via telephone calls, in order to determine the causes of LTFU. Data was collected from hospital registers and logistic regression analyses done using Epi info 7.1.3.3 software
Results: A total of 141 mother-child pairs were eligible for the study, 76 were reachable via phone calls and 36 (47.37%) met the case definition of LTFU. The causes of LTFU of HIV-exposed children identified were the following: lack of information 19 (65.5%); lack of support from male partners 4 (11.1%); poor behavior of health personnel 2 (5.5%); forgetfulness, negligence/time wasting, in-availability of results, fear of child being infected, and family problems were all listed at equal proportions of 3 (6.9%); financial problem 1 (2.8%).
Conclusion: The education of health personnel on the importance of communication and information dispersal should be considered as an important element for better results as far as PMTCT is concerned, also, additional measures should be taken to involve male partners in the disease management
