THE INFLUENCE OF PREVENTION OF MOTHER-TO-CHILD HIV TRANSMISSION CAMPAIGNS ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES AMONG WOMEN IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

THE INFLUENCE OF PREVENTION OF MOTHER-TO-CHILD HIV TRANSMISSION CAMPAIGNS ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES AMONG WOMEN IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The scourge of HIV/AIDS has, no doubt, continued to ravage virtually all parts of the world. According to statistics, 34 million people are estimated to be living with HIV worldwide; 16.7 million of these are women and 3.4 million are children younger than 15 years of age. In 2011, a total of 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV globally; an estimation of 330 thousand of these new infections are children  under 15 years of age. Also in 2011, the world recorded 1.7 million deaths orchestrated by AIDS of which 230 thousand children under 15 years of age were

involved (UNAIDS, 2012). Sub-Saharan Africa (including Nigeria), with more than two-third of the world’s total number of HIV-infected people, remains the region most affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. About 68% of all the people living with HIV reside in sub-Saharan Africa, a region with only 12% of the global population. The region also accounted for 70% of new HIV infections in 2010 while in 2011, an estimate of 270,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa were newly infected with HIV. AIDS has claimed at least, one thousand lives annually in sub-Saharan Africa since 1998 (UNAIDS, 2012 and 2011).