Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS: Do Iranian Pregnant Mothers Know about it?

Introduction: Nowadays, HIV is mostly spreading in Asian countries. One of theimportant routes for HIV transmission in these countries is the vertical route whichinfects 35% to 45% of newborns. Mother’s education, drug prophylaxis and Cesareansection, accompanied by banning breastfeeding will decrease this rate to 2%.Therefore, mothers’ knowledge about Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission(PMTCT) has a great role in HIV/AIDS prevention. This study was designed toevaluate knowledge of pregnant women about HIV, its vertical transmission andprevention in Tehran, Iran.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1577 pregnantwomen aged 15 - 46 years who were attending prenatal care clinics in Tehran, Iran.The research material was a questionnaire which was completed daily by trainedmidwives. The data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA, independent sample t-test,Pearson correlation and linear regression with a significance level of p = 0.05.Results: About 16.5% of the participants had good knowledge about HIV/AIDS and54.1% about its transmission routes but awareness about its prevention was only 5.7%.Fifty-seven percent of the participant had not been tested for HIV earlier and 20.2%were not willing to undergo such tests. About 86.2% of the participants had no ideaabout the availability of drug prophylaxis in Iran for PMTCT.Conclusion: The fact that 28.2% of the participants were not willing to undergo HIVtesting reflects negative attitude about HIV infection. Although the overall awarenessabout the infection and its transmission was good but knowledge about its preventionespecially by PMTCT and its availability in Iran was low. Educational programsthrough mass media or prenatal care programs by focusing on HIV/AIDS preventionmaybe useful.