Prevalence of HIV Infection among Pregnant Women in Phatthalung Province

Abstract

This descriptive study was to investigate prevalence of HIV infection among pregnant women in Phatthalung Province. The population of the study was pregnant women attended at antenatal care clinics in hospitals and sub-district health promoting hospital under supervision by Phatthalung Provincial Health Office. Totally, there were 15,924 pregnant women attended during 2010 to 2015, but there were only 7,512 pregnant women had a result of HIV examination (47.2 percent). The data was derived and collected by the secondary data of 43 folders of standard structure of health information in Phatthalung Province. The interested variable was prevalence of HIV infection among pregnant women. The data of demographic factors of pregnant women and prevalence of HIV infection among pregnant women were performed by descriptive statistics. Results revealed that the prevalence of HIV infection among pregnant women during 2010 to 2015 was 5.0 0.2 0.9 0.4 0.3 and 0.9 percent, respectively. The prevalence classify by demographic factors of pregnant women showed that 1.3 percent had age less than 20 years, 1.1 percent graduated high school or lower, 1.2 percent was agriculturist, trader, employee and 1.3 per­cent had incomplete antenatal care. Results suggested that health professional should give an importance of health care and health promotion among pregnant women infected with HIV intensively in order to re­duce risks of complications. In addition, accuracy, completeness and coverage of data recoding in the 43 folders should be concerned in order to prevent HIV infection and increase the effectiveness of treatment.