Sero-Prevalence of Syphilis and HIV and Associated Factors in Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care Clinics in Debre Berhan Public Health Institutions, Ethiopia

Abstract

Syphilis is one of the sexually transmitted infections caused by bacteria known as <i>Treponema pallidum</i> and it is transmitted through sexual contact, via blood transfusion, or transplacentally from a pregnant woman to her fetus. Among STIs, syphilis and HIV are significant public health problems in Ethiopia and causes several adverse pregnancy outcomes. Thus this study aims to assess magnitude of both infections among pregnant women attending antenatal care. Facility based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Debre Berhan public health institutions and data was collected using pretested checklist. Finally data was entered to EPI Data3.02 and analyzed using SPSS version21. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant difference. Among the total participants, 179 (47%) were in the age group of 25-34 years, 220 (57%) were living in urban settings and majority 256 (67%) of the pregnant mothers were married. The overall prevalence of syphilis and HIV in pregnant mothers were 7 (1.8%) and 28 (7.2%) respectively. The highest number of syphilis and HIV prevalence were reported in 2015. Previous history of STD for syphilis (AOR 9.4; 95% CI 1.6-25) and HIV (AOR 8.2; 95% CI 2.2-31.8), previous history of still birth for syphilis (AOR 4.9; 95% CI 1.1-23.4) and HIV (AOR 5.6; 95% CI 1.8-17.1) and partner HIV test positive for HIV (AOR 11.9; 95%CI 1.18-20.6) are risk factor. The result shows syphilis and HIV infections were prevalent among pregnant women, indicating that they are still significant public health problems. Therefore, there should be health education for every pregnant woman regarding prevention of the two infection and partner testing is recommended.