Bloody Traditional Procedures Performed During Infancy in the Oropharyngeal Area Among HIV+ Children: Implication from the Perspective of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV

Abstract

Although bloody traditional procedures are very common in Ethiopia, this is the first report on infants. None of the literature attributed such practices as risk factor for mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV. Analysis was done to 1,163 children and found that 552 (47.5%) bloody traditional procedures were performed in the oral cavity to 399 (34.3%): uvulectomy 41.8%, milk tooth extraction 33.7% and tonsillectomy 24.5%. Multinomial logistic regression showed strong association of uvulectomy with Tigray ethnicity. Milk teeth extractions were highest among girls, rural residence, Tigray and Amhara ethnicity. When procedures performed, children were under 1month (88.9% of tonsillectomies), under 6months (83.5% of uvulectomies) and 4-6months (54.3% of milk tooth extractions) of age. More than 97% for whom procedures performed were breast fed, and about 88% were from the northern part of the country. Taking into account the deep invasiveness of the procedures, they are assumed as one of the strong risk factors for MTCT of HIV during lactation.