Factors Contributing to the Prevalence of HIV Infections in Mwandi District of Zambia: A Three Year Retrospective Review

Abstract

Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a major public health problem in Zambia affecting people in their prime and most productive years (15-49) of life. The cross sectional study was aimed at determining the factors contributing to HIV prevalence in Mwandi district of Zambia from 2016 to 2018. Two hundred and sixty-nine (269) participants were recruited using simple random sampling technique. The study disclosed that, a large proportion of study participants 50.6% (136) were females. The study also revealed that most of the respondents 43.5% (117) had attained some secondary level of education. The study further revealed that the majority 98.1% (264) of the respondents associated HIV transmission with unprotected sexual intercourse. The study also disclosed that most of the respondents 98.5% (265) and 98.1% (264) received health education on HIV/AIDS from hospital and clinics respectively while a considerable proportion of study participants 66.2% (178) acquired health education on HIV/AIDS through reading magazines. Also, this study exposed that, most 87.7% (236) of the respondents had adequate level of knowledge on HIV/AIDS. Level of education, occupation and number of children were found to have statistically significant relationship with level of knowledge on HIV/AIDS (P<0.05). Apart from that, this study also revealed that 78.8% (212) of study participants had good adherence to STI/HIV/AIDS treatment while 21.7% (57) had poor drug adherence. Level of education was also found to have statistically significant association with drug adherence on HIV/AIDS (P<0.05). The study also uncovered that 88.8% (239) of the respondents did not have access to the laboratory health services in the health facilities in Mwandi district of Zambia. Conversely, only 11.2% (30) of the respondents had access to the laboratory services in the health facilities. It is suggested that the Ministry of health should make it a policy for every health facility to have its own laboratory diagnostic facilities in order to enhance accessibility to diagnostic laboratory testing services in low-resource settings like Zambia.