Using prevalence data from the programme for the prevention of mother-to-child-transmission for HIV-1 surveillance in North Uganda
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Date
2005
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AIDS
Abstract
To validate the use of data from a programme for the prevention of motherto-
child transmission (PMTCT) in estimating HIV-1 prevalence in North Uganda.
Methods: The study was conducted at St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor. We compared the
estimated prevalence for 3580 attendees at the antenatal clinic who were selected for
anonymous surveillance to that for 6785 pregnant women who agreed to undergo
voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for enrolment in the PMTCT programme. Logbinomial
regression models were used to identify the factors associated with both VCT
uptake and HIV-1 infection, which could bias the prevalence estimates based on PMTCT
data.
Results: In 2001–2003, the age-standardized prevalence was similar (11.1% in the
anonymous surveillance group and 10.9% in the VCT group). The estimates were also
similar when compared for each year tested. Analogously, no important differences
were observed in age-specific prevalence. Of the factors associated with HIV-1
infection, only time of residence at current address [prevalence proportion ratio
(PPR) ¼ 1.05; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.00–1.10], marital status (PPR ¼ 1.05;
95% CI, 1.01–1.10) and partner’s occupation (PPR ¼ 1.05; 95% CI, 1.01–1.10) were
associated with VCT uptake, yet the associations were weak.
Conclusions: The prevalence estimated based on the VCT data collected as part of the
PMTCT programme could be used for HIV-1 surveillance in North Uganda. At the
national level, however, it needs to be evaluated whether PMTCT data could replace, or
instead be combined with, the data from sentinel surveillance.
Description
Keywords
HIV prevalence, Sentinel surveillance, Voluntary counselling and testing, Pregnant women, Uganda
Citation
Fabiani, M., Nattabi, B., Ayella, E. O., Ogwang, M., & Declich, S. (2005). Using prevalence data from the programme for the prevention of mother-to-child-transmission for HIV-1 surveillance in North Uganda. Aids, 19(8), 823-827.