FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CHOICE OF INFANT FEEDING OPTIONS AMONG HIV POSITIVE MOTHERS ATTENDING HEALTH FACILITIES IN OGOJA, CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

📄 Project Abstract

Human immune-deficiency virus (HIV) is a chronic, health problem with symptoms appearing anytime from several months to years. HIV is found among all known populations of the world, including the embryonic population (unborn babies) and the breastfed babies. World Health Organization, (WHO, 2011) revealed that more than eleven million people worldwide had died of AIDS, while another 3.6 million of people are already infected with HIV, with a daily infection rate of over 16,000 people globally. It was observed by Anyebe, Whiskey, Ajayi, Garba, Ochigbo and Lawal (2011) that by 2002, 42 million people had been infected with HIV/AIDS globally, 38.6 million of them were adults of which 19.2 million were women. More than 3 million children below the age of 15 were infected worldwide within the same period with about 5 million new infections being recorded yearly. Nearly two thirds of these are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, an estimated 600,000 children are infected vertically (in utero) ...