Assessment of quality antenatal care-linked HIV counseling and testing as an intervention for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV at government health facilities in Harari region, Eastern Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: To assess quality of antenatal care-linked to HIV counseling and testing as an intervention for prevention of mother-to-child transmission at government health facilities in Harar Town, Eastern Ethiopia, 2020. METHODS: Institutional-based cross-sectional study was done from 1 February to 30 February 2020 by applying quantitative method conducting in government health facilities in Harar town, Eastern, Ethiopia. A total of 422 participants were recruited from four governmental hospitals in Harar Town. Simple random sampling method was used to select the participants. Data were collected by three nurses selected from prospected hospitals. The collected data were cleaned, checked for quality, coded, and analyzed using “Software package Social Science, version 20” computer program. RESULT: From a total of 422 participants, 348 (82.5%) were satisfied with the counseling room’s privacy, and having pre-test and post-test counseling by the same person provided comfort for 357 (98.9%) of clients. Three hundred eighty-nine (92.2%) felt comfortable with the counselors’ client handling/respect; 386 (91.5%) were satisfied with technical competence of the counselors. About a quarter (25.4%) of clients had no discussion of prevention of mother-to-child transmission at all, and the majority (68.2%) comprehended that HIV counseling and testing could benefit prevention of mother-to-child transmission. CONCLUSION: Exit interview revealed that the basic topics were covered in most of the pre- and/or post-test sessions, and the majority of those counseled comprehended the information; however, nearly a quarter of the clients did not understand why they were offered HIV counseling and testing particularly during their pregnancy time.