All people have the right to know and should know if they are infected with HIV/AIDS. Thousands of cases each year go unreported which further enables modes of transmission. Ethiopia, in 2004, had a population of 72,420,000 people, of which 2.2 million were living with HIV/AIDS (WHO, 2004).  Overall adult prevalence is estimated to be 4.4 percent with females at 5.0 percent and males at 3.8 percent (MOH, 2004).  In 2003 there were 220,000 new HIV infections and 115,000 AIDS deaths (MOH, 2004). In that same year it was estimated that there were 128,000 HIV-infected pregnant women who gave birth and approximately 35,000 newborns that were infected with HIV through mother to child transmission (MOH, 2004).  Children accounted for 200,000 of the 2.2 million people that were living with HIV/AIDS in 2003 and mother to child transmission was by far the leading cause of infection (Alemu, Abseno, Degu, Wondmikun, & Amsalu, 2004).  Mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS is, simply, that the mother can infect the child with HIV during pregnancy, while giving birth, and/or through breastfeeding, even if the mother shows no symptoms.  Studies in Ethiopia have shown that transmission from infected mother to child occurs 29-47 percent of the time (Alemu et al., 2004).   This paper will analyze reports detailing HIV/AIDS prevalence, specifically mother to child transmission, in Ethiopia, reproductive age females’ knowledge of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS, and the costs it has on society.  Further, this analysis will provide the different facts about mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.

There are many different ideas and terms associated with the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child, ranging from different names of the transmission itself to who is considered a child.  The transmission of HIV to the child from the mother can be placed under different headings, such as, (MTCT) mother to child transmission (Garbus, 2003; Alemu et al., 2004; MOH, 2004; Preble & Piwoz, 2001), parent to child transmission (Preble & Piwoz, 2001), perinatal and/or vertical transmission (Stoto & Goldman, 2003). Perinatal transmission is defined as the child acquiring HIV from their mothers during pregnancy, around the time of childbirth, or during breastfeeding (Stoto & Goldman, 2003).  Mother to child transmission along with parent to child transmission were defined as occurring during pregnancy, during labor and delivery and after birth, through breastfeeding (Preble & Piwoz, 2001), and no exact definition was given for mother to child transmission in some instances (Garbus, 2003; Alemu et al., 2004; MOH, 2004).   Now that we know how the transmission to the child from the mother can occur and the different names associated with this type of transmission we need to recognize who is considered a child.  A child is referred as anyone in the age range of 0-15 (UNAIDS, 2004; WHO, 2004; Garbus, 2003; Alemu et al., 2004; MOH, 2004) or under the age of 15 (Preble & Piwoz, 2001).  In addition, for statistical purposes, adult is defined as women and men ages 15 to 49 (UNAIDS, 2004; WHO, 2004; Garbus, 2003; Alemu et al., 2004; MOH, 2004; Preble & Piwoz, 2001) and a definition for adult was not provided (Stoto & Goldman, 2003).  Definitions were given and relied on for the basis of information giving in the publications, however some assumptions were made by the researchers.

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Assumptions were not made by all of the researchers, however when assumptions were made they varied across the publications.  It was assumed that HIV testing and perinatal treatment would have no effect on transmission through breastfeeding; in other words the percent of children who are not infected at birth will become infected later through breastfeeding, regardless of testing and perinatal treatment (Stoto & Goldman, 2003).  It was also assumed that although acceptance of testing and counseling by mothers was low in field trials it would improve in a National program (Stoto & Goldman, 2003).  In projecting that 54 percent of ...

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