Shibeshi, Workineh(PhD)Zeleke, Tilahun(PhD)Abdula, Mama2018-06-212023-11-062018-06-212023-11-062015-12http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/2823Effective prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV programme can reduce mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV from 20-45% to < 2%. This study was aimed to assess effectiveness of PMTCT programs through determination of the outcome of HIV exposed infants at Asella teaching and referral hospital from February 2012-2015. A retrospective cross sectional study design was conducted. Mother-infant pairs HIV status was obtained from medical records using structured questionnaires and entered into EPI info version 3.5.1 and analyzed by statistical package for social science version 21. Bivariate and Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to see the effect of each independent variable on the outcome variable and to control the effect of confounding. The majority 93.1% mothers and 98 (75.4%) infants received antiretroviral (ARV) prophylaxes. About 24.6% infants were not receiving ARV prophylaxes. Only 19.2% infants were tested before six weeks using deoxyribonucleic acid-polymerase chain reaction (DNA/PCR). Infant HIV infection rate was 3.1%, 3.8%, and 7.7% at 6 weeks, 6 months and overall 18 months respectively. Mothers illness during pregnancy (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 20.4), mothers failure to receive antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy/breast feeding (AOR= 17.2), home delivery (AOR= 8.0), infant birth weight (AOR= 2.7) and mixed infant feeding (AOR= 2.0) were the factors that affected HIV free survival in this study. In conclusion this study showed that 92.3% of the infants were having HIV free survival at 18 months. PMTCT intervention uptake with specific reference to ARV usage for PMTCT shows higher uptake in mothers than in infants. However, the uptake of ARVs in infants falls below targets required for eMTCT of HIV, and the targets set in the Ethiopian national strategic plan for eMTCT of HIV <5% by 2015. Key Word: MTCT, PMTCT, Effectiveness, HIV exposed infantsenMTCT; PMTCT; Effectiveness; HIV exposed infantsThesis