Knowledge and practice of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) against HIV infection among health care providers in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge and practice of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) against HIV infection among health care providers in University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH). METHODS: A cross-sectional survey conducted on 230 health care providers in UATH. RESULTS: Majority (97.0%) of the respondents have heard about PEP, but only a few (30.9%) of them could correctly identify the drugs used and duration of PEP. A third of respondents have had one form of accidental exposure or the other. HIV test was carried out in about two-thirds (64.8%) of the source patients. Thirteen (28.3%) of the source patients were HIV-positive. Of the 13 respondents that were exposed to HIV-positive patients, only 3 (23.1%) received PEP, and these three completed PEP, while majority, 10/13 (76.9%) did not receive PEP in spite of their exposure to HIV-positive sources. CONCLUSION: The study shows that the knowledge and practice of PEP among health care providers are very poor.